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While awaiting Tony night, Ian McDiarmid is already a winner. His Broadway debut in Faith Healer has earned him a 2006 Theatre World Award, a prize that will be presented June 6 at Studio 54, by co-star Ralph Fiennes.

Was McDiarmid prepared for all the hoopla surrounding his New York debut? "I don't think anyone can prepare you for Broadway. We arrived, we rehearsed, we did the previews, and then we were on. Then, to our delight, we were told that we were a hit. And now the Tonys. It's one thing after another - quite extraordinary! I'm sort of flabbergasted. It's like all those words you see outside the theatres: 'Excited!' 'Outstanding!' 'Overwhelming!'

"Lots of Brits are here at the moment. I think I've seen more of them the past few weeks than I have the past few years. Richard Griffiths [also a Theatre World winner] and I are old friends, and there are lots of very friendly American artists. We all meet regularly because of the Tonys [and their related functions]. I wish there was more of that in London. The only regret is that we can't see all of the shows [due to conflicting schedules]. I try to see as many as I can. The other week, I saw Pajama Game, which was great. Next is Shining City."

"There are so many awards ceremonies now. I pity the poor people who have to watch them, never mind the artists. You [Americans] do it well. You started it. Everyone in England knows that the Oscars and the Tonys are the major ones every year. Everything we do back home is a rather half-hearted attempt to copy those."

Although he's making his Broadway acting debut, McDiarmid is no stranger to the New York stage. As co-artistic director (with Jonathan Kent) of London's Almeida Theatre, he's "had lots of shows here: Medea, Hamlet, with Ralph [Fiennes]; the David Hare play about Oscar Wilde [The Judas Kiss], with Liam Neeson. We had Coriolanus and Richard II at BAM." Adds McDiarmid, "I'm delighted by the way New York audiences listen. They've got a lot to teach people back home."

Brian Friel's The Faith Healer consists of four monologues, relating basically the same events but from different perspectives. Fiennes as Frank, an Irish faith healer, has the opening and closing soliloquies, recalling his travels through Wales and Scotland. Cherry Jones has the second as Grace, who's either Frank's mistress (he says) or wife (she says), and McDiarmid, the third, which starts Act Two; he's Teddy, Frank's Cockney road manager.

McDiarmid compares it to a symphony: "Each of us occupies a moment; Ralph occupies two. You're conscious all the time that you're playing great music. But, within the formal structure of the writing, there is room for individuality of performance. What's also interesting about the play is that it's about what artists do, and how difficult that is to talk about and to conjure up, and how sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't - and you never really know why."

James Mason starred in the original 1979 Broadway production, which failed, with Clarissa Kaye (Mrs. Mason), and Donal Donnelly. The play has since come to be regarded by many as the playwright's masterwork. "Brian Friel says that Mason was magnificent," declares McDiarmid. "There were problems with [the play], absolutely, but [Friel] liked [Mason's] performance."

When McDiarmid auditioned for his present role in the original British production, "the director was very kind. He said, 'It's very good, but you're much too young. In about 20 years, you should play it.' It happens that in 20 years, I did.

"I'm very close to Jonathan Kent [who directed the present production]. When I originally did [the play], it was in London at the theatre we both ran. I was presumptuous enough to suggest myself as Teddy. Not everyone jumped at the idea. It wasn't an obvious piece of casting. First of all, I'm not [from] London, and you would probably look for an authentic Cockney to play the part. But I knew that somewhere it was in me. Anyway, they took a chance - and here I am. It's enabled me to do it with a number of actors.

"Another actor played Frank before Ralph, and Cherry Jones is the third Grace. She's quite remarkable. She made us investigate other areas in the play and dig deeper. It's been a great experience." Jones sits in a chair for 40 minutes and mesmerizes the audience with her performance. Remaining seated, notes McDiarmid, "was a decision that she and Jon [Kent] arrived at together. Previous actors in that part had gone off and pulled a drape."

During Teddy's monologue, he consumes five bottles of beer. Actually, admits McDiarmid, "It's boring old, cold tea. The moments I drink is specified by Brian - it's part of the rhythmical piece - but he's quite flexible about that. He's not as rigid as Samuel Beckett. In Teddy's case, he has two supports: the drink and that night's audience. People say, 'What was the most challenging aspect of the part?' I say, 'Bladder control.' Some nights, I leave the wings rather rapidly."

Offstage for Act One, how does he spend his time? "Various ways. I have a kind of routine. Cindy puts my hair on [referring to his dresser's application of the wig he wears]. The three of us [he and his co-stars] get together just before Ralph goes onstage for the first monologue. We always felt that it's important to connect in some way before the play starts, because we don't get together until the curtain call. I listen to Ralph and to Cherry [on the intercom].

"Ralph comes and visits me after his first monologue. We talk mainly about the audience. He goes away and I put on my makeup. Then it's the interval. I usually go up and have a word with Cherry [during intermission]."

Which role has brought him the most satisfaction? "It's usually the current one, but one role I've loved as much as this, in fact slightly more to be frank, is Prospero in The Tempest. It's probably the most interesting part I've played. Jonathan Kent directed that in our last year at the Almeida."

Born in Carnoustie, Tayside, Scotland, when did McDiarmid know that he wanted to be an actor? "Oddly enough, it took me awhile to articulate it to myself. I think I recognized it when I was five years old. I went to a variety show, where my uncle was a stage manager.

"In those days, because they had footlights, everyone wore a great deal of makeup, the men as well as the women. The show was completely fascinating, and then I got to meet the performers. A comedian named Tommy Morgan was charming to me. I was very shy and very scared. I remember thinking: There's something fascinating about this - and something terrifying as well. I can see [Morgan's] face as I talk to you, and there's a little bit of him in Teddy.

"That was the beginning, I think. I went to university and studied psychology, but I was just treading water. At the end of university, I took the plunge. Thank goodness I did, because I don't think I'd be very happy if I hadn't."

Portraying a much older character in a Sam Shepard play, Seduced, led to McDiarmid being "seen by a casting director, who suggested me to George Lucas for 'Star Wars.' It was great - very, very good luck. George [Lucas] is a terrific guy." As the Emperor in "Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi" (1983), he notes, "I just happened to fill the bill. I wore a hideous mask and pretended to be a hundred and twenty."

Three prequels followed: "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" (1999), "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones" (2002), and "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" (2005), in all of which McDiarmid reprised his character.

"To go back [after 16 years] and play the character at my own age was an extraordinary journey really. It was an absolutely unique situation to create the character's younger self, while actually being older than you were when you first played it.

"I've done four ['Star Wars' movies] and I'm in five. In 'The Empire Strikes Back' (1980), my character appeared as a hologram. That was someone else in a mask and Clive Revill's voice. Since technology allowed George Lucas to do it, he thought it only right to put me in [the DVD of 'Empire Strikes Back']." Is he often recognized off-screen? "Yes, quite a lot," claims McDiarmid, "but it's manageable."

Following the limited Faith Healer engagement, which ends August 13, Ian McDiarmid hopes "to spend some time in Scotland. I recently got a place there, not too far from where I was born. It's on the sea, and couldn't be a bigger contrast to New York."

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