Lawrence O'Connor

Lawrence was born in Cape Town, South Africa to an actress mother, Annie Balfour and radical anti-apartheid writer father, Lionel Attwell. His first subsequent 'homes' included the original Traverse Theatre, 15 James Court, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh, a 'former doss-house and brothel also known as 'Kelly's Paradise' and 'Hell's Kitchen'. It was "a long, low-ceilinged first-floor room barely 15ft wide by 8ft high" with 60 seats salvaged from the Palace Cinema placed in two blocks on either side of the stage'. His 'bedroom' in the corner of the space was made from old tea chests. Lawrence had his first, paid job as an actor at the age of 10 with The Lindsay Kemp Mime Troupe (his mother was a member of the company). He trained at Drama Centre, London (group 23) from 1983-84 under Christopher Fettes and Yat Malmgren and then worked as an actor and musician until 1990 before undertaking a 20-year experiment in other fields while raising a young family. He resumed his work on his craft as an actor in 2010 after re-training in Meisner Technique with Simon Furness a the Actors Temple and continues his ongoing training with him, believing that ongoing training for actors is critical in order to keep deepening their work. He also continues to develop training practices to share and teach to others in addition to his professional acting, music and singing work.