ellis jones

Lois Baxter

7 April 2017 by ellis jones

A former National Theatre player Lois directs, teaches and auditions students for leading drama schools.

An experienced and professional actress whose work includes seasons at the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Court, the Bristol Old Vic and the Edinburgh Lyceum. She has worked in plays with Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams and in classical and modern theatre throughout the UK. She also has had a long and varied career in film and television. While performing at the RNT she trained in running workshops for actors and was an assessor for the RNT Connections programme for young actors. For the past twelve years she has been a member of the RADA audition panel and has taught on the eight week RADA Shakespeare summer school. Besides RADA she directs and teaches at the East15 Acting School with BA and Post Graduate students.

Nicholas Barter

7 April 2017 by ellis jones

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An internationally respected director and acting teacher, Nicholas Barter is a former Principal of RADA.

During his 16-year period as Principal, he supervised the refurbishing of the Academy’s now superb premises and facilities, and its regeneration as major feature of the UK’s creative education landscape. Nicholas was previously Deputy Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare TheatregoRound project. He served as Artistic Director of Lincoln Theatre Royal and the Arts Theatre Ipswich. For ten years he was Artistic Director of The Unicorn Theatre for Children and the Arts Theatre in London’s West End. His freelance productions include plays in London’s West End and in a number of regional repertory theatres. Recently he has directed productions of Shakespeare in Japanese in Tokyo and on tour world wide and in Chinese in Shanghai. He is currently a Guest Professor of Toho Gakuen College of Drama and Music in Tokyo, and a Visiting Professor at the Shanghai Theatre Academy. He is a Guest Teacher at JOKO Acting School in Tokyo, Hangzhou Vocational Arts University and Yunnan Art University in China.

THE TWENTIES – THEIR FIRST WINTER

11 November 2016 by ellis jones

This blog is in association with https://ellisjonescoach.co.uk providing access to an amazing range of presentation and performance skills training

It’s been an unusual summer. The hottest English August on record, with comparatively low-key Games in distant Rio, give or take the odd stamped foot in Moscow. We’ve had the weirdly reminiscent sights of Downing Street staff welcoming a new Tory lady boss, of the Labour Party again throwing its lot behind a shambling north London no-hoper, and of Hull City FC clambering, wide-eyed and unsteady, once more onto football’s top shelf.

Me, I went to France. Old friends invited me to stay in Cap D’Antibes, on the Côte d’Azure.They have a lovely quiet house, a few steps away from the beach where in times gone by Picasso sketched, Scott and Zelda drank, and Ernest Hemingway preened, all guests of a rich, hedonistic American couple called Gerald and Sara Murphy. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about it all in “Tender is the Night”. Another member of the group was the painter and ceramic artist Fernand Léger, now celebrated by an exuberant museum a few kilometres inland.

Léger’s work is joyous: I love his wacky ceramic stuff – like the “Walking Sun”, and “The Wrestlers” – the latter perhaps hinting at party games down at the Murphies….

Soon after the end of the Second World War the town of Antibes presented Pablo Picasso (in self-exile from his native Spain, then still ruled by fascism) with a studio in a fine medieval tower overlooking the bay. Now the Picasso museum, it has a stunning terrace hosting work by contemporary sculptors – and it’s not hard to see why they call it the Blue Coast….

On my last evening with my friends Doug and Kate, we sipped wine in their garden while the Bastille Day fireworks crackled and whizzed across the bay in Nice. At one point the noises became very clear loud bangs, and I made a facetious remark about war breaking out. Shortly afterwards we turned on the TV news and discovered the dreadful truth about the horrible terrorist attack.

Mass murder, untold grief caused by religious bigotry – does our new PM really think it’s helpful to exhort religious parents to send their children to exclusive single-faith schools?

After a much-delayed flight back, I set about preparing to work on a drama project in Hampshire, and was rewarded by several glorious sun-filled weeks in one of England’s most idyllic counties. I stayed with my sister in the interesting market-town of Alton, full of Jane Austen associations (as indeed is my sister, a long-serving volunteer at the nearby Jane Austen museum) and on my free days we explored the country and the coast, along the way sampling cream teas, fish suppers and local ales.

The Hampshire seaside options are rich and varied – for example, you can watch cars drown at Bosham, fly kites on Hayling island, or re-paint the Spinnaker Tower at Portsmouth….

For those like me saddened by the closure (or trendy, ruinous modernisation) of so many urban pubs, it’s a joy to report that here flourish still many traditional hostelries, some hidden deep amongst inland forest hills, where it would be no surprise to find Frodo Baggins hobnobbing with Tom Bombadil over a foaming pint, or at least a poet jotting a few bucolic lines by the fireside…

Here’s the Three Horseshoes at Elsted with its garden views of roses and wheat-fields, a secret revealed by Jane Hayward, friend and comrade from repertory days at Farnham.

The harvest evening that seemed endless then

And after, the inn where all were kind.

All strangers.

(Edward Thomas, reflecting on English country life, not by the fireside but from the trenches in Flanders in 1915.)

Many of these inns have stood since Tudor times, and this summer has brought echoes of those far-off days. We took time in Portsmouth to re-visit the Historic Dockyard, and the remarkable Mary Rose, whose timbers have now, after a nigh-on thirty year process, been wax-treated to survive for several hundreds more. Do go – if like me you have an interest in Shakespeare and his days, here’s a window into that world – or rather lots of windows – literally thousands of salvaged objects sit there as if they’d been used yesterday – clothes, gadgets, jewels, tools, weapons, all saved from a ship sunk at the Battle of the Solent on July 19, 1545. There are curiously carved cannon, ornate swords and halberds, and many long-bows as used at Agincourt, all restored with guidance from our country’s greatest long-bow expert, the gloriously nonogenerian actor Robert Hardy.

Returning to another historic county, one nearer to my east London home, my pal Robin and I went into Essex, to see the Tudor Hunting Lodge. Queen Bess’s dad Henry V111 relaxed – between bedding and beheading ladies – by hunting down stags in Epping Forest. Doubtless venison pasties featured on his table, and you can see a rather good display of prop-food at the lodge.

I include a picture of the stairwell, because it seems the original 16th century stairs here were used as the pattern for the staircases at the re-created Shakespeare’s Globe in 1997.

And prop-food and Elizabethan stairs take us, dear reader, back to the world of The Theatre – which is what this blog is supposed to be about. Once again it’s the time of year when I conduct New York University undergrads to London shows – and as I write this the current troupe is braving steady drizzle as Globe groundlings, watching “Macbeth”. I saw it last week – it has Ray Fearon as the Thane, with Tara Fitzgerald as the Lady, and a supporting cast including puppets. There’s a new régime at the Globe, with Emma Rice now artistic director, following several lively years running the Kneehigh company in the the West Country, promising lots of exciting new directions at Bankside. She’s already given a reportedly very funny take on “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, featuring Helena as a chap. Quite where the current rash of onstage gender-bending has come from is difficult to nail. I reported earlier on our Michelle Terry’s impressive “Henry V” – see below for the latest manifestations.

Meanwhile, two other excursions to report. To the National Theatre, to see the Chichester Festival production of “The Seagull” – part of the Young Chekov season – with some fine acting, notably from Geoffrey Streatfeild as Trigorin, Adrian Lukis as Dorn and Jade Williams as Masha. And last week back once more into Essex, to the Queens Theatre Hornchurch. This place is worth watching – one of the very few remaining near-London regional producing houses, with high production values and a strong artistic track record.

They’ve collaborated with the New Wolsey Theatre at Ipswich to produce the first post West-End mus

ical version of “Made in Dagenham”. To be honest, this was a tighter show than the West End one I reported on last year with our Gemma Arterton in the main role, by the Queens artistic director, Douglas Rintoul. There’s neat choreography, gutsy performances by a cast of actor-musicians, and the opening night was given extra resonance by the presence of some of the original Ford strikers (Hornchurch being next-door to Dagenham). It’s a show to watch, at a theatre to watch – on the London Underground (District Line) with sensible ticket prices once you get there.

Now, a heads-up for no less than THREE “King Lears”! Already in performance at Stratford is the RSC one. This is the most eccentric, as it has a man playing the King. Anthony Sher is by all accounts splendid, but I want you to go and enjoy the Unpleasant Sisters, played by two terrific Welsh actresses from my time in charge of the training at RADA, Nia Gwynne as Goneril and Kelly Williams as Reagan.

Meanwhile it won’t have escaped your notice that the great twice-Oscared Glenda Jackson has left politics to return to the boards in the title role of the same play at the Old Vic, due to open next month.

But don’t let that obscure the fact that another distinguished actress, Ursula Mohan, is re-creating the “Queen Lear” we reported on last year, and is performing with an all-new cast at the Tristram Bates Theatre in Covent Garden, starting on September 20th.

I don’t doubt that all three versions of this great work will be wonderfully revealing in different ways. But it may be worth pointing out that the London “fringe” is often the place to find pure gold, at a fraction of the prices you would would pay at the bigger houses. Connoisseurs of intriguing theatre, but especially those on a limited budget, please take note…

And finally, two cheering pictures taken at the end of two streets- one I have called Waltham Forest Flowers, of the blooming displays generated by the borough council on the High Street railings at the end of Coppermill Lane where I live, the other a distant view of the Alpes Maritimes taken at the end of my friends’ street at Cap d’Antibes.

Both for now, heartening local images from within the European Union.

At least for the next two years…

Enjoy.

IF YOU WOULD like to respond, if you disagree with any of the above, or would like to add a comment or two, I’d love to hear from you – you can do so anonymously, if you like – and I’ll happily publish your views. Just click on the word “comment” in the little box below.

This blog comes to you courtesy of www.ellisjonescoach.co.uk. If you need help with voice-training, presentation preparation, getting ready for an audition or access to classes and advice from some of the best trainers in the UK, just click on the link.

Sibusiso Mamba

7 April 2015 by ellis jones

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Trained at RADA, Sibu is a highly successful actor, writer and tutor in the UK, South Africa the USA.

Sibusiso Mamba was born in the Kingdom of Swaziland on 27th April 1978. He was, and still is, the only student to have ever gained admission to the Royal Academey of Dramatic Art, in London (RADA) through a satellite link audition. He graduated from RADA in 2002.

He is an actor, playwright, screenwriter and producer. He has co-created and written for many television series in South Africa, including, Isidingo, Bay of Plenty, Hope Springs, Shadows of Justice, After Nine, Zero Tolerance and Iyakhuluma (co-created with Geoff Newton). He has also written two radio plays for the BBC: Taxi, for BBC Radio 4 (Published by Aurora Metro Press in 2006 and Oxford University Press in 2007) and Sagila, for the BBC World Service, which was Play of the Week in March 2006. As an actor his theatrical roles include Othello in Othello, Brutus in Julius Caesar, Prospero in The Tempest, Oscar in Edward Albee’s The Lady From Dubuque, Johnny in Athol Fugard’s Nongogo. Television and film roles include, Siphiwe in Isidingo, Father Ndlovu in Richard E Grant’s Wah-Wah, Rick in Coronation Street: Out of Africa and The Other Man in Savo Tufegdzic’s Crime: It’s A Way Of Life. And for radio, he has played Senzo in his own play Taxi, Mafa in his other play Sagila, Solomon Singo in Carl Grose’s 49 Donkeys Hanged for BBC Radio 3 and Baba in Mike Mware’s Mandida’s Shoes for BBC African Performance. Most recently he has played Vavi in his latest play Midnight Train to Sunrise (formerly titled Train to 2010), at Crossroads Theatre in New Jersey. Sibusiso’s first play was written while he was a student at RADA. The play was called Just You and Me and was read as part of the Old Vic Theatre London’s “New Voices Season”. As a a result of this play, he was commissioned by the Royal National Theatre to write a new play. The play was Rites of Passage and it led to a residency at the National Theatre Studio in 2004. This was followed by three plays (Liferites: Emmanuel, Isaac and Dzeli) for Chalkfoot Theatre Arts, a touring theatre company in the UK, in 2005.

Sibusiso lived in Johannesburg from 2005 to 2008 where he was writer-in-residence on the television series, Isidingo on SABC 3. He also co-founded, with Geoff Newton, a production company that produced the series Innocent Times for MNET Television. In 2006 and 2007 he was Associate Lecturer for Drama at the University of Witwatesrand in Johannesburg.

He is Guest Artist at the annual Rutgers Summer Acting Conservatory (RSAC) in New Jersey, where he devises and directs students in short plays inspired by the numerous works of William Shakespeare. He is a Patron of Interactive Themba Theatre, South Africa: an organisation that uses theatre to combat stigma, create dialogue and influence behavioural change with regards to HIV/AIDS.

FEBRUARY 1ST: THE UPSIDE-DOWN BLOGGER

1 February 2014 by ellis jones

This blog is in association with www.ellisjonescoach.co.uk providing access to an amazing range of presentation and performance skills training.

I’m sorry this blog has been silent a month or more, but I’ve been upside down at the other end of the Earth, and upside-down blogging is tricky stuff to achieve. Now Professor Cox will assure us that in the cosmic infinite there is no such thing as upside down, and being in the antipodes is no excuse for sloth at the keyboard….

Well, OK dammit, the fun and the adventures have totally filled the days, and at the end of each day I’ve been too exhausted or woozy or both to contemplate lifting the Macbook’s heavy lid, and have slipped quietly into dreams of hot springs and Tui birds, of hot pies and Marlborough wines, of glaciers and streams where Gollum wanders, of crashing surf and amber nectar, under dark skies teeming with bright stars ruled by the Southern Cross….Here’s me on January the 2nd, fantasising about creating an open-air production of “Waiting for Godot” on the deserted beach of Rabbit Island, off the South Island of New Zealand:

“Oh for Goodness sake!” I hear the cry – what of the theatre, what displays of the lyric arts have you witnessed in these travels, what startling productions, what rich performances? Um…well dear friends…until last Tuesday, none.

None? Four weeks in the land of Peter Jackson and Jane Campion, and a fifth in the City of Cate Blanchett? What on Earth was the point of your going? You who report endlessly on thespian doings on and around the banks of the Thames – did you lose all sense of your calling as you crossed below the 38th parallel?

I guess so. In fact, I was there to visit old and close friends, to share a Fezziwiggian Christmas with the family Townsend, to meet up with other dear friends Savile and Eton – London based, but also escaping UK floods and frost in southern climes – and thus priorities adjusted. Fezziwiggian? Do try to keep up – Dickens, dear, “A Christmas Carol” – yes all right, of course you knew. Just checking.

In between visiting hot springs and glaciers, tracing Lord of the Rings locations and swimming off often deserted beaches (even on Christmas Day) there was some contact with kiwi theatre. For a capital city – especially one billing itself as the “Coolest Little Capital in the World” professional theatre in Wellington is generally thin on the ground, and the only professional house operating at the time was the Circa Theatre, offering a Christmas show. I swapped notes over a glass or two with the wonderfully talented Pinky Agnew, whose work as an actor and writer often takes her to Circa, when not adding richness to New Zealand society as a celebrant of weddings, funerals and the like. We explored possibilities for taking Martin Wimbush’s award-winning “Wellington” to the eponymous city in 2015 – watch this space…

The other professional Wellington theatre set-up, Downstage, has recently closed through lack of funding. I had a lovely lunch with one of the latter’s former directors, another distinguished actor and playwright Catherine Downes, and we mused on how lucky we Londoners are, where notwithstanding government cuts the city still teems with plays and players. However as I left, the New Zealand Arts Festival was getting under way with lots of exciting stuff from all over the world, and I believe as I write the Wellington theatre scene is abuzz with mid-summer activity.

Incidentally I had the most extraordinary journey getting there. I won’t bore you with the whole saga, but I’ll mention that it involved a) a four-hour pre-take-off delay on the tarmac at Heathrow because of a faulty smoke alarm b) once in the air two passengers having heart-attacks within 30 minutes of each other while we flew over the Caspian Sea, leading to our being diverted to the Ukraine and c) because the plane’s crew had run out of flying hours, our then spending 19 hours on the ground in Kiev, most of them in a soviet-style hotel, while edgy political demonstrations raged a mile or so up the road…
My biggest cause of irritation was that the delay knocked out a planned overnight stop-over in Singapore and a much-anticipated lunch with my eminent pal Aubrey Mellor, Senior Fellow at Singapore’s La Salle College of the Arts.

Anyway, five weeks on the journey home was painless, and en route I stopped for five nights in Sydney, a city for which I have to say I fell, big-time. Parts of Australia are sweltering in temperatures of 45C and above, and forest fires are raging, but in Sydney it was a lovely 27/28, and each morning I slipped into the roof-top pool of my (very reasonably-priced) apartment hotel, to plan the day’s exploring of parks and harbours, of bars, ferries and beaches.

Bondi afternoon

Surfers at Bondi on Sunday afternoon

Lynne Williams gave me a terrific tour of Australia’s leading drama school, NIDA, of which she is the tireless Principal, with a vision to maximise the academy’s considerable assets for the benefit of not just Australian talent, but for gifted youngsters throughout the southern hemisphere. A former colleague from my time with the Enterprises wing of RADA, Caroline Spence, now runs the equivalent NIDA department for Lynne, and she and I spent an evening sampling various brews in a series of lively downtown joints, as the sun sank and the Opera House turned gently pink….

Which brings us to the only theatre performance I witnessed on the whole trip, which was a revival of Julie Taymor’s “Magic Flute” in the opera auditorium of that amazing building. The house has been open since 1973, and is now undergoing refurbishment over-seen by the architect son of Jom Utzen, who produced the original design but tragically died after falling out with the Sydney Council and removing himself from the project before it was finally completed. To be in an audience there truly is one of the great experiences – the production was great, but in a sense was almost incidental to the experience of sitting beneath those soaring arches, and to stepping out in the interval onto the open-air balcony among the harbour lights, and the evening I was there to watch a tall sailing-ship glide beneath the majestic Harbour Bridge…

And so, eventually, back to the Wettest English January on Record, to panic over the tax return, to starting work again…and to welcoming a brand-new London theatre, the Wanamaker Indoor Jacobean Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe.

If you get a chance to see “The Duchess of Malfi”, grab it. The productions in this theatre are lit by beeswax candles, on moveable chandeliers, and it’s like sitting in a Rowlandson water-colour, audience and actors bathed in pale pastel light.

Globe artistic director Dominic Dromgoole shows as much assurance in directing for this space as he does out on the outdoor wooden “O”, and this current show is a cracker. It so happens that all three of the leading actors – Gemma Arterton, David Dawson and James Garnon – trained at RADA during my Gower St days, and all of them, in the words of a distinguished director I chatted with after the play, are “quite exceptional”. It was a lovely fillip to my jet-lagged, post-holiday mood, and cheered me up no end.

Incidentally, I mentioned “starting work again” – in fact, thanks to the wonders of technology, I was able while travelling to keep in touch with www.ellisjonescoach.co.uk, and deal with various training projects across the mystifying reaches of cyberspace. A related project is currently under way, for any London-based actors. Christopher Lane, the TYA movement expert, is offering a one-day workshop on Saturday February 15th at Ye Olde Rose and Crown in Walthamstow for a remarkable introductory one-off fee of £15.

This guy is a brilliant teacher and director, and frankly at that price a 10am till 6pm workshop is a steal, in a crunchy venue just five minutes’ walk from the Victoria Line station at Walthamstow Central . Book now to avoid bitter disappointment – just click on this link:
http://relativemotion.co.uk

If you disagree with any of the above, or would like to add a comment or two, I’d love to hear from you – you can do so anonymously, if you like – and I’ll happily publish your views. Just click on the word “comments” in the little panel below, and follow the instructions.

NOVEMBER 20th ON CROFTERS BUTLERS AND ORGASMS

20 November 2013 by ellis jones

This blog is in association with www.ellisjonescoach.co.uk providing access to an amazing range of presentation and performance skills training.

The Isle of Skye in November is no place to go for a tan, but it’s great if you’re shooting a commercial for Welly boots!

On Tuesday last a car arrived at 6am, and I was whisked to Gatwick for a flight to Inverness, and thence across Scotland to the land of Flora Macdonald. We shot in a mix of sparkling sunshine and driving sleet – but it was a really enjoyable gig – a stunning location, a great production team and a wondrous hotel. Needless to say, I couldn’t resist clicking away.

The hotel is the Kinloch Lodge. It’s run by famous cookery expert – and wife to the High Chief of the Clan – Claire MacDonald. The rooms, the views, and above all the food are to die for. I felt just a slight pang of nostalgia for my youthful days as an actor. Working on a good project with a good director and supportive producer, and a skilled team who know how to mix work and fun – there are worse ways to earn a crust. The product we were creating the ad. for is very respectable too – nay, posh, Hunters being the bee’s knees when it comes to Wellies.

This picture is of me in character as Old Tom – note the extremely Celtic beard – and you will observe that Tom has a finely-tuned sense of good footwear.

The 40-second story features the local plumber (Leo Boyle) and Tom the Crofter (me) in an exchange about the joys of Christmas – dramatic stuff, with a surprise finish. Look out for it – it’s shot by an expert director, Simon Aboud, who has lots of impressive credits, not least the tantalising promotion for Paul McCartney’s song “Queenie-Eye”, which has just accumulated more than 2 million hits on YouTube.

Leaving behind my heady 40 seconds of stardom in Scotland, I’ve been back checking what’s afoot onstage in London. If you’re coming into London in the next few weeks and need cheering up after battling through Oxford St, or Brent Cross, or Westfield – all of which are already HEAVING with Christmas shoppers, be warned – then head straightway to the St James’s Theatre in Victoria, and/or to the Duke of Yorks in St Martin’s Lane.

There are worries about the future of the St James Theatre – it’s only been functioning in its current form for a year or so, and already there are rumours that its owners may want to offer it for conferences and such rather than shows. This would be a huge pity, as the director David Gilmour and his team have brought us some great work, and the place has become a welcome and welcoming off-West End venue. One problem has been that it’s not that easy to find, so when you go to see the latest piece, the way to get there is to walk from Victoria Station along Victoria St towards the House of Parliament, and turn LEFT opposite Westminster Cathedral (the red-brick Cathedral, not the Abbey) and walk up between the glistening new plate-glass walls of Cathedral Walk.

Your journey will be well-rewarded by “The Next Room (or the Vibrator Play)” by Sarah Ruhl. The play was first done in New York, and this UK production received great reviews earlier this year at the Ustinov Studio, Bath Theatre Royal. Sarah Ruhl is a seriously good writer, and it’s a fine piece, mingling terrific comedy with shrewd observation and comment. Think George Bernard Shaw at his best – his very best – dealing with the impact of the invention of the electric vibrator on polite late nineteenth century western society – in a beautifully-designed (by Simon Kenny) skilfully-directed (by Laurence Boswell) production. Great pace, smashing acting all round – lots and lots of laughs, with touching and reflective passages – Madeline Appiah is very moving as an exploited wet-nurse.

Our Radagrad Edward Bennett (fresh from touring the world in “One man Two Guv’nors”) does a predictably brilliant turn as a wayward libertine painter getting what can only be called a horizontal comeuppance…

Meanwhile along the way, just north of Trafalgar Square, three more Radagrads are creating a sensation in “Jeeves and Wooster: Perfect Nonsense”. Ed Bennett tells me he was involved in showcasing early drafts of the clever adaptation by Robert and David Goodale, but was told he couldn’t be in it because he isn’t (yet) an above-the-title commercial “name”.

Fair enough, in the West End you need names to sell tickets, and when you’ve got Matthew MacFadyen as Jeeves and Steve Mangan as Bertie (both grads from my early days at Gower St) you’re going to sell lots.

To be frank these performances knock television memories of Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie into the proverbial cocked hat. The spirit they embody is much nearer the vintage black-and-while 1960s TV adaptation starring Iain Carmichael and Dennis Price, but they make it very much their own. They are supported by equally brilliant work by Mark Hadfield. He plays Bertie Wooster’s aunt’s butler Seppings, who in turn shares playing all the other characters with Matthew’s Jeeves. Hats off to them all, and to the brilliance of director Sean Foley.

Winter is descending, the horrors of Christmas shopping are mounting. Take comfort. Go to the theatre. Go enjoy the vibrations in Victoria, and the sheer joy of invention on display in St Martin’s Lane.

STOP PRESS: Let’s hear it for Hull! Bingo! The city where I was a child and a teenager, the city where I had my first fateful job, stepping through the stage door of the New Theatre…..City of Culture now – such a journey since Philip Larkin wrote his great poem “Here” – look it up by clicking on this link:

http://modernkicks.typepad.com/modern_kicks/2005/01/nothing_to_be_s.html

ellis jones

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