Angus Vail: About the Artist

Click here to listen to his interview

I’m a kiwi (New Zealander) and after finishing law school I worked in London in the mid-eighties, and caught the “Shakespeare virus” there. I used to walk through The Barbican arts center as a short cut on the way home from work, and discovered the cheap five pound tickets that the RSC had on offer, and pretty much got immediately hooked.

After moving to Sydney, Australia I started working at the business manager for the Aussie rock band INXS, and had a great 5 year run with them as they became a massive international hit. I then moved to New York City and started running the business office for KISS, and also consulting for various other bands and musical artists, including 3 Doors Down, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings and Charlie Puth.

My interest in Shakespeare, performance and the arts continued, and after seeing what interesting buildings and projects were being built using shipping containers around the world, I started a mobile art project using two containers as a mobile art space/gallery called “ArtBloc”. 

I had also visited Shakespeare’s Globe in London many times – and loved seeing Shakespeare’s plays there, and was captivated by that wonderful “wooden O”. Then the idea was hatched: Because of my familiarity with containers and also moving rock and roll stages around the world, I wondered if shipping containers could be used as a way to build a version of a Globe.

Many years later, after planning, building models and taking the small steps in the long journey to turn the idea into reality, we have modified over twenty containers and are working on assembling and testing a prototype Globe in Highland Park, Michigan. www.thecontainerglobe.com