4 minute read
Charlie Hardwick: Bringing a career to Live
Northumbria recently awarded Live Theatre’s Artistic Director, Max Roberts with an honorary degree for taking North East talent to global audiences. Charlie Hardwick, Emmerdale star and Northumbria graduate, is just one of the talented artists Max has worked with since Live Theatre was founded in 1973. She talks to Northumbria University News about how the theatre company, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2013, played a vital role in her career.
Ifirst came into contact with Live through my youth theatre”, Charlie said. “We didn’t have drama or music on the syllabus at high school. I loved it all as a young child but that all stopped when I got to high school.” Luckily, a council-funded youth theatre was set up to encourage kids like Charlie, who didn’t have access to the arts, to take part in theatre.
She added: “I remember Live performing for us at youth theatre. It was a production of Happy Lies and it changed my life entirely.” The play, written by C P Taylor, a playwright and lecturer on Max Roberts’ course when he studied at Northumbria in the 70s, told the story of a little boy in Tyneside and a little girl in India. Charlie said: “I didn’t even know you could get Geordie actors until I saw Happy Lies. It ignited me. From that point on, it became my ambition to work for Live Theatre.”
Charlie’s career began at Northumbria in the early 80s, studying Creative and Performing Arts. She said: “The course was quite radical and political at the time. It gave me a grounding in the kind of accessible, relevant, hard-hitting drama that I wanted to share with other people.” Charlie also credits her time at University for allowing her to step outside of her ‘normal’ life and take a look at it from afar. “University gave me a clearer understanding of where I was from, what I wanted to do, and how I wanted to get there.”
Charlie’s professional career was launched after she was spotted by a director when presenting her dissertation production. As a result, by the time she finished university she had a full-time job as an actor at Sheffield Crucible. She returned to the North East in 1988 and quickly wrote a letter to Max asking for an audition with Live. By January 1989, Charlie was performing in her first professional production with the company, entitled Hair in the Gate by writer Michael Chaplin. Ten years and almost twenty Live Theatre productions later, she went on to perform in the hit show, Cooking with Elvis, a black comedy by Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall. She said of her time at Live: “I am never happier and more fulfilled than I am in the rehearsal room at Live with Max and the cast. In the early days we were like an ensemble, which meant that we were used to working together and could cut straight to the chase.”
It’s for these reasons that Charlie is continually drawn back to Live Theatre, her most recent performance being just last year, taking part in Lee Hall’s screenplay series. She said: “Live started out as a company working out of the back of a van. Basingstoke was the furthest south we went! Max then commissioned Cooking with Elvis which toured to Edinburgh where it was snapped up by a producer and taken to London.” Since Cooking with
Elvis, Live’s collaboration with Hall has seen performances taking place all over the world, with his most recent hit, The Pitmen Painters being performed on Broadway, and subsequently as far afield as New Zealand.
Following its New York success in 2010, Pitmen Painters cast member, Lisa McGrillis (another Northumbria graduate) performed alongside Charlie in a production at the Customs House in South Shields. The play, entitled The Awkward Squad, was directed by Northumbria Performing Arts lecturer, Fiona MacPherson. Northumbria’s arts department currently boasts a staff team who are highly active in the industry, something that Charlie feels is vital for university teaching. She said: “Unless you can practice, you may as well not turn up. You have to have people out working in the field. Let’s face it, you can read a book about sex, but it doesn’t make you good at it!”
Something Charlie’s had a lot of practice at is portraying Val Pollard in Emmerdale, a role she has played for over ten years. So does it continue to challenge her? “Playing a character for a long-running series isn’t like going on stage in the same role, in the same show every night,” Charlie explained. “We get new storylines every fortnight and the character continually evolves. Over the last year, Val was involved in a storyline that raised awareness of HIV and sexual health among older women, as the character contracted the virus. This was one of the reasons I wanted to act in the first place - to raise awareness of important issues.”
Charlie credits university for giving her the confidence to succeed in this highly competitive industry, where she is now a hugely popular household name. “I don’t think I’d have half the confidence I have in my ability had I not studied to degree level. I was 22 when I started university and it gave me a real boost.”
So what about performing arts students today? Any advice? Charlie said: “Go and see everything you possibly can. From readings, to huge productions, everything!”
And Live Theatre certainly isn’t a bad place to start. Its current season includes a play by another Northumbria graduate, Paddy Campbell, writer of the award-winning hit, Wet House. This new production, entitled Day of the Flymo, will be performed by members of Live’s youth theatre alongside professional actors. And as Charlie’s career history suggests, this could well be the place to see tomorrow’s stars in action.
