-
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…
You May Also Like
Festivals, interviews, awards and more – that was the three months that was! #acting #actor #director #shakespeare
Shakespeare Republic has launched and is in the wild with another acting gig filmed and in the can
New awards for acting and directing, new reel and more – hello June!
-
Sally nominated for Best Actress & Best Director at the 2021 UVFF Awards in the UK
Last year was a really challenging year for all of us. And I added to this by deciding to create and direct a new season of Shakespeare Republic, set and filmed entirely in lockdown. It was the most wonderful, crazy, sometimes difficult but absolutely rewarding experience I could have had. The creative family that formed around the new season, made up of existing Republic ensemble joined by a whole new swathe of actors and regular Republic crew, creating a total of 24 episodes, was one of the best things about 2020 for me. It was an absolute privilege to work with these extraordinary actors, based in Melbourne, London, Glasgow, Edinburgh,…
-
Live theatre in the age of COVID-19 – The Show Must Go Online
When I got the email about ten days ago that I’d been cast in the new online initiative, The Show Must Go Online, as “Katherina” (or “Kate” as I call her) in The Taming Of The Shrew, I’ll admit to an initial hesitation at saying yes. Not because I didn’t want to play her – I’d submitted to do the show in the first place, and I’ve been fascinated by “Kate” from the first time I saw her (as a Hollywood musical obsessed kid) portrayed by Kathryn Grayson in a late night TV re-run of the movie Kiss Me Kate when I was about 10 years old. Admittedly, that early…
-
“Playing The Bard” returns to Howard Fine Acting Studio in August …
We’re now hurtling into the second half of the year and there is a lot going on, but nothing much I can talk about … yet. However, the one thing I can share is that “Playing The Bard: Shakespeare In Performance” is returning to Howard Fine Acting Studios in Melbourne in August AND HFAS Australia is having a Winter Sale, so all courses can be booked at a 20% discount (discount applied at checkout, so no codes to remember). We’re doing scenes this next class, and bookings are starting to fill, so get in now to grab your place and get the discount! All details here: https://www.howardfinestudio.com.au/allcalendar/2018/4/24/playing-the-bard-shakespeare-in-performance-g4ddn Speaking of HFAS…
-
NEW DATES: Playing The Bard returns to Howard Fine Acting Studio in May!
“Playing The Bard” at Howard Fine Acting Studio Australia will now be taking place from Tuesday May 21 until June 25, just before Howard Fine returns to Australia for his mid-year Master Class! I am delighted to be returning to the Studio as HFAS resident Shakespeare teacher and faculty member to once more work with a brand new crop of actors and share with them the techniques I use when working with my fabulous award-winning Shakespeare Republic cast. Actors of all experience levels are welcome to come play with me in this six week course that is designed to help actors truly make Shakespeare’s works and words their own! Using…
-
Shakespeare Republic now streaming on Ozflix – and already breaking records!
I am so delighted to share that Shakespeare Republic (the web series that has been taking up nearly all my time for the past four years), is now streaming (both Seasons One & Two) from it’s new official, exclusive home on awesome Aussie content streaming platform, Ozflix – and managed to break all records with the highest viewership of a new launch in Ozflix’s history! Amazing! The series continues to gain more and more viewers as time goes on and I am so delighted to see that it’s finding a whole new audience – three years into it’s existence. I am currently in the process of editing together some new…
-
Sally nominated for “Best Actress” at the 2018 Asia Web Awards! #acting #actor #nominee
I know I said that I was taking a break from the Internet and work in general in my last update, but this news is just too exciting to not share! I’m so thrilled to say that last weekend the nominees for the 2018 Asia Web Awards were announced and among the wonderful list of creatives and artists listed, I somehow managed to land a Best Actress nomination for playing “Beatrice”, as well as a Best Director nomination for Shakespeare Republic! AMAZING!! The series received FIVE nominations in all – the other three being Best Music (Jordan Ross), Best Drama Series and Best Web Series (All Genres)!! So blown away…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Shakespeare Republic has launched and is in the wild with another acting gig filmed and in the can
Shakespeare Republic has finally fully aired on our YouTube Channel (and Vimeo) and is now doing the film festival rounds. We have some exciting news coming up on that front, to be revealed soon, and some lovely feedback from many quarters both in Australia and overseas. My episode was the last in this first season, and I include it here below for convenience: [vimeo id=”143406592″ maxwidth=”900″ align=”center” autoplay=”no” aspect_ratio=”16:9″] To see the full series, visit the official website here: http://shakespearerepublic.com/ In other news, I just recently shot a role for the new series of Jack Irish and my episode of Utopia went to air last month, which was a lot of fun.…
