British actor DENVER ISAAC chatted with ACT Magazine about life before acting, drama schools and his role in the hit TV drama‘ A. D. The Bible Continues’.
���
Meet���
A Hard Working Performer
British actor DENVER ISAAC chatted with ACT Magazine about life before acting, drama schools and his role in the hit TV drama‘ A. D. The Bible Continues’.
Born in Masvingo, Zimbabwe shortly after the country’ s independence from colonial rule, actor Denver Isaac has established his acting career in England, and is now on the road to international stardom after his latest role in A. D The Bible Continues.“ I was born in Masvingo but I never really lived there,” explains Denver.“ It’ s a cultural thing to grow up with your siblings, as well as your cousins if you have any, in Zimbabwe so you end up travelling all over the country! Now that I think about it, there was a feeling of hedonism almost, utter joy and pride, that I got from my parents and their friends when I was growing up and it was all related to the country’ s new found Independence from colonial rule. However, that feeling shifted very quickly to dread as soon as the mid 90’ s when the economy, according to my father, became unstable. That is when he lost his job in the national rail service and my mother decided to emigrate to England.”
Growing up as a child in Zimbabwe, it was rich with music and a history of performance; a wonderful foundation to inspire Denver into the arts.“ Zimbabwe has a rich history of performance. It’ s embedded within the culture to sit in a circle with people performing especially with the native instruments like the mbira and on TV, I remember a sketch show with a comedian called‘ Paraffin’ who was very popular. I would watch him with my father, and Clint Eastwood’ s cowboy films. I just loved Clint’ s swagger and the fact that he wore a blanket over him even in hot hot hot weather!”
Although living in Zimbabwe gave
Denver the initial taste for acting, it wasn’ t until he had emigrated to England that he decided to follow this career path.“ I realized I wanted to be an actor in three memorable and funny stages. The first being watching Clint Eastwood’ s cowboy films, I just mentioned. The second stage was when I spent more time playing in the garden as an actor performing in-front of the flowers and bushes pretending they were thousands of spectators watching me, and the third came when I began attending Chicken Shed Theatre when I moved to London. Chicken Shed is a wonderful place where kids with all sorts of abilities and backgrounds mix and make fun and inspiring theatre. The youth group I joined at that theatre became, and still is, an emotional inspiration for me because it made me realize that I was different but so was everyone else and that it was ok. The casting team there gave me the role of Azdak in Bertolt Brecht’ s play called‘ The Chalk Circle’. There has been nothing else I have wanted to do than perform since then.”
Denver enjoyed his time in youth theatre, but also knew that to take his talent to the next level he had to continue his training and hone his craft with different acting teachers and platforms.“ I went to the Italia Conti drama school in London that has a foundation and history of theatre acting. I have found that I am able to apply that on any stage that I am on as well as in life in general. It is so important to be ready as an actor. I believe my continuous pushing out of my comfort zone and removing boundaries as an actor has helped me to become more cultured and worldly.”
Recently, Denver has dabbled in film producing. His short film‘ Beyond Plain Sight’ was nominated for Best British Short Film at Raindance in England, and will be shown at a European festival in Berlin very soon.“ Producing was a whole new experience for me. I produced with my own money and I loved it. I remember sitting down with my friend Joseph Adesunloye, who directed the film, discussing how long we had known each other and yet I didn’ t know that he didn’ t drink red wine. Our conversation
ActDanceModelSing. com
Page 16