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alexis gregory
Playwright - Actor
There are many facets to your bow; writer... actor... producer... director. Tell me about your background?
I started off as an actor working professionally from my teens in TV, film, theatre and commercials and so spent many years doing that. I started working as an actor with Rikki Beadle Blair's Team Angelica company in 2004 and I appeared in several of Rikki's plays. Rikki knew that I wanted to write and so in around 2011 he asked me to perform a piece I'd written at a private event in a theatre celebrating his birthday.
I wrote and performed a piece called 'Through The Wilderness' about a half Greek, half Italian, gay kid growing up in the suburbs of North West London in the 1980s who has an obsession with Madonna and dreams of one day becoming an actor. It was an autobiographical piece in case you haven't guessed.
That led to me submitting my play 'Slap' to Rikki's festival of new writing at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. 'Slap' is about an hour in the life of male to female transsexual Dominique, played by myself and the two men in her life.
That was the big turning point for me and is when I really became a writer. I was mentored by Rikki and John Gordon and my play was directed by Rikki. I am very grateful for that opportunity. The producing and directing followed.
What did 7 year old old Alexis want to do when he grew up?
I wanted to be an actor. I was also obsessed with glossy 1980s American soaps and I actually wanted to live in one. I've achieved the former but not the latter. I still have hope though.
What came first: Acting or writing?
Well I actually loved both as a child and I can see now that I moved away from writing and then came back to it. I come from a non theatrical family but acting was so important to me growing up.
I loved being in school plays and I would phone agents and major production companies whilst I was still a child trying to get a break and asking to be in their films. They must of wondered who the brazen child was on the other end of the line.
I started off as an actor working professionally from my teens in TV, film, theatre and commercials and so spent many years doing that. I started working as an actor with Rikki Beadle Blair's Team Angelica company in 2004 and I appeared in several of Rikki's plays. Rikki knew that I wanted to write and so in around 2011 he asked me to perform a piece I'd written at a private event in a theatre celebrating his birthday.
I wrote and performed a piece called 'Through The Wilderness' about a half Greek, half Italian, gay kid growing up in the suburbs of North West London in the 1980s who has an obsession with Madonna and dreams of one day becoming an actor. It was an autobiographical piece in case you haven't guessed.
That led to me submitting my play 'Slap' to Rikki's festival of new writing at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. 'Slap' is about an hour in the life of male to female transsexual Dominique, played by myself and the two men in her life.
That was the big turning point for me and is when I really became a writer. I was mentored by Rikki and John Gordon and my play was directed by Rikki. I am very grateful for that opportunity. The producing and directing followed.
What did 7 year old old Alexis want to do when he grew up?
I wanted to be an actor. I was also obsessed with glossy 1980s American soaps and I actually wanted to live in one. I've achieved the former but not the latter. I still have hope though.
What came first: Acting or writing?
Well I actually loved both as a child and I can see now that I moved away from writing and then came back to it. I come from a non theatrical family but acting was so important to me growing up.
I loved being in school plays and I would phone agents and major production companies whilst I was still a child trying to get a break and asking to be in their films. They must of wondered who the brazen child was on the other end of the line.
"I actually at the age of ten got permission from an author via his agent to adapt his book into a school play. See, I was a hustler even from that age"
I also loved writing stories and plays. l would create plays for myself and the other school kids to perform or I would stand up in assembly and read my stories out loud. I was the archetypal creative kid.
What advice would you give to people who are breaking into the industry?
I would say it's important at that early stage to keep trying to develop as an artist and trying to improve your work and strengthen your voice as a writer while trying to find platforms for your work, making contacts in the appropriate field, establishing contacts with peers etc. Collaboration is really important too as is seeing as much theatre as one can and generally getting out there. Also to not be put off by the various hurdles that may come your way.
"I would say give it a go if you can. We only regret things we don't do"
Is there any one aspect that you would rather concentrate on individually, i.e. just writing, just acting, just producing etc...?
I am an actor and playwright first and foremost so both of them I think. I have appeared in my first two full length plays 'Slap' and 'Bright Skin Light' but in not everything I have written. I write for other actors too.
Are there any plans to develop your 5 minute play Feast, written for velvet loop's Velvet Voices project into a full staged production or was that just written especially for the event?
Yes there are. 'Feast' is based on an idea developed by my co-actor Arron Blake and myself and then I wrote the five minute version. It's about two brothers who meet after a long time apart. We are working on the full length version currently.
Do you feel that a play works better with an element of personal experience or is realism possible from total fantasy?
I can only speak for myself and my work is highly autobiographical or is based on stories or facts or incidents that I have found fascinating and picked up on the way. I now realise that each character I write in a play is part of me; various fragments or different aspects of my personality.
On the other side of that sometimes I have an idea in my head and I start thinking 'what if' and push it as far as I can so that is most definately an exercise in creating from imagination.
Are there any plans of having a further theatre run of your acclaimed play Slap?
Yes. The initial staged reading at Stratford East led to a special one off performance at Channel 4's London HQ as the channels first ever theatrical presentation and 'Slap' then returned to Stratford earlier this year for five immersive performances in a specially created set. Each of this steps has always been part of a planned journey for 'Slap' which will return early 2015.
What's next for Alexis Gregory?
"Well I am very excited about 'Slap' for 2015. That play is my baby and of course my first born"
Also coming up is my second play 'Bright Skin Light' which is directed by Robert Chevara. It's already had a staged reading at a lovely space, the Drayton Arms in Earls Court and this December will receive a development period and one off performance at Stratford East who have been very supportive of me as a new playwright.
In November I am joining the 'Polari' tour as the LGBT Literary Salon takes to the road and I'll be reading from my plays as part of it. I've just read at 'Polari' at its home at the Southbank Centre and it was so much fun.
I am also developing a piece of verbatim theatre for The Albert Kennedy Trust, a charity that works with homeless and at risk LGBT youth. The piece is called 'Safe' and will be based on interviews with the service users and will give a platform to a series of previously untold stories and voices that sadly remain unheard in our society.
I also have a piece of short fiction being published soon in the illustration magazine 'Illustrashion'. My story is called 'My Own Private Narcissus' and is a homage to my fave movie 'My Own Private Idaho'. That movie is another of my obsessions. Oh, and maybe a holiday too.