Acting Shakespeare's Text
Saturdays, 2-4pm
October 6, 13, 20, and 27
Total hours of instruction: 8
Location: Our rehearsal space near Sungshin Women's University Station (subway Line 4) (Directions will be sent to participants)
Tuition fee: 80,000KRW
Instructors: Lauren Ash-Morgan and Michael Downey
Class size: approximately 5-20 students
INTRODUCTION
Shakespeare's text provides lots of keys and clues to aid the performer in giving his or her best possible performance. In this class, we will discover key ways to bring out the richness of Shakespeare's writing in order to reveal possibilities in interpreting character, communicating clearly to the audience, and getting at the true meaning and intentions of a passage of text. As with all things in acting, the aim is not to find one correct answer, but to find out new, inspiring possibilities for the text.
This course is an efficient, nuts and bolts approach to Shakespeare's language. In it, we will approach a wide variety of topics related to performing Shakespeare's text, including meter, antithesis, enjambment, learning from original practices, discovering lessons from original pronunciation, exploring acting clues in the First Folio, and rhetorical techniques. (There are many things we can cover, and we'll try to get to as many different areas as we can over the 4 weeks.) The aim of this workshop is for actors to develop an extensive toolkit for approaching Shakespeare’s text, and to open the actors up to new and interesting choices, guided by the language.
This course is for actors and directors of all levels who wish to improve their understanding of Shakespeare’s text and performance possibilities. The course is particularly appropriate for more experienced actors, but beginners who are up for a challenge are more than welcome. English language proficiency is highly recommended.
TO REGISTER
Email info@seoulshakespeare.com by October 3 with your name, your phone number, and the name of the course(s) you would like to take.
Full list of courses here.
We will respond with bank account details, and your spot will be confirmed once we receive your tuition funds.
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INSTRUCTOR INFO
Both Michael and Lauren spent this summer training at Prague Shakespeare Company's Summer Shakespeare Intensive with a variety of master teachers in Shakespeare, voice, movement and ensemble work, clown, original practices, original pronunciation, audition technique, First Folio, rhetoric, and character development, with additional workshops in Meisner, Baroque dance, psycho physical acting, physical theatre, and Michael Chekhov technique. They are looking forward to sharing some of what they learned with our Seoul community.
Lauren Ash-Morgan has been the Artistic Director of Seoul Shakespeare Company since 2014, having joined as an actor in 2011. Acting credits include Prague Shakespeare Company's The Two Gentlemen of Verona directed by Ben Crystal at the Estates Theatre (Silvia/Ensemble); Seoul Shakespeare Company’s The Merchant of Venice (Portia), Garage (Susan), The Winter’s Tale (Paulina/Time), Much Ado About Nothing (Beatrice), Love and Despair (Lady Macbeth/Trinculo/Gertrude/Tamora/Desdemona), Titus Andronicus (Tamora), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Oberon), Hamlet (Gertrude), The Tempest (Alonsa), and Macbeth (Lady Macbeth); Probationary Theatre Company’s Popcorn (Farrah), Betrayal (Emma), and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Martha); Eurasia Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Richard III (Queen Elizabeth) at the National Theater of Korea; and the independent feature film Amiss. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Education (Voice) from Ithaca College and an M.A. in Ethnomusicology, specializing in Korean traditional music and dance, and is exploring ways to utilize Korean traditional dance and vocal technique in theatre training. She also serves as Seoul Shakespeare Company’s producer, costume designer, composer/music director, and text coach, and will direct SSC’s upcoming production of King Lear.
Michael Downey has been Seoul Shakespeare Company's stage director for the last three years, directing SSC’s productions of The Merchant of Venice, Garage, The Winter's Tale and Much Ado About Nothing. Other directing credits include A Circular Play by Gertrude Stein and New Year’s Eve by Dave MacGregor. He has been a leading actor with SSC since 2010, appearing in Macbeth (Macbeth), The Tempest (Prospero), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Peter Quince), Titus Andronicus (Titus Andronicus), and Love and Despair (Macbeth, Claudius, Titus Andronicus). He most recently appeared as Octavius Caesar and the Soothsayer in Prague Shakespeare Company's Julius Caesar at the Estates Theatre in Prague this summer. Aside from work with SSC, other credits in Seoul include Betrayal (Jerry), The Importance of Being Earnest (Algernon), The Real Inspector Hound (Magnus), and Eurasia Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Richard III (Clarence) at the National Theater of Korea. Michael trained as an actor at the Unitec School of Performing and Screen Arts and holds an M.A. in Drama Studies from the University of Auckland. In New Zealand, his theatre credits include Coriolanus, Oedipus the King, and Attempts on Her Life. Onscreen, he has appeared in Power Rangers, Shortland Street, and Xena: Warrior Princess. He co-founded The Rebel Alliance Theatre Company in 2006, their debut production being his solo play The Orderly, which toured New Zealand, had a successful run in South Korea, and was also adapted for radio. In 2007, his play Aroha won the SmackBang PlayRight award and enjoyed a two-week season at the Herald Theatre.
