I and Steve Sprosson attended. Steve is a Whole Hog founder member and expert Shakespearean actor who will be playing Benedick in our version of ‘Much Ado About Nothing’. After a bit of a false start (thanks to other Whole Hog founder Phil Regan for use of the AA card!) we arrived at the Courtyard Theatre to meet everyone and then split into groups for our workshops.
Our first session was an acting workshop with Annie Tyson. She took us through the Stanislavski system of WHO? WHY? WHERE? etc. This was a nice reminder of the system and questions to remember to give to the actors once rehearsals begin.
After a great free lunch we went into our next workshop with director, Rob Swaine. He certainly gave food for thought on how to schedule a rehearsal and inspire the actors. We then had a break to book into our B & B and relax a bit
before the twilight session at 7pm.
This was a workshop on editing Shakespeare text with RSC writers and directors, Phil Porter and James Farrell. This was great fun as we had the opportunity to be editors and get some experience of editing Shakespeare. Much debate and lively discussion when we were given the instruction to cut the‘To Be or Not to Be ‘speech from 34 lines down to a quarter of that! It just showed how much cutting the RSC do to make the Bard fresh to a 21st century
audience…reverence be damned!
Sunday morning 9.30 in a large RSC rehearsal room ready for movement class with Kate Sagovsky and Polly Bennett from the RSC movement department. Bit of dread as old (fat) bodies creaked but thoroughly enjoyable once we got going. Made us really think how body language and movement of characters says just as much as the text.
We ended the afternoon in the beautiful Swan Theatre for a Voice class with Michael Corbidge. He threw us straight into the deep end by splitting up the opening speech from ‘Troilus & Cressida’. We had a line each and were encouraged to spread out across all 3 levels in the ‘Wooden O’ and belt out the speech with energy and life. A truly thrilling experience! The afternoon was then complete by Michael encouraging us to recite a Shakespeare speech taking in all 3 sides of the auditorium and allowing our voices to ring out! This was it…speaking Shakespeare on the stage at the RSC. I went for ‘Music Be the Food of Love’from ‘Twelfth Night’ and Steve going for the kill with ‘To Be or Not To Be’! A once in a lifetime experience which made the weekend.
Before we headed home a quick meeting with our professional theatre the Nuffield, Southampton and now looking forward to a skills weekend with them at the end of October.
Open Stages has only just begun…