Ezra, who trained at Le Coq Theatre School in Paris, has run Hurtwood’s Acting Company for 17 years and during this time has produced some of the most memorable of Hurtwood productions. The plays have been extremely diverse - Anton Chekhov’s ‘The Cherry Orchard’, Sarah Kane’s ‘4.48 Psychosis’ and Jean Genet’s ‘The Balcony’ to name but a few. Last year Ezra directed ‘Country Music’ by Simon Stephens and ‘The Women of Lockerbie’ by Deborah Brevoort and this year they are currently in rehearsals for ‘Dark of the Moon’ by Howard Richardson and William Berney.
In Acting Company the process is as important as the production. The students have intense training for a year before Ezra decides on the production. When Sofia, in her interview for the ‘Common Room’ magazine, questioned Ezra on his favourite production, he replied
“There are productions that I feel very proud of, but it's really for the students to experience doing the play rather than the play itself. My teaching focus is not necessarily that it's a brilliant production that everybody loves, but more importantly, that my students go through the process of making them.”
Sofia also spoke to Acting Company member, Joah. He stated “I think it's a very beautiful thing to be able to tell stories through embodying different lives…. you must be very open to deep empathy. It’s an exciting opportunity because my old school didn't have anything like it.” Ezra’s methods were different to Joah’s previous experience as the sessions were very movement heavy in the first few weeks, which he wasn't used to. He stated
“Ezra is very talented, very well versed and knows what he's talking about. I was excited to see what it was leading to. Looking back, all the movement heavily benefitted my coordination and feeling the space. I learned how to be comfortable in a room because if you're acting in front of many people, they can tell if you're awkward in your body. I trusted the process and it worked well for me.”
Significant commitment is required and there were some late nights, but Joah admitted “In the end, I look back on everything, and I completely understand why that had to be part of the process.” Asked what advice he would give to a student considering auditioning, Joah said “Don't close yourself off to thoughts or worries. Don't let that narrow your mindset, just be as open as possible and soak in everything Ezra says…. trust him. He's the professional.” Ezra’s advice? – “learn the audition piece well and find something that you can identify with in some way. Don't find a piece where you are exactly yourself, but something that you can connect to.” He explained that he always redirects people to see if they can change and often that's when he thinks "I'm not sure about this person, because they have learnt to do it in a certain way, and they can only do it in that way.”
Over the years Acting Company has nurtured a huge amount of talent and has changed numerous lives. Only last year it did just that for Gabe Nagy. Acting agents are always in the audience and as a result, Gabe secured an agent and is currently filming ‘The Reluctant Vampire’ for BBC 1 alongside BAFTA winner Lenny Rush, Tom Davis, Sian Clifford, Bill Bailey and Ross Noble. Gabe was generous in his praise: “Acting Company was transformational for me. Ezra was genuinely a master of acting and I learnt so much from him.”
