Ben Woods, actor from Stratford, shortlisted for an “Offie” award

Actor Ben Woods tells Gill Sutherland how stepping on the RSC boards as a youngster led him into an acting career and how his last role as a young Scrooge # 39; saw becoming a finalist in a prestigious Offie theater award.

There are tons of theater prizes for your Olivier, Critics Circle, Evening Standard These big pistols are all great, but it's the annual Offie Awards that keep Herald Arts in the air right now.

You see that Stratford owner Ben Woods is in the running for the prestigious award this year, with the winners announced on March 8 at an event at Battersea Arts Center.

The Offie Awards were created ten years ago to recognize the talent involved in independent theaters in the West End in London. More than 80 theaters participate in the awards, with around 400 productions planned.

How brilliant it was when Ben was nominated, along with 13 others, for male performance in a supporting role category for his performance as a young Scrooge in A Christmas Carol held at Bridge House Theater SE20 at the end of 2019. In January, he learned that he had been presented as one of the three finalists.

When telling Herald about the arts, Ben says: It's an amazing thing! I have an award ceremony. Everyone says I have to write an acceptance speech in case I win. But I don't know if I want to do it!

Ben grew up in Stratford, where he began his acting career playing the young Duke of York in Richard III at RSC at the age of 12.

Talking about his first steps on stage, he says: My first acting role was to play Joseph at the Broad Street Primary nursery at the age of six.

I auditioned for RSC maybe three or four times through open casting calls and got to know their children's casting director, Barbara Roberts. In 2003, because I had been to audition several times, she actually contacted my mother and told me that she had a role for me, who was the young duke of & # 39; ; York, and could I go audition … I got the role and it was my first job as a professional actor. For me it was the best thing since the slice of bread. We took him on tour to Newcastle.

Ben says he was encouraged by fellow cast members to believe that he had the talent to make an acting career possible. At 18, he auditioned and won a place at Mountview, where he obtained a bachelor's degree in theater and graduated in 2012.

However, it took two years for Ben to find work as an actor. He explains: I ended up working as a fine jewelry seller on Bond Street. I had a friend in the industry who worked in the diamond trade and he offered me the job.

It's funny because I have the impression that the actors are intrinsically very good sellers. I mean my costume was my costume and the workshop was my scene. The money was great and the experience was lovely but it was not what I wanted to do.

After five scary reminders, Ben ended up landing a role in the epic of the Netflix Borgia series. Ben picks up the story: So it was my first job after acting school. I was still working on Bond Street when I got a call from my agent telling me you had the job, and the next day I left for Prague at 6am for a five-month shoot. I played popes grandson Aurelio Borgia, and it was just an incredible moment and I became a home away from home and the family that I had there, I am still very close.

Bens' luck continued: Upon returning from filming Borgia, I got a role in a movie called Chosen with Harvey Keitel, a WWII thriller, and we shot this in Romania. It was a beautiful story that had to be told.

Since then, Ben has done a lot of drama and the strange little part on television.

What would it mean for him to win the Offie?

Oh my God, just that level of recognition. This is a big problem for an actor. You are not doing this to get recognition, but it is someone who tells me that you are doing a great job, keep doing it. Now I have goosebumps thinking about it!

Come on Ben, Stratford is taking root for you!