Performing Shakespeare Academy
New Earth Performing Shakespeare Academy is a week-long course for actors who already have drama school training and/or are working professionally who would like to gain more confidence and/or experience when it comes to Shakespeare.
This Academy aims to explore and demystify Shakespearean texts. We will delve into the ‘rules’ of Shakespeare and discover how we might play with them as actors and theatre makers. We want to explore how Shakespeare's texts might excite us as BESEA artists and how our positionality can ignite these texts in new and original ways.
Photo by Zhiyue Hu
Students will train in person with professional actor and director, James Cooney and Artistic Director of New Earth, Ailin Conant, alongside additional guest tutors and speakers.The week will be process driven with no public performance element so it's a safe space to explore and experiment without the pressure of being watched.
Course Dates: Monday 21st to Friday 25th July
Course Leader: James Cooney
Location: Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
Experience Level: You must have professional actors training and/or professional experience as an actor to apply to this course.
Deadline: 10am Friday 2nd May
APPLICATION INFO:
Selected applicants will be invited to an in person audition in London on Saturday 24th May at The Central School of Speech and Drama.
We are also asking applicants to the Performing Shakespeare Academy London to submit a self tape following the instructions in the brief below. We are looking for your ability to be creative with text, clarity, energy, and confidence in performance, and to utilise your own stories in the creation of performance for camera.
It is recommended that you film your video in landscape mode, with bright light and a reasonably clean background for the panel to see you well. Please send us a video link (YouTube, Vimeo or Google Drive) to your self-tape audition task. We ask that you make sure the link is working before submitting your application and if your video is password protected, please send the password in your application form.
Self Tape Brief:
You should prepare and perform 1 Shakespeare speech from the list below AND 1 contemporary speech from a play of your choosing.
The Shakespeare Speeches;
Please select 1 of the following speeches. Do not feel limited by the character's "traditional" identity markers like gender, race, or age; please feel free to pick the speech you're most compelled to perform.
Viola: ‘I left no ring with her……knot for me to untie!’ Twelfth Night (Act 2 Sc 2)
Isabella: ‘To whom should I complain … his soul’s rest’ Measure for Measure (Act 2 Sc 4)
Proteus: ‘Even as one heat… use my skill’. Two Gentlemen of Verona (Act 2 Sc 4)
Macbeth: ‘To be thus is nothing……utterance!’ Macbeth (Act 3 Sc 1)
Edmund: ‘Thou, nature…bastards!’ King Lear (Act 1 Sc 2)
All of these speeches are a ’soliloquy’, I.e. they are not being spoken to another character on stage. We want to see how you approach speaking directly to the audience. In all of these speeches the character is trying to work something out for themselves. We encourage you to debate with yourself, ask rhetorical questions and use the language to help you decide what your character does next.
Contemporary Speech:
Any contemporary monologue from a script made for theatre or live performance. Please avoid using tv or screenplay monologues.
The monologue could be directed to the audience or to another person in the scene. Please ensure it is a maximum of 2 minutes in length.
