Jos Vantyler
Encyclopedia
Background
Vantyler was born in County MayoCounty Mayo
County Mayo is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the village of Mayo, which is now generally known as Mayo Abbey. Mayo County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county is 130,552...
Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
where he lived until the age of six. He went on to attend Juilliard
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
and The Actors Studio.
Stage career
In 2005 Vantyler won The NYC Star Best Newcomer Award for his portrayal of Rodolfo in Arthur MillerArthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
's A View From The Bridge
A View from the Bridge
A View from the Bridge is a play by American playwright Arthur Miller that was first staged on September 29, 1955 as a one-act verse drama with A Memory of Two Mondays at the Coronet Theatre on Broadway. The play was unsuccessful and Miller subsequently revised the play to contain two acts; this...
at The Tower Theater. In the same year he was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor by The New York City Review, for his portrayal of Oswald in Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
. Vantyler played as Arden in 2007 in Arden of Faversham
Arden of Faversham
Arden of Faversham is an Elizabethan play, entered into the Register of the Stationers Company on 3 April 1592, and printed later that same year by Edward White. It depicts the murder of one Thomas Arden by his wife Alice Arden and her lover, and their subsequent discovery and punishment...
, as part of the NYC Classic Revival Series for Academy Award winning director Anthony Minghella
Anthony Minghella
Anthony Minghella, CBE was an English film director, playwright and screenwriter. He was Chairman of the Board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007....
.
In 2006 he played Anselmus in The Second Maiden's Tragedy
The Second Maiden's Tragedy
The Second Maiden's Tragedy is a Jacobean play that survives only in manuscript. It was written in 1611, and performed in the same year by the King's Men. The manuscript that survives is the copy that was sent to the censor, and therefore includes his notes and deletions...
at the newly refurbished Hackney Empire
Hackney Empire
The Hackney Empire is a theatre on Mare Street, in the London Borough of Hackney, built in 1901 as a music hall.-History:Hackney Empire is a grade II* listed building...
for which he received high critical praise. In 2006 he again appeared at The Lincoln Center as Mercutio
Mercutio
Mercutio a fictional character in William Shakespeare's 1597 tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. He is a close friend of Romeo, and Romeo's cousin Benvolio, and also a blood relative to Prince Escalus and Count Paris. As such, being neither a Montague nor a Capulet, Mercutio is one of the few in Verona...
in Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
directed by Roberto Watton. In 2007 he played King Phillip of France in The Lion in Winter
The Lion in Winter
-Synopsis:Set during Christmas 1183 at Henry II of England's château in Chinon, Anjou, Angevin Empire, the play opens with the arrival of Henry's wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, whom he has had imprisoned since 1173...
for Fairbanks Theaters with Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
-based director Don Morrelli.
In 2008 he played the lead role of Lord Fancourt Babberley in Charley's Aunt
Charley's Aunt
Charley's Aunt is a farce in three acts written by Brandon Thomas. It broke all historic records for plays of any kind, with an original London run of 1,466 performances....
at The New Wimbledon Theatre. BAFTA winning director David Giles cast him that year in Underfoot In Show Business, Charles Leipart
Charles Leipart
Charles Leipart is an award-winning American musical theatre bookwriter-lyricist and playwright. He was born in Chicago and graduated from Northwestern University.-Works include:Mr...
's comic stage adaptation based on the early life memoir of Helene Hanff
Helene Hanff
Helene Hanff was an American writer. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she is best known as the author of the book 84, Charing Cross Road, which became the basis for a stage play, , and film of the same name.- Career :...
, opposite Felicity Dean
Felicity Dean
Felicity Dean is a British film, stage and television actress.-Early life:Dean was born as Felicity Jane Dean at St George's Hospital at Hyde Park Corner London in 1959. She attended the Hurst Lodge School in Sunningdale England...
.
In 2008 Vantyler appeared in the highly controversial play Prophecy by New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
playwright Karen Malpede. Although certain press branded the play as a disturbing piece, Vantyler's portrayal of a young soldier suffering from extreme PTSD received high acclaim and resulted in Vantyler being nominated for a Critics Choice Award - BEST ACTOR for his performance, the press discribed Vantyler as "a young exciting actor with distinctive looks and a powerful presence". In preparation for the role Vantyler researched the condition at a military hosptial in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. It had transferred from New York to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and later back to Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
. Vantyler did not resume his role in the new revised Broadway production nor was it well received by the New York critics.
In 2009, he played Billy in the Tom Stoppard
Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
play The Real Thing
The Real Thing (play)
The Real Thing is a play by Tom Stoppard, first performed in 1982. It examines the nature of honesty, and its use of a play within a play is one of many levels on which the author teases the audience with the difference between semblance and reality....
, directed by Hanna Berrigan. Giles cast Vantyler as Pietro in Swimming At The Ritz in 2009, a play about the last day in the life of Pamela Harriman
Pamela Harriman
Pamela Beryl Harriman , also known as Pamela Churchill Harriman, was an English-born socialite who was married and linked to important and powerful men. In later life, she became a political activist for the United States Democratic Party and a diplomat...
, which starred Felicity Dean
Felicity Dean
Felicity Dean is a British film, stage and television actress.-Early life:Dean was born as Felicity Jane Dean at St George's Hospital at Hyde Park Corner London in 1959. She attended the Hurst Lodge School in Sunningdale England...
.
In 2009, he took the lead opposite Academy Award Nominee Susannah York
Susannah York
Susannah York was a British film, stage and television actress. She was awarded a BAFTA as Best Supporting Actress for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and was nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe for the same film. She won best actress for Images at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival...
in The Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
Season for The Hampstead New End Theatre
New End Theatre
The New End Theatre, Hampstead, was a 80-seat fringe theatre venue in London, England, located in the London Borough of Camden which operated from 1974 until 2011. It was listed widely on the internet, including with the New York Times....
. Due to sell-out audiences from its opening night and rave reviews from the press, the show transferred to another sell out run at the Hackney Empire
Hackney Empire
The Hackney Empire is a theatre on Mare Street, in the London Borough of Hackney, built in 1901 as a music hall.-History:Hackney Empire is a grade II* listed building...
in December 2009. Vantyler and York went on to become close friends.
.In 2010 he played Tom Sawyer
Tom Sawyer
Thomas "Tom" Sawyer is the title character of the Mark Twain novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer . He appears in three other novels by Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , Tom Sawyer Abroad , and Tom Sawyer, Detective .Sawyer also appears in at least three unfinished Twain works, Huck and Tom...
in the National Tour in James Graham's play Huck, a stage adaptation of the Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
classic, Huckleberry Finn
Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a classic Mark Twain novel.Huckleberry Finn may also refer to:*Huckleberry Finn , a fictional character in the Adventures of Tom Sawyer...
. He garnered critical praise and was named "The Mercurial Jos Vantyler" by Time Out and was nominated for Best Male Performance Award of 2010 by The Offwestend Awards.
In May 2010, he appeared as "The Singer" in The National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
's Victorian Fancies in the Olivier Theatre as part of a celebration of early Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
works inspired by London Assurance
London Assurance
London Assurance is a five-act comedy by Dion Boucicault. It was the second play that he wrote, but his first to be produced. Its first production, from March 4, 1841 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden was Boucicault's first major success...
.
After the initial success of Swimming At The Ritz in 2009, in the summer of 2010 it was part of The New Vic's New Writing Festival. Vantyler and Dean resumed their roles, this time under the direction of Roland Jaquarello
Roland Jaquarello
Roland Jaquarello, born December 14, 1945, is a British theatre director and radio producer/director. He started his career in Dublin Theatre Festival after graduating from Trinity College, Dublin in 1968...
, a venture that would see all three receiving critical acclaim for this new play by New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
writer Charles Leipart
Charles Leipart
Charles Leipart is an award-winning American musical theatre bookwriter-lyricist and playwright. He was born in Chicago and graduated from Northwestern University.-Works include:Mr...
. It ran alongside Reeling, a play by Jeff Thompson based on the disappearance of a 1920s German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
movie star, in which Vantyler played the lead, opposite Elizabeth Counsell and June Watson.
Harold Brighouse
Harold Brighouse
Harold Brighouse was an English playwright and author whose best known play is Hobson's Choice. He was a prominent member, together with Allan Monkhouse and Stanley Houghton, of a group known as the Manchester School of dramatists.-Early life:Harold Brighouse was born in Eccles, Salford, the...
wrote The Game
The Game (play)
The Game is a play by Harold Brighouse, first published in 1920 as one of Three Lancashire Plays, the other two plays being The Northerners and Zack....
in 1914, and it was performed that same year; it was not performed again until 2010 by Northern Broadsides
Northern Broadsides
Northern Broadsides is a theatre company formed in 1992 and based at Dean Clough Mill in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. The founder and artistic director is Barrie Rutter. The company performs in Halifax and on tour, a mix of Shakespeare and other productions. Music is specially written for...
. Directed by and starring Barrie Rutter
Barrie Rutter
Barrie Rutter is an English actor and the founder and Artistic Director of the Northern Broadsides theatre company based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England....
. Vantyler played Rutter's son, Leo Whitworth. Both he and the production received high critical praise.
Vantyler and Dean again resumed their roles as Pietro and Harriman when Swimming At The Ritz toured to great success, nationally in the early and later part 2011.
In 2011, political playwright Shaun McCarthy wrote Circus Britannica, "captivating and unusual, new play creates a disturbing world". The play explored immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
and xenophobia
Xenophobia
Xenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...
set within the British Circus. Vantyler played Stevie, the young protagonist if the piece. Whats On Stage said of Vantyler "Jos was born to play that role" and gives "an outstanding performance".
Awards and Nominations
2005 Winner - BEST NEWCOMER AWARD The NYC Star Awards - Rodolfo A View From The BridgeA View from the Bridge
A View from the Bridge is a play by American playwright Arthur Miller that was first staged on September 29, 1955 as a one-act verse drama with A Memory of Two Mondays at the Coronet Theatre on Broadway. The play was unsuccessful and Miller subsequently revised the play to contain two acts; this...
2005 Nomination - BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR NYC Review - Oswald Ghosts
2008 Nomination - BEST ACTOR Critics Choice Awards - Jeremy Prophecy
2010 Nomination - BEST MALE PERFORMANCE Off West End Awards - Tom Sawyer
Tom Sawyer
Thomas "Tom" Sawyer is the title character of the Mark Twain novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer . He appears in three other novels by Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , Tom Sawyer Abroad , and Tom Sawyer, Detective .Sawyer also appears in at least three unfinished Twain works, Huck and Tom...
Huck