Projects
EUROPEAN THEATRE SUMMER SCHOOL 2009
Theme Project Work : Reading Between the Lines
Towards the end of his life, Harold Pinter gave a radio interview in which he complained about the way that actors misinterpreted the meaning(s) of his infamous PAUSE! "They take too long over them", Pinter ruefully concluded. The question remains however; How do we as directors and actors make decisions about the bits beyond the text, the stage directions, the pause, the dash, the dot, the acting suggestion, the acting instruction, or indeed the lack of any the above? Within the text itself a playwright's punctuation can carry various meanings. A Checkhovian semi colon isn't the same as a Shakespearean semi colon. Howard Barker doesn't use punctuation at all in his later plays. Albee's instructions regarding the interpretation of his own punctuation is inflexible and insistent as are his prescriptive stage directions. He crams his plays with instructions such as ‘he says, coldly'. When challenged about the over bearing nature of such advice, Albee concluded; "There are forty different ways to play ‘coldly' ".
Similarly in music, performers have a plethora of information to interpret. How fast is allegro? How do we sing ‘plaintively, but not too slowly'? What acting clues are contained in dynamic markings (loud/soft etc) ? What do we when there aren't any directions as in improvised jazz?
The 2009 theme course will include work of the following playwrights: Pinter, Beckett, Albee, Checkhov, Shaw, Barker and Shakespeare. The singing option will include the music of Jason Robert Brown, David Shire and some improvised jazz.
THEME PROJECTS
Graeme Du Fresne : Singing and acting - The Musical Scores
This course is aimed at the actor/singer. A well written song will invariably contain crucial information beyond the ‘mere' notes. A simple dynamic mark for example (loud...soft and so on) may imply a tactic or objective for the actor/singer to follow. We will be looking at some Musical Theatre songs, concentrating our energies on investigating and interpreting the stage directions, tempo marks, dynamics and various other instructions and advice contained in a musical score in order to develop character motivation and action. The music will range from ensemble to solo pieces and will include some pieces from ‘The Last Five Years' (Jason Robert Brown) and ‘Assassins' (Stephen Sondheim).
Aofie Smyth : Acting - Playing the System
I will be using a Stanislavsky methodological approach to the work in this project. Although some of this year's participants will be familiar with aspects of his 'System', I aim to bring some fresh ideas about how to interpret and utilise the nuts and bolts of Stanislavsky's methodology, breaking down scenes into facts, questions, units, discovering tactics to get what the characters want and fundamentally asking the question 'why?'.
Learning how to interpret a scene with the clues a writer gives you (stage directions and so on) can support your choices. Finding the balance between blindly obeying the playwright's instructions and advice and following a more creatively free path forms a crucial part of the actor's craft. We will look at four major writers, Chekhov, Shaw, Pinter and Beckett and explore how a writer communicates his vision. Each scene will be given to two groups. One group will be asked to obey every stage direction, instruction and advice the writer has written, the other will block out all stage directions and interpret from the text alone.
Claire Russ : Acting/Movement (Laban for actors) - Physicalising the Performance
This course explores how we use the body when developing character, finding the physical root for character impulse. Using concepts developed by Rudolph von Laban we will explore how we can integrate movement, thought, emotion, and imagination as we work for depth and clarity of characterisation. Secondly, we will explore what drives our decisions to move around the stage space. How do we make choices? How do we respond to stage directions in the text? And if we choose to avoid these directions, how do we work together to share concepts, to bring the space and the performance alive?
Lawrence Evans : Acting - The Spiritual Energy of Acting
Following on from last year's theme course (The Gestural Voice) we shall create a system for developing a physical character using shape, rhythm and tension together with the techniques of Michael Chekhov and Stanislavsky's physical actions. Using work that encompasses a heightened theatricality or style from authors such as Shakespeare and Susanna Centlivre to Oscar Wilde and Jo Orton, we will rehearse a scene within the author's written style. We will then work on the same scene using an opposite stylistic approach and seeing whether this compromises the work of the playwright or gives us insights we can use. As the week progresses each member of the group will also create, develop and write a character of their own, using the techniques we will be exploring. We shall then play with those characters in various theatrical styles and, reading between the lines, see what that might creatively offer us as a way of developing the character further.
SKILLS PROJECTS
Graeme du Fresne : Singing and acting - Style Conscious
Choral music covers a wide range of musical style and genre. Musicians who arrange music for choirs often take a piece of music from one style and era and ‘re invent' it for a choral setting. Examples of choral transferring include: pop, rock, musical theatre, the so called ‘easy listening' singers such as Sinatra, world music and jazz. The glue that binds all these different styles together is of course the voice. We will be discovering and developing our singing technique as we look at some arrangements of the above mentioned styles in harmonised settings for mixed voices.
Aofie Smyth : Acting - The Ins and Outs of Uta Hagen
'Put your instincts of human realities to use while probing and grappling with the content and roots of the material' Uta Hagan.
I will be using object exercises and sense memory techniques to help the actor become aware of themselves as an instrument. Sense memory exercises can release inner and out tension allowing an actor to create sensations from memory. Leaning how to create physical conditions such as cold, heat and rain can help the actor to truthfully imagine they are in a particular scene or situation.
'Be specific and real in your actions, and they will communicate your artistic statement.' The object exercises investigate the inner and outer characteristics in a character through physical means. By answering the '7 Questions' to create a private scenario for the character, a process of unlocking the imagination can start to happen. Being private in public is one of the hardest things an actor has to face but looking at behaviour in the moment lets us off having to try to feel, as the feeling will be as a result of the task we want to achieve.
Claire Russ : Voice/ Movement - Body Talk (Releasing the body; Freeing the voice)
The voice begins in the body; in our grounding, breathing, awareness and ease with ourselves. This course offers an opportunity to explore and expand vocal and physical range and their relationship to each other. Physical release techniques with specific anatomical focus will be applied to exercises with movement, sound and text. The course is designed to deepen knowledge of the sounds of your own voice, develop its range and tone, develop attention to rhythm, and develop physical and vocal presence as a performer. If you feel there is a more resonant voice in you that you would like to explore, then this course is for you.
Lawrence Evans : Directing - The Tool Box
The beginnings of a Directing Tool box: How do you break down a scene ready to put it on the floor? How do you create the previous and current circumstances of a character within a scene? How do you get the actor to physically and emotionally engage with the character? Just some of the questions a director needs to solve. Using various authors we will explore various methodologies a director can use to help them realise the play from the page to the stage.
THE TUTORS
Graeme Du Fresne, Course Director
Graeme was first invited to teach at the summer school in 1994 and he has since returned to this wonderful event on a regular basis. His work includes writing, directing, musical directing, acting and teaching. He has been at the Mercury Theatre in Colchester for the past 10 years as musical director for their Pantomimes. Other theatre work includes:
The Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui (with director Janice Dunn) and Oh What a Lovely War both at the Mercury Theatre. Graeme was the musical director on both shows and additionally played Sir John French in Oh What A Lovely War. Graeme has also been in shows at the Everyman Theatre Cheltenham, the Liverpool Everyman, the Crucible Theatre Sheffield, New Perspectives Theatre Company, Salisbury Playhouse, Solent Peoples Theatre, Norwich Playhouse, Forest Forge Theatre Company, the West Yorkshire Playhouse, and at the London Palladium Graeme was in the cast of Showboat. He is co-founder and director of In Fieri Theatre with ex summer school director Mike McCormack.
On film and television he has been in many programmes including Truly Madly Deeply, Inspector Morse, Holding On, Streets Apart, Henry Pratt, Casualty, The Blonde Bombshell, Family Affairs, Micawber, Chucklevision, Murder City and most recently a French film entitled Remake written and directed by Antoine Decaunes and starring Jean Rochefort.
Graeme's directing credits range from professional, student and amateur productions including several community plays : Open Arms by Rib Davis, his own adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and two of his own plays Taking It's Toll and It's Hard To Resist. Recent professional directing credits include From Fetlock To Forecourt and with students The Threepenny Opera. The Natural History Museum in London commissioned a new play for children called the Beast Feast which he also directed.
Recently he wrote some music for a production of Not About Heroes, for the Classic Theatre Company.
Graeme has lectured in drama at London Metropolitan University from where he holds a master's degree. He is currently head of singing on the 3-year acting course at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.
Aofie Smyth
Aoife trained as a director at Drama Centre London. She has directed As You Like It, Orpheus Descending, Dolly West's Kitchen, Alls Well That Ends Well (Italia Conti), Fridge (Underbelly, Edinburgh), A Picture of Alchemy (Etcetera, Camden) Blithe Spirit (Studio Moliere, Vienna), Impostors, Treehouses, Spring Awakening, Stars in the Morning Sky, Tinkers Wedding (Union Theatre), Macbeth, Maria Stuart, Romeo und Julia (Vienna Kindertheater), Who Knows?, Everyman, The Only Jealousy of Emer (Dry Ice, Dublin). She was also resident director at the Union Theatre, Southwark.
She has worked as an assistant for Shared Experience, The Young Vic and The Good Company.
Claire Russ
Claire Russ is a choreographer and movement director. She trained at the Laban Centre, London and has worked extensively in theatre and dance for 23 years. During the 1990s Claire created and produced work for her contemporary company the Claire Russ Ensemble, touring throughout Britain and Europe to critical acclaim with full length dance theatre works Grace Not Grace, Dangerous When Wet, Sweet Boys and Gourmet. Claire's choreography credits in theatre, musical theatre and TV include: Dick Whittington and the Pirates of the Caribbean, (dir. Janice Dunn, Mercury Theatre Colchester 2008/9), Peter Pan, Youth Music Theatre (UK) (dir. Nick Stimson, Barbican Theatre, Plymouth 2008), Frankenstein (dir. Nick Stimson, Cochrane Theatre London, 2008), Dove and Bulldog Broadband TV Commercials for Ridley Scott Associates (dir. Mehdi Norowzian) 2006/7. Gasping - by Ben Elton, (dir. Paul Jepson, Basingstoke Haymarket 2006); Mary Stuart (dir. Usma Hameed, Derby Playhouse 2005); Pride and Prejudice (Good Company National Tour - dir. Sue Pomeroy 2005); The Murder Game (Her Majesty's Theatre, London dir. Paul Jepson 2004), The Provoked Wife (dir. Paul Jepson, Southwark Playhouse 2003); Cinderella (dir. Simon Godwin, Northampton Theatre Royal 2002/3); Cherished Disappointments in Love - Assistant Director to Sue Parrish (Soho Theatre 2003); As You Like It (dir. Sue Parrish, Bridewell Theatre 2002); Tropic Island Hum Animated Film Launch (dir. Sir Paul McCartney 2000); The Mikado (dir. Andrew Farrell, Bolton Octogan Theatre 2000), Voyage in the Dark and Sweet Dreams (for Sphinx Theatre dir. Sue Parrish- 2001/2).
Contemporary commissions include site specific works Rock for Stirling Prize winning Alsop Architects and Queen Mary's University, created to lay a foundation stone for the new Medical and Dental Research Centre in Whitechapel, London 2003. Miniatora for CandoCo Dance Company for the Greenwich and Docklands Festival 2006, and The Garden for Norwich City Centre Summer for Norfolk Dance Agency 2007.
Forthcoming productions include A Winter's Tale with Howard Goodall (composer) Nick Stimson (writer) - flagship production for Youth Music Theatre (UK) 2009. Claire is also currently teaching voice and movement for RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Enterprises), Choreography for Royal Holloway University MA in Performance Making, Dance History for Rambert School for Ballet and Contemporary Dance.
Lawrence Evans
Lawrence works as a director, movement director and actor. He was nominated for an Olivier Award for his work with Tony Harrison at the National Theatre. He has worked with the poet and playwright on all his site-specific theatre pieces touring to Greece, Austria, Sweden and Bradford. He received a Best Actor Award from the Liverpool Echo and Daily Post Northwest Arts Awards and his co-written play Lives Worth Living is published by Heinemann.
His work as an actor includes small, middle and large scale touring nationally and internationally, many of the regional Repertory Theatres throughout the UK as well as the National Theatre, NT studio, Cheek by Jowl, the Young Vic and Northern Broadsides. He is an Associate Artist of Theatre Centre for which he has directed and co-directed several pieces of new work.
His directing work includes Polka Theatre, Oxfordshire Touring Theatre Company, London Bubble Theatre Co., the Orchestra of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields with the international violinist Anthony Marwood, the CDS (Conference of Drama Schools) New York agents showcase, as well as several fringe companies. He also teaches and directs in other UK Drama schools.
His work as a Movement Director includes the National Theatre, NT Studio, Northern Broadsides, Hampstead Theatre, Tamasha Theatre Co., for the Edinburgh International Festival and Bristol Old Vic.