Issue 10 | March 2006
Patrick Stewart Sharing his experiences with students at The University of Huddersfield
Courtesy of The University of Huddersfield

Patrick Stewart is known to television and movie audiences all over the world as Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Jean-Luc Picard, captain of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D. More recently, he has taken on another science-fiction franchise. In X-Men, the adaptation of Marvel Comics’ best-selling comic book heroes, Stewart plays Professor Charles Xavier, head of the Xavier Institute – a training centre and school for people born with super-powers. His role as the Institute’s principal has been mirrored in real life by his appointment as Chancellor of The University of Huddersfield, and he hopes to be as much of an inspiration to the students of his real university as his fictional one.

This is not Stewart’s first foray into UK education. In a series of educational videos produced by Viewtech Educational Media, he discusses performing in the Shakespeare plays Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice and As You Like It. His love of Shakespeare shines through in these teaching aids, as it does whenever he speaks of the Bard’s work and the roles from it he has played.

Though he is better known internationally for his movies, Stewart began in theatre and has returned to it again and again throughout his career. He is due to do so again this year, when he will play Antony opposite Harriet Walter in Antony and Cleopatra at The Swan Theatre Stratford-Upon- Avon as part of the yearlong festival The Complete Works.

Stewart began acting as a child, and took it up professionally while still in his teens. He was born in 1940 in Mirfield, Yorkshire, an area where, ‘theatrical performance was not unusual’, he remembers. ‘My community, which had a population of perhaps 12,000, had 11 dramatic societies, plus brass bands, choirs and operatic groups.’

Studying the Bard It was at school, however, that his acting really took off. He has particularly fond memories of Cecil Dormand, his English teacher at Mirfield Secondary Modern School, who first encouraged him to study the Bard.

Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, where Stewart learned his craft as a young acting student
Courtesy of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School

‘Cecil was the first person to put a book into my hands and say to me, “No, don’t read it to yourself, read it aloud”. Then, “all right, that’s reading it aloud, now act it”. I don’t think there’s any other individual who was more proud of my appointment as Chancellor of The University of Huddersfield than Cecil.’ At the age of 81, Dormand was awarded an honorary degree at the same ceremony which installed his former pupil as Chancellor.

When Stewart was 12, Mirfield’s headmaster introduced him to Gerald Tyler, the County Drama Advisor, who was looking for pupils who would be interested in attending an eight-day drama course covering acting, directing and putting on plays. ‘It was there I met some people who were to be very influential in my life,’ Stewart says, referring to retired actress, Ruth Wynn Owen, and Rafael Shelly, a drama teacher. ‘From then on I began to do more and more amateur dramatics.’

It was Owen, Shelly and Tyler to whom Stewart turned at the age of 17, for advice on taking up acting full time. ‘They all recommended one school,’ he remembers, ‘The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School [now part of the University of the West of England].’ He applied, and was not only accepted but also won a County Major Scholarship: ‘a marvellously generous grant,’ he says.

Difficult Start Stewart was not always as in demand as he is today. Shortly after graduating, in the summer of 1959, he found himself unemployed and wrote to Oldham Theatre, looking for work. ‘The artistic director wrote back saying in no uncertain terms that there was no work for me in Oldham.’ Stewart remembered this when he opened the city’s new University Centre in 2004, remarking that, ‘I’m delighted that all these years later, I’ve found a job to do in Oldham.’

In 1966, following two years working for Bristol Old Vic, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company as an associate artist. ‘For eight years, I worked for them and for no one else,’ he explains. ‘I became addicted to the work and to Shakespeare. It was a drug, satisfying all my needs as an actor. It also began my serious education – it’s impossible to expose yourself to plays without asking questions, and that’s what education is: learning to ask questions and to understand some of the answers.’

Over the years, he has played many roles, appearing in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Antony and Cleopatra, Titus Andronicus, Henry IV and many others. He has also been involved in teaching and theatre education. He has taught independently in the UK and the US, and describes it as ‘a kind of relaxation.’ International actors, he feels, sometimes think that Shakespeare is too remote from them and that only English actors can do it. ‘One of the things I try to do in my teaching is break down inhibitions and barriers,’ he explains, ‘because international actors bring something of their own to Shakespeare and that can be terrific.’

Already a major Hollywood actor by the turn of the century, his fame has continued through the movies based on the hugely popular X-Men comics

Eventually, Stewart realised that, ‘I’d been an actor for 14 years and had never done television. So I began to take periods away from the RSC to rectify that.’ He appeared in several television series, including Coronation Street, an adaptation of Robert Graves’ I, Claudius and more than 20 BBC plays. From here, he soon progressed to movies, perhaps most importantly 1984’s Dune, based on the science-fiction novel by Frank Herbert. This was his first foray into the genre for which he is now world famous.

In 1987, Stewart took the role of Captain Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation, which he continued to play for seven seasons and, to date, in 10 movies. The Star Trek writers gave Stewart’s character as great a love for Shakespeare as the actor has himself, often writing quotes from the Bard into his scripts and having several of the characters engage in amateur dramatics in their leisure time, bringing the plays to a new audience who may not have been familiar with them before. The role has ensured that his face is recognised around the world.

Already a major Hollywood actor by the turn of the century, his fame has continued through the movies based on the hugely popular X-Men comics; he has recently finished filming the third installment, in which he stars alongside fellow British Shakespearean and film actor, Sir Ian McKellan. Though his acting talents would enable him to make the most of any role, that of Professor Charles Xavier – the super-powered cast’s mentor – is one he falls into easily.

As Professor Charles Xavier in X-Men
© 20thC.Fox/Everett/Rex Features

With his commitments to the X-Men movies out of the way for the time being, Stewart has been free to return to the UK and his first love – Shakespeare. He will join a truly stellar cast taking part in the RSC’s Complete Works festival, which will see all of Shakespeare’s plays performed in Stratford- Upon-Avon during 2006. Stewart will play Antony in Antony and Cleopatra.

Taking Part Being back in the UK will also enable Stewart to give more time to his position as Chancellor of The University of Huddersfield. In practice this is a nominal position (it is the Vice- Chancellor who actually deals with the day-to-day running of the institution), but Stewart sees it as more of a commitment, describing it as ‘the most delightful and unexpected honour I’ve ever received.’

He makes it clear that rather than just turning up on graduation day, he intends to do ‘as much as the University will permit me. I’d like to be involved in fundraising and actually do some work with the theatre department.’ So far, he’s held true to his word. He has taken drama workshops and has even dropped in for impromptu sessions when he’s been visiting the Yorkshire area. He also opened the drama department's new performance and rehearsal area, in the converted Grade II listed former chapel, which appears as a backdrop to a television commercial Patrick fronted for the University. This was the second advertisement he has appeared in for the institution and he has regularly mentioned his involvement in television and newspaper interviews.

'The longer I've been involved, the more impressed I've become,' he says. 'The drama studios here, for instance, are as good as anything I've seen anywhere in the world. I've also enjoyed calling into the Students' Union for a chat and meeting the students informally. The University is all about making opportunities available to people from a range of backgrounds and it's been great working this out in practice.'

With such enthusiasm for his craft, it's likely that he will continue to act, and to inspire younger actors, for years to come. In fact, he says, 'I enjoy acting now perhaps more than I ever have done.Actors don't retire, they just grow into older and older roles'.