nimmi harasgama – ‘estelle’

March 18, 2006 at 7:01 am · Filed under actors

i first met nimmi when i was 17, at an audition for ‘steel magnolias’, which jeritsa mccarter was planning on staging sometime that year (1991). i don’t know what happened to the production because soon after i got involved in my school’s production of ‘cats’.

i met nimmi again in 1993 at goldsmiths college in london. she was a year ahead of me on the same course which was a b.a. in drama and theatre arts. we then proceeded to get severly smashed at several parties, nightclubs and bars over the next couple of years, and she has spent many nights (technically, early mornings i guess) curled up on my bedroom floor.

she has a truly frightening intensity of emotional power on stage. and that is a compliment. it is difficult for a performer to consistently give so much, but she makes it look easy. i have great admiration for her talent. we saw each other’s shows in college, and i even crewed on one of her independent productions, which was ‘slag’ by david hare. i loved the script so much, that when choosing a play with which to launch my own theatre company ‘mind adventures’ in 1999, i had no hesitation in deciding to do it. that discovery i owe to her.

she’s done many things over the years, both here and in england. she’s worked in tv, theatre, film and now owns well red ink, which is a publishing house.

just last year she won a best actress award at the spanish film festival for the movie ‘ira madiyama’ in which she played one of the leading roles. i am a bit ignorant about this whole thing, because (shockingly) i haven’t yet seen the movie (was very pregnant and demotivated when it came out).

anyway, she is hugely gifted and absolutely gorgeous (although she has a tendency to say ‘thoo thoo thoo’ a lot : ) )

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