Welcome to the Custom/Practice website. We’re a London-based theatre company committed to widening access to classical text for both audiences and practitioners through collaboration, experimentation and a little bit of anarchy. Click ‘About’ for more info and scroll down for all our latest news.

Our latest production, As You Like It, opens this Tuesday at  The Lion and Unicorn Theatre in Kentish Town. One of Shakespeare’s best loved comedies, full of love, passion and humour, it is the perfect play for Spring Time. Our wonderful cast of 13 include many past workshop participants alongside some new actors to the Custom/Practice company.

To book please visit the Lion and Unicorn website: http://www.giantolive.com/asyoulikeit.html or call Ticketweb on 08444 771 000

Please visit our facebook page for more information and videos from the cast during rehearsals: http://www.facebook.com/asyoulikeit2012

Here is Olivia Scott-Taylor, star of ITV’s Wild at Heart, talking about playing Celia:

The Malcontent, a Custom/Practice co-production with Graffiti Productions, and directed by Rae McKen opened to a sell-out crowd at the White Bear Theatre tonight. This newly-adapted staging marks the first London revival in over a decade of John Marston’s tale of power, pride and ignorance. Head over to The Malcontent page for more information, rehearsal photos and to book tickets for this rare staging of  a classical masterpiece.

We at Custom/Practice Towers are thrilled to announce that our next workshop for professional actors on 17th and 18th October led by Suba Das and Rae McKen at the headquarters of Talawa Theatre Company in Central London will feature a masterclass led by our new supporter, the living legend that is  Paterson Joseph. One of the UK’s greatest talents,  his work has encompassed some of the country’s best TV comedy (Peep Show, Green Wing) and drama (Survivors, Hustle, Doctor Who) and towering stage performances including his leading roles in Royal Hunt of The Sun, Saint Joan and The Emperor Jones (all at the National Theatre). He has also starred in the Hollywood features The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio, and Aeon Flux with Charlize Theron.

Head on over to the Actor Training section for full details on how to take part in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity…

ROMEO & JULIET transfer to the goregeous South Hill Park in Bracknell tonight. The weatherman promises us no more rain, so if you’re local, venture on down for a summer treat.

Just 24 hours to go until Custom/Practice unleashes it’s outdoor ROMEO & JULIET in Cambridge. We’ll be tweeting some merry updates from the country’s second-oldest seat of learning.

As many of you will know, OTHELLO has opened to staggering success here in London Town, with every performance so far selling out, a little shout out from Lyn Gardner over at The Guardian, and five-star reviews popping up all over the place. Our apologies to all those we’ve had to turn away…

If you can’t get into OTHELLO, or if you’re following us from afar, then why not head along to our next insanely ambitious site-specific undertaking – ROMEO & JULIET, opening next Thursday as an outdoor spectacular in the lush riverside setting of Clare College Gardens, Cambridge University. Heralding a new collaboration with Cambridge’s access initiative for young people all over the country, R&J performs for a week in Cambridge before touring to South Hill Park, Bracknell. Check out the R&J page for full details and we hope to see you there, come rain or shine…

We’re burning up at Custom/Practice Towers with news on all of our latest projects.

Rae and Suba have returned to London from opening X-Factor star musicals in Birmingham and developing new plays with the Old Vic in New York and have a formidable pairing of shows to offer you this summer.

First up, Suba is directing OTHELLO as a site-specific horror experience on the remains of the Elizabethan Rose Theatre on the South Bank, opening on 5th July.  Starring as Othello is the brilliant Nana Amoo-Gottfried, last seen as Ross in Custom/Practice’s Macbeth earlier this year. He’s joined in the ensemble by an astonishing line-up of young talent, including Cary Crankson and International Emmy Award nominee Ruth Pickett. See the OTHELLO page above for more details.

Meanwhile, Rae will be directing Romeo and Juliet as Custom/Practice’s first ever outdoor tour, opening in the gardens of Clare College, Cambridge University as part of a major outreach initiative, before touring to South Hill Park in Bracknell, where it’s being paired with The Globe’s As You Like It. The R&J cast includes a whopping eight graduates from our Classical Acting Programme.  More details coming soon!

We’re delighted to announce that Custom/Practice director Suba Das is one of seven young directors being sent out to New York this spring by the Old Vic  as part of their incredible TS EliotUS/UK Exchange programme.  Over in NYC, Suba will be working with a team of 46 of the UK’s hottest young directors, writers and actors to produce a showcase of the best of British talent.

Also heading over is rising young actress Samantha Pearl,  who in the past year has played Viola for the National Theatre, and taken lead roles in ‘How To Be An Other Woman’ directed by Natalie Abrahami at The Gate; and Clean Break’s short play cycle ‘Charged’ at The Soho Theatre. Before any of that though, Sam took part in the first-ever Custom/Practice classical acting workshop in Winter 2009. Across the course of a week, we put together young actors who excited us with masterclass leaders including Struan Leslie, Head of Movement at the Royal Shakespeare Company; the casting director Ginny Schiller (RSC, Soho Theatre, Open Air Theatre Regent’s Park; Rose Theatre Kingston); and Pat Cumper, Artistic Director of Talawa. Here’s what Sam had to say about the Custom/Practice experience:

I feel privileged to have been one of the chosen few that auditioned for the Custom Practice workshops. Not only was I able to meet and work with like-minded, intelligent actors and directors but I was given the opportunity to explore classical text freely. The support offered during these explorations from the workshop practitioners, other actors and Suba Das and Rae McKen was invaluable. I felt nurtured and comfortable in making mistakes to progress further and I walked away with new ways to open up classical text.

Our next workshop will be taking place on the 26th to 27th April, at English Touring Theatre in SE1.  Keep an eye on the Actor Training section of the site  for more details, or check us out on Facebook for the latest!

And finally, we’re thrilled to announce that Natalie Thomas,  who made her professional classical debut as Lady Macbeth, has now joined the company of Much Ado About Nothing, starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate, opening in the West End in May.

2011 continues to be a pretty fantastic year for us – keep on checking back for more!

And so,  Macbeth wound its way to a suitably bloody climax in Birmingham! Our thanks to all who came and supported our first national tour (there’s a sentence we didn’t think we’d be writing this time last year).  We’ve been crunching the numbers for the past few days and our headline facts are (drum roll, please)……:

• 1,682 young people (i.e. under 18, still in education) saw the show.
• 68%  of those saw the show as their first ever experience of live Shakespeare.
• 58% of our audience in total were first time theatre bookers.
• 100% of audience surveyed said they wanted to see what else we had up our sleeves.

We’re in lockdown mode now as we begin preparations for a little summer adventure…..  More details coming soon.