Tag Archives: y: 2015

other news

25 March 2022: Rupert’s brother Justin Young is listed as executive producer and head writer for the first episode of Sanditon season 2.

12 September 2019: Rupert’s brother Justin Young co-wrote four episodes of the recent TV series Sanditon (2019), Andrew Davies’ adaptation of Jane Austen’s unfinished novel. Justin wrote episodes 3, 4, 6 and 7, and acted as series consultant throughout the first season.

14 July 2019: Rupert was to have been a guest at the convention Myth & Magic in Birmingham, England on 17-19 April 2020, along with fellow Merlin alumni Emilia Fox (Morgause), Fintan McKeown (King Odin), Michelle Ryan (Nimueh) and Alex Vlahos (Mordred). Unfortunately Rupert will no longer be able to attend this convention. Alex and the other Merlin actors will be there, though!

25 April 2019: Rupert was to have been a guest at the convention Magic Con to be held in Bonn, Germany on 26-28 April 2019, along with Alex Vlahos (Mordred in Merlin). Unfortunately, Rupert had to cancel with short notice, due to “a new filming role”.

5 December 2018: Rupert was to have been a guest at the convention Highway to Albion in Paris on 26 January 2019. Unfortunately the event was cancelled due to low ticket sales. Alas and alack!!!

19 September 2018: Rupert was to have attended the convention MCM Comic Con Scotland in Glasgow on 22-23 September 2018, along with Merlin’s Alex Vlahos (Mordred). Unfortunately, Rupert had to cancel with short notice, due to a change in rehearsal schedule for Twelfth Night. He sent his sincere apologies.

22 June 2018: Rupert was the first guest announced as attending Celtic Reminders, a Merlin convention to be held in Paris on 13-14 October 2018. Unfortunately, however, this event has now been cancelled.

4 June 2015: Justin Young’s play In My Father’s Words is featuring in Brits Off Broadway! It runs from 4-28 June 2015 at 59E59 Theaters in New York. For more details, check the 59E59 website.

30 November 2014: Unfortunately Rupert couldn’t attend Wales Comic Con 2014 Part 2 in Wrexham on Sunday 30 November. It seems this was because he went to the Supanova conventions in Australia in lieu of Eoin Macken and Alex Vlahos.

19 June 2014: Rupert’s brother Justin Young wrote a play titled In My Father’s Words which was performed at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow on 19-28 June 2014, before touring Scotland throughout July. See the Dundee Rep Ensemble page for full details.

Carols in the City (2015)

As our friend Manuela discovered, Rupert was intending to perform a reading at Carols in the City for the Marie Curie charity on 9 December. This was held at the lovely old Southwark Cathedral, and included a champagne reception afterwards. Joe Stilgoe (from High Society) was also performing.

Unfortunately, however, Rupert was unable to make it due to a new work commitment. We don’t have any details yet on what this new project might be, but it meant Rupert couldn’t be in Southwark on Wednesday night.

I decided I might as well attend anyway, and it was a truly lovely evening. The choir Canticum sang beautifully, Joe Stilgoe was his usual charming self, and everyone performed with great verve. Of particular note was ‘A Personal Story’ from Brian Andrews, about his wife’s death from cancer and the Marie Curie nurse who did so much for them both during Gillian’s last hours.

According to the program, Rupert was due to read the poem ‘Christmas Thank Yous’ by Mick Gowar. It’s a perfect choice for his delightful light ironic delivery, and I’m really sorry we missed out! With all due deference to Mick Gowar, here’s the first verse:

Dear Auntie
Oh, what a nice jumper
I’ve always adored powder blue
and fancy you thinking of
orange and pink
for the stripes
how clever of you

If my Googling doesn’t lead me astray, this poem has been used in an assessment at LAMDA, so that may be where Rupert first performed it.

On one last amusing note, it seems Rupert’s biography in the program was cribbed, in part, from this very website! If you check out our biography page, I’m sure you’ll see what I mean. The program also featured another lovely photo from Ian Philips-McLaren, so it’s all good.

Rupert bio Carols in the City - 500px

Writers Retreat (2015)

Rupert appears as Alisdair in the film Writers Retreat made by MoliFilms Entertainment with director Diego Rocha.

They really made us wait for this one! It was first screened on 16 October 2015, at a film festival in Spain: SITGES – International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia. The film’s page on the festival website is here. The film’s Facebook page announced ‘Coming to theatres summer 2016’, but alas that proved overly optimistic.

The film finally scored a distributor in the US and was released to the anxiously awaiting public on 17 April 2018. Huzzah!

However, the film is currently available for sale from Amazon US only, so if you can play a Region 1 DVD you’re in luck. Or if you’re in the right part of the world, you can watch it via Prime Video.

Otherwise, you can watch a trailer here on the film’s Facebook page. Here’s a screen grab from the trailer…

Rupert is one of the leaders of the writers group, along with the main point-of-view character, so we get to see a fair bit of him. Which is always a good thing. ♥

Ian Philips-McLaren (2015)

Rupert has done a lovely photo shoot with photographer Ian Philips-McLaren … perhaps for renewed self-promotional efforts? Gotta love the results, in any case!

Rupert photographed by Ian Philips-McLaren
Rupert photographed by Ian Philips-McLaren
  • Image used without permission, but with embarrassingly fulsome amounts of gratitude.

Q+A at The Old Vic for ‘High Society’ (2015)

The Old Vic hosted a post-show Q+A on Monday 18 May, and it featured Kate Fleetwood (Tracy Lord), Richard Grieve (George Kittredge), Jamie Parker (Mike Connor), Annabel Scholey (Liz Imbrie) and of course Rupert (CK Dexter Haven).

Well, did you evah? What a swell cast this is!

The five cast members gathered with their inquisitor on the stage, with an audience filling just about all the regular stalls. I’ve never seen so many people stay on for a Q+A, but it was definitely worth it. As classy as the show.

Rupert kicked off proceedings by announcing that his niece had been born just at the start of the show that evening. (Such happy news for his family, and I’m sure we wish them all very well indeed!)

Kate talked about what a happy production this is, with a great team and a show all about joy. It’s one of the happiest experiences of her career.

Rupert talked about how he’d had so much fun in Company in 2011, that he’d kept going with his vocal exercises with a view to doing more of the same. Then one day as he exited his trailer on the Merlin set, one of his colleagues asked him, ‘WTF was that?’ and Rupert was too embarrassed to continue. (Boo!)

Rupert and Jamie talked about how they’d been in the same dance audition for the American Psycho play, which they seemed likewise to have found an excruciatingly embarrassing experience.

This rambling story ended up with Rupert receiving an email from his agent just as he was arriving at the Old Vic to audition for High Society … and the email was letting him know he’d just been turned down for a role because his ‘voice wasn’t strong enough’. Such laughably bad timing! Still, Rupert decided that if this audition was his last hurrah in musical theatre, then he might as well just go for it. And we all know how that turned out! Rupert added that he’d been very well received in the Old Vic audition, and how odd it was to be both criticised and praised so strongly all on the one day.

Continue reading Q+A at The Old Vic for ‘High Society’ (2015)