ACTING SHAKESPEARE
Dates: 4 June - 27 July 2018
Duration: eight weeks
Fees: £5,590
Please note there are no RADA scholarships available for Short Courses.
COURSE OVERVIEW
Acting Shakespeare is an advanced-level, eight-week course that offers participants, through an intensive series of classes and presentations, the opportunity to expand, explore and deepen awareness of Shakespeare's text: while aiming to extend the range of each student's work, uncover tensions that block development and work on strategies to remove them.
The course draws on the classical aspects of RADA's essential teaching, combining rehearsal of text and presentations with intensive classes in essential skills, conducted by the RADA faculty.
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
18+
The course is aimed at students who have experience of acting at professional, undergraduate or graduate level.
Students below the age of 18 are not normally accepted. Entrance is by audition.
Please remember that this is a physically demanding course, and that, while any specific needs will be taken fully into account, and that there is no upper age limit, participants must be reasonably fit. Fluent, confident knowledge of the English language is essential.
COURSE DETAILS
Participants work in groups of approximately 16, and in smaller groups for some skills classes.
During the first six weeks, you will have classes in Physical Performance, Alexander Technique, Stage Fighting, Period Dance, Choral Singing of the period, Voice, Voice into Text, Character in Text, Sonnets, Monologues and Scenes; as well as weekly workshop sessions.
There will be three presentations – SONNETS at the end of week three, SCENES MONOLOGUES AND SONG in week six, (both of which will be followed by a group feedback from senior Academy staff and individual responses from your skills tutors); and finally, there will be a WORKSHOP PRODUCTION of a Shakespeare play in one of the RADA theatre spaces: this will be rehearsed with your director for all of the last ten days of the course. It should be noted that all presentations are “in-house” and are not external showcase productions.
Classes are taught, and rehearsals conducted, by the Academy's senior staff and distinguished directors and teachers from the profession.
The course is not a casual undertaking: total commitment to punctuality, discipline and preparation is required from every student.
HOURS OF WORK
Classes generally take place between 9:30am and 6:30pm from Monday to Friday; some sessions each week will end later than this.
In the latter part of the course, extra rehearsals will be called in the evening and some weekend working will also be required. Classes are not optional; students are expected to treat these as professional rehearsal calls. Punctuality is essential; a certificate stating the minimum number of contact hours is awarded on successful completion of the course.
UNIVERSITY CREDITS
In the case of students who are attending courses at universities in North America (or elsewhere), it is a matter for each university or college to decide whether to include the RADA Acting Shakespeare course as part of their students' accreditation process.