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Skills 2022
The banner theme for 2022 is ABOUT TIME.
The following skills courses are offered:
During the last 20 years there have been some huge developments and changes in the way singing is often taught in Musical Theatre and Pop Music training. There is tendency toward the ‘guru’, with each system claiming exclusive rights over the correct singing methodology. As a teacher of singing for many years, my experience and success has been to select freely from a range of methods and processes that I believe work for everyone. We will be looking at some of these today widely taught
systems (Estill, Speech Level Singing, Bel Canto & Linklater). They all have an important and valuable contribution to make in developing a fluent and confident singing voice.
We will be using exercises, rounds and part songs to develop each participant’s singing technique by introducing and consolidating some of the fundamentals required to sing safely and openly. From A for alignment to V for vowels, various essential techniques will be drawn from the singing skills glossary and will be integrated into our work on the rounds and part songs. We will sing as an ensemble in a supportive and fun environment. The material will range from Folk, Classical and Musical Theatre.
Ever wonder how some individuals in the public eye speak so beautifully and engagingly? Or how some people always seem to exude confidence and seem so assured in expressing themselves? In these voice sessions throughout the week, we will explore our voices and our connection to words and images through the practice of physical release and use of images to enhance our vocal use in reaching our vocal potential. We will apply the vocal release techniques acquired in sessions onto various written works such as Haikus, ancient Greek drama and song lyrics!
We will practice various vocal exercises that will help inform and enhance your voicing of the written word. The focus is on your voicing of a writer’s words and images and not an intellectual examination or analysis. We will examine and analyse only so far as needed to voice!
This course will be an advanced, and in-depth examination of the processes of character development and choice during the rehearsal period of a show.
We will cover characterisation development techniques, physicalisation, text work techniques and choices, culminating with impulse work that allows us to unify all the preceding elements.
We will start the course with a practical examination of the 'Viewpoints' method; and we will go on to utilise other techniques related to Stanislavski, Meisner, Grotowski, in a direct and dynamic way.
The course will use scenes and characters from classic and new texts to stimulate these creative experiences and observations. We will use full group, and smaller group work, with frequent group sharing.
This course will allow participants to go deeper into character development techniques and follow through on these developments post summer school. It is a practical look at very useful acting processes, and as such is appropriate for experienced performers, and those newer to performing, who are keen to learn and explore a variety of techniques.
It will be a focussed and fun examination of how we 'become' the character, how we 'grow' the character, and how we 'perform' the character.
…tragical-comical-historical-pastoral. Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light.
(Polonius, Hamlet)
Lazzi is a term from Commedia dell’Arte that references comic routines that serve various functions.
Sometimes they are a suspension in time from the approaching drama, or their placement can rivet up the tension of the approaching denouement. They can stand alone as an audience favorite set piece and virtuoso vehicle for the actors or be integrated into the dramatic plotting. They can function as comic relief and a contrast to a serious scene to intensify the overall tragic nature of the play.
The renaissance of classical drama from the Greeks and Romans would have left a legacy for the Commedia companies, complemented by the skills of the street performers and the character driven inventiveness of the acting companies. We see the timeless routines in Shakespeare and Moliere, Goldoni and Brecht. They reverberate through Music Hall, the silent movie comedians and comedic actors like the late Eric Sykes’ turn in Moliere’s School For Wives. Pantomime absorbed the lazzi’s influence. Yet, beneath the comic veneer of physical and verbal comic business and dexterity lurk themes of social rebellion, fear and survival, status, anxiety and potential tragedy.
The workshop will explore these lazzi from classical, commedia dell’arte, cinematic and contemporary comedy sources. We will also be encouraged to improvise and initiate our own routines, embracing a variety of forms. Accessible, fun, and challenging.
Last updated: 2022-04-13 07:50:28