Peter Kenny

Peter Kenny is a voice-over artist^[1][2] actor, singer and designer living in South West London.^[3] Raised on Merseyside he gained a BA(Hons) in Drama from the University of Hull.

Career

Early career

Initially Peter worked for Edinburgh District Council, at the now defunct Nelson Halls, building, amongst other things, trick props and Cinderella's Coach for the King's Theatre Pantomimes. He then went on to work for the Royal Lyceum Theatre at their Roseburn Studios. After four years working as a freelance, including projects for Perth Rep, Scottish Theatre Company, Scottish Heritage and The City Gallery; he moved to London and took up his career as a performer.

Puppetry

His first engagement as a performer was with Playboard Puppets in the stage version of the popular children's Television Show, Button Moon. Roles included: Queen Wibbly, Ragdoll, Fairy Fungus, and Little Bottle. He subsequently remained with the company on a freelance basis as a puppet maker and operator, including ad campaigns for Robertsons Fruit Drinks, McDonalds, and the pilot episode of Spooks of Bottle Bay.

Acting

In theatre he has worked for a wide range of companies including: The Royal Shakespeare Company, as Ferdy the male soprano in Peter Gill's production of John Osborne's A Patriot For Me.^[4][5] He appeared as the lead role of Henry in the award winning short film The Take-Out^[6] Directed by Jamie Thraves. As a member of Greg Thompson's A&BC Theatre Co. He toured the world in their iconic production of Shakespeare's The Tempest and created the role of Pilate in Greg's play, If I Were Lifted Up From Earth. In 2006 he composed the music for A&BC's production of Shaw's Saint Joan at the Fischer Center in New York, in which he also played La Hire and The English Soldier. As part of the RSC's "Complete Works" season at Stratford upon Avon, Peter played Thomas Cromwell and was the "ethereal soprano"^[7] (Michael Billington, The Guardian) singing from the darkened nave in Greg Thompson’s production of Henry VIII.

From 1993–94 he was a member of the BBC Radio Drama Company which he describes as, "...the best vocal training I ever had!"^[8] where he worked alongside some of the greatest names in the British Entertainment industry.^[9] He has subsequently worked as a freelance performer in a whole host of productions on UK national radio.

He was an active member of the Staging the Court Project,^[10] which endeavoured to bring academic study and theatrical practice together to recreate a performance of a play in the Great Hall at Hampton Court as it may have been performed before Henry VII.^[11]

In 2011 he joined the Tell Theatre Company and has performed in their first two productions 'Marriage' by Gogol and 'A Respectable Wedding' by Bertolt Brecht.

Audio Books

Following a chance meeting on a tube with Matthew Walters a producer he had worked with at the BBC, Peter started recording unabridged audio books as a reader for the charity Listening Books. Titles included: Junk by Melvin Burgess, Face and Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah, Consider Phlebas, Look To Windward, Player of Games,^[12] Surface Detail, The Wasp Factory and Transition^[13] by Iain Banks.

He subsequently recorded The Wasp Factory as a commercial recording twelve years later for Iain Banks' publishers Hachette and Little Brown, and was generously reviewed by Sue Arnold in the Guardian.^[14][15] In 1998 he was invited to record books for the RNIB and has since recorded a vast range of titles including: Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stephenson, Revolution Day by Rageh Omaar, One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson and At My Mothers Knee by Paul O’Grady.

Peter is now an established audiobook reader with over fifty titles recorded. He regularly records the Library editions of Mandasue Heller’s dark northern thrillers for ISIS Publishing,^[16] and the abridged and unabridged recordings of Iain Banks' space operas about The Culture. He has recorded WJ Burley's crime novel, Wycliffe and The House of Fear for Orion Publishing.,^[17] Medicus and the Disappearing Dancing Girls by R.S. Downie, The Prestige by Christopher Priest, Mother's Milk by Edward St Aubyn and Young Wives' Tales by Adele Parks.

The table below chronicles Peter Kenny's audiobooks. It is not complete.

Video Games

Peter has lent his voice to a few video games.

Corporate voice work

Peter has voiced an extensive set of training videos for Romonet Software Suite, the flagship product from Romonet.

Singing

As a singer he has frequently been cast in roles such as Ferdy, Feste and Balthasar. He was a member of the early music group Passamezzo,^[26] with whom he recorded four CDs.

External links

• Peter Kenny Web Site

References