“Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness.”
-William Shakespeare, Hamlet
Mixed-Levels Shakespeare
Teacher: Jim Elliott
July 25th-August 22nd (5 classes)
Thursday 2:30-5:30
$630
PURPOSE:
To implement the students working approach to Acting Shakespeare with scene work. This course extends the work on self and character into classic scene study, with an emphasis on Shakespeare’s text and Acting Shakespeare. We will continue our work on text and the “music” of the language. We will continue exploring how to bring yourself to the role, while maintaining the understandability of the language. This is an organic and text-based approach to heightened language in which actor and character meet, and the tools for storytelling required for classic plays are honed. The material will be explored through rehearsing and showing assigned scenes throughout the class.
METHOD:
We will accomplish our goal through scansion work, detailed examination of textual idiosyncrasies, exploration of the Sounds of Spoken English, Work on Metaphor and Imagery and of course, Performance. During the class, you will perform One Scene. You will read multiple Shakespeare Plays.
STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
•Further explore the technical aspects of approaching Shakespeare’s text.
•Deepening your understanding of Shakespeare’s text and seeing the unique
possibilities available to each performer.
•Perform scenes with a partner.
•Connect personally to Shakespeare’s text.
•Acquire confidence when approaching any classic material.
INSTRUCTION:
Students will begin with an Original Practice Run of a scene. We will then work together to combine the organic approach of bringing an individual point of view to the text and allowing for use of language, structure, rhetoric and making the scene understandable and truthful.
