BADA’S PATRON
Photo: Matthew Roberts
Joseph Mydell (MIO ’84) is the Patron of BADA. Olivier award-winning, Joseph Mydell has been acting for more than four decades and won his Olivier award for his performance as Belize in ANGELS IN AMERICA at the National Theatre in 1994. Since then he has gone on to work extensively on both stage and screen.
He has recently been seen starring opposite Tilda Swinton in Joanna Hogg’s, THE ETERNAL DAUGHTER for A24; THE PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY opposite Jim Broadbent and CONCLAVE from BAFTA Winning director Edward Berger, starring alongside Ralph Fiennes.
Recent film credits include THE SON, with Hugh Jackman; WOMAN IN GOLD for Simon Curtis and TONIGHT YOU’RE MINE for Sigma Films.
Some of Joseph’s previous TV credits include: PRIME TARGET (Apple TV+); BRASSIC (Sky); ALEX RIDER (Amazon); MRS WILSON (BBC); HOMELAND (Showtime) and TRIAL AND RETRIBUTION (ITV) among many others. He was recently seen opposite Steve Cogan in BBC One’s, THE RECKONING.
His stage work is second to none and he has worked on over 40 stage productions throughout the world, UK and West End. Most recently; OEDIPUS (The Old Vic); THE VISIT (National Theatre); DEATH OF A SALESMAN with Wendell Pierce (Young Vic); THE TRAGEDY OF RICHARD II (Almeida); HAMLET (RSC) and EVENING AT THE TALKHOUSE (National Theatre).
Joe has also written and directed a documentary Ira Aldridge: The Black Tragedian about the 19th Century Shakespearean actor.
Previous Patrons of BADA
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Brian Cox is an Olivier, Emmy, Lortel, and Golden Globe-winning actor and director, Brian is a celebrated presence on stage and screen in both Great Britain and the United States and has been for more than five decades. His career spans theatre: King Lear and Richard III (National Theatre), Rat in the Skull (Royal Court), Titus Andronicus (Royal Shakespeare Company), The Championship Season (Broadway), Rock ‘n’ Roll (Broadway), and Art (Broadway); film: Churchill, The Bourne Identity, X2: X-Men United, Adaptation, Rob Roy, and Braveheart; and television: Succession, Frasier, Nuremberg, and Deadwood. -
“I have been associated with BADA ever since it began organising courses in British classical theatre for students overseas. In my opinion, it offers the most wonderful opportunity for students to take part in this country’s great theatrical tradition.”
Sir Derek Jacobi CBE is a Founding company member of the National Theatre, where he appeared with Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Peter O’Toole and others in productions of Othello, Hamlet and a great many others. He won Tony Awards for performances in Cyrano de Bergerac and Much Ado About Nothing. He is also well known for his roles in I, Claudius and Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet and playing Malvolio at the Donmar Warehouse.
Sir Derek succeeded Dame Peggy Ashcroft and served as BADA’s Patron for more than two decades from her retirement until his own in 2017.
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BADA’s Founding Patron, Dame Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft DBE, known professionally as Peggy Ashcroft, was the guest of honour at the Open Day of the first Midsummer in Oxford Program in 1984 (pictured) at Balliol College. An actress whose career spanned more than six decades, she was mostly known for her work on the British stage, where she where she played all of Shakespeare’s young leading women, including playing Juliet in 1935 opposite both John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier, who alternated playing Romeo and Mercutio, and regularly appeared in the West End, at the National Theatre, the Royal Court, and at the Royal Shakespeare Company.A constant presence on the British stage, she appeared in only a few films and tv series, notably Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps, the series The Jewel in the Crown (for which she won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress), and the film A Passage to India (for which she worn the BAFTA for Best Actress and the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role).