Musing on the Bard: Episode 9 - Leo Atkin (A Shakespeare & Acting Podcast)

Welcome to Musing on the Bard: a podcast for the Shakespeare curious, hosted by Australian actor, Sally McLean, and featuring today's guest, the wonderful British actor: Leo Atkin.

Known to Shakespeare Republic audiences for playing the award-winning role of "Puck" in Shakespeare Republic: #AllTheWebsAStage (The Lockdown Chronicles), Leo has been an actor for 40 years, and has been privileged to perform in some of the most beautiful and historic theatres in the world, as well as some of the most wonderful castles in Europe, including the Manoel Theatre, Malta, Schloss Hohenzollern (apparently the model for the castle in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) and Lenzburg Castle, among others.

Theatre credits include Twelfth Night, See How They Run, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear touring Europe, Scandinavia, and most memorably, Japan, The Old Curiosity Shop, Merchant Of Venice, Dick Whittington, Beauty And The Beast, Treasure Island, the cult musical Saucy Jack And The Space Vixens at the Albany Stage for the National Theatre and almost 2 years as “George”, the boxing coach, and covering “Billy’s Dad”, in Billy Elliot The Musical UK and International tour.

TV credits include dramas Coronation Street, Doctors, Merseybeat, Coasting and 999 for the BBC, the second series of Sky TV’s Brassic, and the BBC comedy series, The First Team.

Join Leo and podcast host, Sally McLean, as they discuss the countries who love Shakespeare almost more than the British (one was rather surprising), the value of performing Shakespeare in your natural accent, the most important trait required to tackle Shakespeare as an actor, the danger of homogenising Shakespeare's works, the pros and cons of amateur theatre, how Sally approaches casting Shakespeare Republic and much, much more in this wide-ranging and insightful conversation - available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audible and more.

To find out more about Leo and his work, visit his IMDB profile at https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1692728/ and read his bio in full at https://musingonthebard.com/about-our-guests/leo-atkin/

You can watch Leo playing "Puck" for Shakespeare Republic here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2FKVss38gg

And you can find out how you can see Leo live in action in Manchester in The Polar Express Experience here: https://www.polarexpressbelievemanchester.co.uk/

Season One of Musing on the Bard features a plethora of fascinating guests from Australia, the UK and the USA discussing Shakespeare, acting, creativity and more. Head to our official site for all listening links and more information: https://www.musingonthebard.com and don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss a thing!

As always, our fab Patreon patrons get early access to this episode before it goes live to the public, and those on the $10+ tiers can access the full video version of this episode, where you can see Leo and Sally chatting - as well as hear them! You can join our Patreon here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/incognitaenterprises⁠

Musing on the Bard: a podcast for the Shakespeare curious releases episodes every Wednesday (AEST) and is supported by a Small Grant from the British Shakespeare Association.

Produced by Incognita Enterprises.
Created, edited and presented by Sally McLean.
Opening credits music: "Violin Energy" by Stanislav Barantsov
Quickfire round music: "Demolition Runner" by Soundbay
End Credits music: "Good Vibe" by VItalii Iegorov (Twisterium)
Music used under license from Pixabay & Storyblocks.
With thanks to our Patreon Patrons for continuing to support our work.