Mark Rylance

Mark Rylance played the title role of Hamlet and Treplev in The Seagull at A.R.T. in 1991. In addition to the A.R.T. production, he has played Hamlet over 400 times in his life: in high school at age 16, at The RSC at age 28, and at The Globe at age 40. His most recent credit is King Philippe V in Farinelli and the King by Claire van Kampen in London’s West End, first seen at Shakespeare’s Globe. Other recent theater includes Ron in Nice Fish at the Guthrie Theater in 2013; Countess Olivia in Twelfth Night and Richard III at Shakespeare’s Globe, in the West End, and on Broadway in 2013; and Johnny “Rooster” Byron in Jerusalem at the Royal Court, in the West End, and on Broadway in 2011. Other West End/ Broadway performances have included La Bête (Valère), and Boeing Boeing (Robert). His first play, I Am Shakespeare, premiered in 2007 at the Chichester Festival Theatre and was published in 2012. He has appeared at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, the Bush, The Tricycle, Shared Experience, Theatre for a New Audience, and for his own companies, The London Theatre of Imagination (LTI) and Phoebus Cart. He was the Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre from 1996-2006. Rylance’s most recent film roles include Bridge of Spies; the upcoming BFG; Wolf Hall on PBS and the BBC; The Gunman; and We Are Many. Other film work includes Days and Nights; Anonymous; The Government Inspector; The Grass Arena; Love Lies Bleeding; Intimacy; Angels and Insects; Nocturne; and Institute Benjamenta. He trained at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (1978-1980) under Hugh Cruttwell, and is an honorary bencher of the Middle Temple Hall in London; trustee of The Shakespearean Authorship Trust; an ambassador of SURVIVAL, the movement for tribal peoples; and a patron of PEACE DIRECT.