Page to Stage- Actors
Masterclass
Anyone else may have been disheartened by the small group
that arrived at Wade Street Church for the Actors Masterclass, but not Alix
Manning who had travelled from the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford to
put us through our paces and breathe new life into Shakespeare texts. Full of
life and interested in hearing about all our individual backgrounds
(Shakespeare based or not) it was hard not to immediately warm to her.
I have to admit, 20 minutes in when we had warmed up and
were reading the prologue from Romeo and Juliet; exploring the mechanics of
iambic pentameter I was worried. Was this going to be just like any other
Shakespeare workshop? I was happily proved wrong.
The next hour and a half was an extremely enjoyable and
highly interesting workshop in which we delved into Hamlet’s grief,
experimented with atmosphere and thrashed out a verbal boxing match between
Kate and Petrucchio of Taming of the Shrew. The workshop worked in really
getting you involved in the language of Shakespeare and being able to perform
it, whether you were a fan or not. Indeed, one participant freely admitted at
the start of the session she did not like or understand Shakespeare, but by the
end of the two hours was readily offering her own interpretations and performing
to the whole group. Which I believe just goes to show, Shakespeare was meant to
be seen and not read.
The smallness of the
group worked to our advantage as we all got to show and discuss each other’s
take on every part, emphasising Manning’s strong-held idea ‘there is no right
or wrong way to interpret Shakespeare’. However, it would have been great to
have a slightly larger group purely for variety.
This is the third year these workshops have been run at the
Lichfield Festival and they plan to return next year, I highly recommend them
for all Shakespeare enthusiasts alike, and also to those who struggle with
Shakespeare, you will not be disappointed and will leave the session
enlightened.
Rating: 4/5 Stars
No comments:
Post a Comment