Adult Drama Summer School: Acting – Shakespeare and Greek Theatre

This 10-day intensive summer school for students aged 17+ aims to develop the acting, movement and voice skills required to creatively and actively engage with heightened classical text. The course is particularly designed to help you explore both established and innovative practices.

By the end of the course you should have:

• been introduced to the essentials of textual analysis and building a character
• explored heightened text as part of character development and story-telling
• gained an understanding of embodying the voice and physicality in performance
• explored and presented scenes and soliloquies from various texts

This summer school explores established and developing methodologies in the three main disciplines of acting, movement and voice. This is done in relation to the analysis, rehearsal and performance of works by Shakespeare and ancient Greek playwrights.

The acting teaching during the course is based on Stanislavsky’s Method of Physical Action, and includes approaches based on that method by Michael Chekhov and Uta Hagen, as well as modern theatre practitioners such as Declan Donnellan and David Mamet. The movement teaching is based on the teachings of L’Ecole Jacques Le Coq in Paris, and the voice training is rooted in the work of Nadine George of Voice Studio International.

All these disciplines combine and focus on connecting to the demands of working with classical text. The summer school also includes workshops in building a character, character relationships and journey, and the power of the soliloquy.

Rehearsals for a final informal presentation of scenes and soliloquies begin in the second week of the course. Though learning and teaching remains the priority throughout, this second phase of activity allows students to develop stagecraft skills, stamina and an understanding of how theatre is designed and produced.

This presentation of work to an invited audience takes place on the last day of the summer school in the Chandler Studio Theatre.

Text supplied by third party.