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| Richard Stemp: Biography Richard was born in Lewisham, in South East London, and grew up in Surrey. He attended Meath Green Primary School, Horley, and at the age of seven pronounced his first words on stage, in the role of Herod: ‘Where do you come from?’ At the Trinity School of John Whitgift, Croydon, he was heavily involved in the active music department, performing, among other venues, at the Festival Hall and in the Proms, and appearing on Television with artists as diverse as Leonard Bernstein and Bing Crosby. After studying Natural Sciences and History of Art at Clare College, Cambridge Richard trained at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts. He has since worked across all periods of drama, with Shakespearean roles including Romeo (Romeo and Juliet), Demetrius (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in which he also played Snug), Orlando (As You Like It, in which he also played Audrey and ‘Sundry Lords’) and Cassius (Julius Caesar). He has played Scandal in the Restoration Comedy Love for Love, Mario in Marivaux’s The Game of Love and Chance, and created the role of Cleveland in Fanny Burnie’s previously un-performed comedy from 1800 A Busy Day in both Bristol and London. Contemporary Classics include Caryl Churchill’s Cloud Nine (Clive and Cathy) and Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker, playing Aston. Performances for children include the music-theatre piece No. 3 Pied Piper Street by Cheryl Moscowitz and Vocem Electric Voice Theatre, and Badger in Wind in the Willows. Richard has had a number of parts written specially for him, and created the role of Ben in Nigel Fairs’ plays Sauna and Unsex me here at the Brighton festival, as well as Eugen in Sebastian Michael’s The Power of Love, the first part of a trilogy currently in development and aiming for performance in late 2006. He has also devised and performed his own one-man show, The Raft of the Medusa, inspired by Gericault’s painting of the same name, which was commissioned for performance at Tate Britain. Recently he has focussed on film, playing parts in the feature The Travelling Companion and in an interactive DVD for the Department of Health, Diversity Dilemmas. He also appeared in the title role in a spoof version of The Terminator for the BBC Film Club! When not acting Richard works as a freelance museums lecturer. He has written and presented the series Art in the National Gallery and Tate Modern for Channel 4 Television, and made contributions to Terry Jones’ Medieval Lives, CBBC’s X-Change! and Teachers’ TV. His book, 'The Secret Language of the Renaissance', was published in October 2006.
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