JOSEPH MYDELL
Joseph Mydell recently appeared at the Haymarket theatre in London's West End in the critically successful, The Last Confession, starring David Suchet (most known as the highly popular detective, Poirot ,for British Television). Mr. Mydell has completed two seasons with The Royal Shakespeare Company in four highly acclaimed productions: Gower in Pericles Camillo in The Winter's Tale, Jacques in As You Like It, directed by Dominic Cooke, and Mugabe in Breakfast with Mugabe a new play, directed by Sir Anthony Sher. In addition, Mr Mydell has recently finished his work on Lars Von Trier's film, Manderlay, the sequel to Dogville, with Danny Glover and Lauren Bacall.
Joseph Mydell has appeared as Aegeus on Broadway with Fiona Shaw in Deborah Warner's production of Medea. This award winning production completed a US coast to coast tour as well as run at the Chaillot Theatre in Paris. His other work with The Royal Shakespeare Company, includes Twelfth Night, the premiere of a new play by David Edgar, The Prisoner's Dilemma, as well as playing the title role in the highly acclaimed production of Everyman, directed by Kathryn Hunter at Stratford-upon-Avon, London, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in New York, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In the same season he also appeared as Mephistopheles in Marlowe's Dr Faustus and Satan in Katie Mitchell's The Mysteries.
Mr. Mydell is Winner of the 1994 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his critically acclaimed performance in the Royal National Theatre's production of Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize play Angels in America. While at the National he also appeared in Christopher Hampton's Alice Adventures Underground directed by American choreographer, Martha Clarke and a staged reading of Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock with Fiona Shaw. In London, he has appeared at the Royal Court Theatre in Christopher Shinn's Four, and Martin Crimp's award-winning play The Treatment, and at the Hampstead Theatre and in the West End in The Boys Next Door.
Other credits in Britain include the title role in Brecht's The Life of Galileo, Athol Fugard's Master Harold and the Boys (Contact Theatre, Manchester); In the Talking Dark, Tobaccoland (The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), The Seagull (The Crucible Theatre, Sheffield) and in the Royal Shakespeare Company productions of Macbeth, directed Adrian Noble, Two Noble Kinsman, directed by Barry Kyle, The Great White Hope, directed by Nick Kent, David Lan's, Flight, directed by Howard Davies, and Ron Daniel's production of They Shoot Horses Don't They?
Television appearances include guest lead in Dinatopia, as well as major roles in the BBC drama The March with Juliet Stephenson; CBS productions Shadow on the Sun with Stephanie Powers and My Africa. Joseph guest starred in the following British television series: "Miss Marple", "Bergerac", "Boon", "Texc", the South Bank show profile of American author, John Updike, and mini-series Scarlett and a starring role in Space Precinct.
Joseph has recorded for both Oxford and Cambridge University Press. He portrayed the 19th century Shakespearean African-American actor, Ira Aldridge for BBC Radio, and has recently directed a short documentary on Aldridge. Mr Mydell also appeared regularly in Cabaret at the Sunday Tea Dance at the Ritz Hotel in London singing Gershwin and Fats Waller.
Prior to becoming a resident in the UK, Joseph was in the Ph.D program the City University of New York Graduate Program in Theatre. He is a graduate of New York University's School of the Arts( B.F.A. and M.F.A,) where his teachers included Olympia Dukakis, Lloyd Richards and Kristen Link later. In England, Mr. Mydell has taught and directed at Rose-Bruford College of Speech and Drama, and acting at New York State University, New Paltz. His show, Lyrics of the Hearthside won two awards at the Edinburgh International Festival and has toured extensively in Britain, Europe, Africa and the United States.
