AN ACTOR from Stevenage has encouraged some of the world s top stars to share their knowledge. After more than 10 years as a successful actor, Giles Terera, 31, a former Heathcote School pupil, is now venturing into production and is about to produce his

AN ACTOR from Stevenage has encouraged some of the world's top stars to share their knowledge.

After more than 10 years as a successful actor, Giles Terera, 31, a former Heathcote School pupil, is now venturing into production and is about to produce his first film - Muse of Fire.

It will be made up of a collection of interviews and conversations with actors such as Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen, Trevor Nunn, Alan Rickman and Jeremy Irons who will share their knowledge and passion to create the ultimate William Shakespeare on-screen resource.

Giles, who is currently conducting interviews with some of the actors, said: "We are asking them about their different approaches to Shakespeare. It will be a guide for young drama students and actors so they can look at ways of approaching the plays.

"It's fantastic. We couldn't ask for better people. They have all this wealth of experience and they want to share it."

Giles, who completed a BTec in performing arts at North Hertfordshire College in Hitchin before winning a scholarship to attend Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London, said the idea for the film stemmed back to when he was working at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.

He said: "I was doing a play at the time and I had an idea that it would be good to make a documentary about performing, understanding and communicating Shakespeare plays because you can buy lots of books about how to understand it but I know from my own experience that I learn best by watching.

"Sometimes learning Shake-speare at school can be dull and it puts you off it for life. The language seems like gobbledegook so I thought this would help young actors and so I decided to make a list of actors I would like to speak to. I wrote letters to them, they were excited and wrote back saying that they would like to get involved with the project."

Commenting on his own experiences of Shakespeare, Giles, a National Theatre graduate, said: "Once I got used to Shakespeare I found it a lot easier to perform. I had good people to watch at the National Theatre and what helped me is seeing how they went about finding the characters."

Giles has recently been back at the National starring in a play called The Hour We Knew Nothing Of Each Other. And in the future he hopes to join the cast of the Rat Pack.

He said: "Although my first love is acting, I also hope to do more producing."

The film is due to be completed early next year and will be made available for the BBC.