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Sally’s recent work featured in new Arden Shakespeare collection, published by Bloomsbury Press in the UK
There are some unexpected and wonderful surprises and and “pinch me” moments that come out of just going for it and taking a risk. “The Experiment”, also known as Shakespeare Republic, dreamed up many years ago when I graduated drama school in London, realised years later in a moment of inspired madness back home in Melbourne, made with love, guts, generosity, blood, sweat (and yes, occasional tears!) by so many clever talented creatives who answered my call of “Hey, do you want to do some Shakespeare?”, starting back in 2015, continuing to the present moment – is the gift that just keeps on giving in just this way. When I started…
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Shakespeare Republic wins Best Ensemble Cast at London WebFest!
Amazing news!! I am so thrilled to share that Shakespeare Republic: #AllTheWebsAStage (The Lockdown Chronicles) is the Q1 winner of the Best Ensemble Cast at London Web Fest! Huge thanks to Guest Judge Chris Tashima & the LWF team & congrats to my wonderful fellow Ensemble members! Reposted from @londonwebfest WINNER – BEST ENSEMBLE CAST ‘Shakespeare Republic: #AllTheWebsAStage’ – Sally McLean Filmed in lockdowns during the global pandemic … Twenty four souls, six cities – one shared experience of being human. Using Shakespeare’s original text and characters, we shine a light on the human experience in a COVID-19 world.
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Sally receives Best Director & Best Ensemble Cast Awards at New Zealand WebFest for Shakespeare Republic
The end of 2021 was an absolute whirlwind of activity, and it only got busier with a new acting gig and a separate new directing gig in the first three months of 2022, which means I’m only just catching up on updating this news section! There is a lot to get through, so there will be a flurry of posts over the next few weeks – fair warning! I have to start the good news sharing with this amazing thing that happened in November over in New Zealand. In a night of amazing outcomes, I was so thrilled to be able to accept the awards for Best Ensemble Cast (International…
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Sally wins Creator Amets at Seriesland in Spain!
It has been a CRAZY time over the past 19 months. Despite my home town of Melbourne spending over 260 days in lockdown, which just ended, I somehow managed to be in more productions as an actor than I had been in the 2 years previous to 2020, performing exclusively Shakespeare in six productions – five of them based in the UK. And, because I can’t sit still, as I’ve written about before on this blog, I also created a new season of my web series, Shakespeare Republic – filming with 23 other actors (I was the 24th) based in seven different cities on three different continents – all working…
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Sally interviewed on No Rest For The Weekend in NYC
It was an absolute pleasure to be invited onto No Rest For The Weekend hosted by Jason Godbey in New York as a result of my win as Best Director and Best International Web Series at the NYC Web Fest earlier this year. Watch the full interview above. With many thanks to Jason Godbey for such a wide-ranging chat and to NYC Web Fest Director, Lauren Atkins for suggesting me as a guest!
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Sally McLean 2019 Director/Writer Reel now online
A quick update in between more substantial updates (some great news coming later this month … *excited*!) to share my new Director/Writer Reel for 2019, featuring the various projects I’ve been, well, directing and writing (among other things) over the past 24 months. Featuring footage from Shakespeare Republic (Season Two), Speaking Daggers, Till The Boys Come Home, O, Mistress Mine and Champion. So, without further ado, here it is! Credits: “Shakespeare Republic #LoveTheBard” (web series) Written by William ShakespeareCreated, Adapted & Directed by Sally McLeanCinematography by Shaun HerbertsonFeaturing: Michala Banas, Stephen Costan, Alan Fletcher, Nadine Garner, Dean Haglund, Christopher Kirby, Sally McLean, Tariro Mavodno, Wahibe Moussa, Falon Ryan, Shane Savage,…
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Meet Elsie and Charles – two characters featured in Till The Boys Come Home
So much is going on right now, but … I’ve managed to fit in a blog post before February is over, so my idea of at least one blog post a month for 2019 is still on track! Amazing! A lot has been going on in the Incognita office over the past 5 weeks. Some I can talk about, some I can’t (… yet!), but here is a quick update on what I can publicly discuss … so here goes … Shakespeare Republic update For those who follow the web series world, you will have heard of the Web Series World Cup. For those who haven’t – the WSWC ranks…
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2018 In Pictures – Howard Fine Acting Studios, Shakespeare Republic, Melbourne WebFest and more #acting #webseries #Shakespeare
December already! Where has the time gone? 2018 has whipped by and brought so much wonderful stuff professionally with it, for which I am very, very grateful. Of course, as it’s nearing the end of the year, it meant that I fell ill almost immediately after the HFAS Master Class in November, as I was finally in the position for the first time in 12 months where I didn’t have to be somewhere doing something. Well, I had to be in a couple of places, but my body had other ideas and I just had to stop and rest for a while. Of course, that enforced halt gave me some…
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Festivals, interviews, awards and more – that was the three months that was! #acting #actor #director #shakespeare
It’s been a crazy few months, with interviews, more filming, a couple of acting gigs and the Shakespeare projects continuing to screen at film festivals around the world – much to all the team’s ongoing delight! Just to keep a record of what’s been going on, I’m going to simply brain dump everything here in this post, so you’ve been warned! SHAKESPEARE REPUBLIC Where do I begin?! It’s been an amazing time for Shakespeare Republic, which is wonderful considering we’re in the last stages of Season Two’s festival run and yet, its success keeps surprising me and making me so proud of all the team. To start with, the series…
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Sally Interviewed on “How Do You Do You” Podcast
It was an absolute honour to be invited onto Matt Smolen’s How Do You Do You Podcast recently to chat all things Shakespeare, acting, creative process and more. And he was VERY kind to me with his lovely comments about my work! Here’s the blurb from Apple iTunes (where you can hear all the interviews with some amazing industry peeps): “In this week’s episode Matt chats to Sally McLean – a renaissance lady if there ever was one. She’s multi-talented, multi-skilled and successful at everything. Acting, writing, directing, producing – you name it, she’s given it ago and nailed it.” Um, so yeah …. *blush*. Thanks Matt for your VERY…