Carlos Tseng
143 episodes listed below
Actorly craft, close enough to hear it think.
Up Close with Carlos Tseng follows theatre artists through the choices behind current stage work, from revivals to new writing and musicals. The conversations are warm but specific, staying close to rehearsal rooms, role preparation, institutions, and the emotional pressure of performing night after night.
PRESS PLAY
Up Close with Carlos Tseng is an arts interview series shaped around theatre people speaking from inside the work. Its focus is not gossip or quick promotion. The show listens for process. Carlos Tseng’s conversations often begin with a current production, then move toward the pressures, memories, institutions, and private logic behind a performance. Recent episodes place actors in conversation with Arthur Miller, Terence Rattigan, Bacchae, Singing in the Rain, American Psycho, and new writing. The register is attentive and theatre-literate. It assumes the listener cares about playwrights, rooms, revivals, rehearsal, directors, and the exact demands of a role. The tone can be reverent, especially around major stages and admired performers, but it also leaves space for humour and uncertainty. A question about Miller becomes a conversation about brothers, parents, memory, and grief. A discussion of Rattigan opens into changing reputations, generational trauma, and the challenge of carrying a brutal role night after night. Musical theatre episodes pay attention to choreography, creative teams, revivals, and the physical thrill of a production coming together. New writing gets treated as a living argument, especially when the material is serious, under-discussed, or emotionally exposed. The show is strongest when craft and vulnerability meet. Guests describe loving the work while acknowledging insecurity, fallow periods, and the unstable rhythms of a performing career. London theatre is a recurring backdrop, from intimate spaces to the National Theatre, Regent’s Park, the Royal Exchange, and West End stages. The conversations are not rushed. They give performers room to explain why a text feels timely, why a part matters, and how a production can change once audiences enter the room. Up Close with Carlos Tseng suits listeners who want theatre talk with emotional detail and professional specificity. It is especially rewarding for people who track revivals, new productions, and actorly evolution across stage, screen, and musical theatre. The result is a careful portrait of contemporary performance culture, one interview at a time.
Made for: For theatre fans who follow London stages, actor interviews, revivals, new writing, and the practical craft behind performance. It also suits listeners drawn to reflective conversations about memory, grief, ambition, and artistic work.
What sets it apart: The show stands out through specific, production-aware questioning that treats performance as both craft and lived experience. Rather than staying at publicity level, it follows actors into rehearsal detail, textual interpretation, institutional memory, and the emotional cost of repetition.
A series of interviews led by Carlos Tseng with some of the most prominent figures in the world of theatre, arts & entertainment. The series offers an up close insight into the lives and work of our esteemed guests, often leading to surprising, poignant and humorous answers. Find out more by listening along!
Carlos Tseng gets actors past the playbill and into the choices you actually want explained.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear conversation about Miller, memory, and the different stories families tell about the same past.
Elliot Cowan and Carlos Tseng talk about why Arthur Miller still feels alive in London, with Broken Glass at the Young Vic and All My Sons at the Wyndhams in the background. The point is not just Miller's reputation.
A measured actor interview about empathy, bruised characters, and the pull of freelance work.
Stuart Thompson and Carlos Tseng spend much of the conversation on a year of theatre and screen work that moved from Suffolk Playhouse to Romans and Rogue Heroes.
A warm actor interview about theatre craft, Rattigan, and audience response.
The actor sounds steady and clear-eyed in a conversation that moves through theatre craft, Terence Rattigan’s revival, and the long tail of audience reaction.
Kaitlin Prest blends personal reenactment and Gaza war testimony across serialized documentary seasons.
Chris Walley discusses playing Diego in Rajiv Joseph's Archduke at the Royal Court, a play about Gavrilo Princip and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
Ellen Thomas discusses Martina Led’s play Driftwood, her first production with the Royal Shakespeare Company, set in Trinidad in 1956 as independence approaches.
Elliot Cowan links Arthur Miller’s writing in The Price to naturalism, family crisis, and the pressure of a changing world, saying Miller still feels “trustworthy and affecting” in 2026.
Actor Paul Hilton discusses his return to the Donmar Warehouse in a play about a school shooting, exploring its themes of protest and prayer.
Stuart Thompson talks with Carlos Tseng about Fly By at Suffolk Playhouse, where he values the venue's "intimacy" and role as a London hub for new writing.
Laurie Kynaston links Terence Rattigan’s revival to the way Man and Boy handles family insecurity, money, and power, naming Hester in Deep Blue Sea, After the Dance, and French Without Tears.
Carlos Tseng interviews actor Olly Higginson about his role in the musical American Psycho and the show's relevance today.
An interview with actress Rosie Shihou about her role in a new play, discussing her initial reaction to the script and the balance of light and shade in a weighty drama.
Carlos Tseng interviews actor Louis Gormes about his return to the Royal Exchange Theatre for a production of Singing in the Rain.
Carlos Tseng interviews actor James McArdle about his return to the National Theatre in Bacchae.
Carlos Tseng interviews actor Kevin Clark about returning to Regent's Park Theatre for a revival of Brigadoon.
Carlos Tseng interviews Dickie Bo about his new play Shamanism at Hampstead Theatre, discussing its origin and themes.
Carlos Tseng interviews playwright Kai Cherry about the personal origins of her play 'Speaker', stemming from a difficult night out and her teenage struggles with depression.
Carlos Tseng interviews actor Zubin Vala about returning to the National Theatre and his process for choosing plays.