Advanced Workshops

These workshops are best suited to secondary schools but could be suited to an intermediate level or an older age group.

Acting Masterclass

This workshop is best suited to Senior Drama students. Students will learn professional acting techniques to help expand and inspire them in their performance. Over the lessons they will create their own "toolbox" of skills and techniques they can use in Drama. Please note this workshop would work best in lessons running over a few weeks rather than just one lesson. Some of the topics that are covered are voice, script analysis, ways to approach a character and approach the text, Laban and Acting Methodology in particular the Stanislavski Technique. I can tailor this workshop to suit your specific requirements. Students will experience acting at a professional level and have a greater understanding of how and what techniques a professional actor may use to approach a role. This workshop would work well as an inspirational lead into Scholarship Drama for students with a focus on Stanislavski, Brecht and/or Artaud.

Student Comments:

'I feel this masterclass has been very beneficial. I really appreciated working with the group of professional actors and I enjoyed expressing myself through the new drama techniques we learnt. The skills I have learnt will help me in Drama by giving me more confidence in the motivation behind my actions, movement, voice and use of space. I feel my acting has improved because I am now more confident in what I do and now I can only improve further.' ~ Year 12 Drama Student.

'I really enjoyed working with “actual” actors, as most of the time my only interaction with them is in the theatre, being able to work with them meant I was able to comprehend their thought patterns and how they overcome problems.' ~ Year 13 Drama Student.

'I really enjoyed talking about Stanislavski and how his use of theatre processes could be used to create characters and situation. ~Year 13 Drama Student.

'This has definitely improved my acting skills, helping me with improvisation, getting into and staying in character and understanding the script.' ~Year 12 Drama Student.

'I enjoyed everything and I have learnt so much useful stuff! It was refreshing for us to get a different teaching perspective for a change. It was so different to anything we have done before because we don’t often get to do something somewhat unrelated to our assessments.' ~Year 13 Drama Student.

Character Creation

Do you ever feel like your students are always playing the same character or don't know how to break away from their own personality? In this workshop students will explore different techniques to help them in developing character for performance. Through physicality and voice exercises including Laban, Animal Characteristics, Elements and Body Gesture students will have an opportunity to devise characters and perform them in improvised scenes. Students will develop ensemble and improvisation skills and will complete the workshop with a "toolbox" of techniques to use to develop rounded characters for performance.

Student Comments:

'You are an awesome teacher. I have become less self conscious so I can do more in Drama and find creating a character a lot easier. ~Year 10 Drama Student.

'Through these workshops I have gained a greater understanding into creating “off the cuff” characters. This will help me develop more interesting personalities which I can use in both scripted and improvised work.' ~Year 13 Drama Student.

'All the activities were explained in a manner which enabled us to understand and execute the task easily. The repetition of activities allowed us to get a greater understanding of what we were doing and how it should be done.' ~Year 12 Drama Student.

'I have loved learning from you. These things will help me to create and portray strong characters.' ~Y10 Drama Student.

'I have learnt lots of new skills that will help me be more convincing on the stage.' ~Y10 Drama Student.

Shakespeare- Reading between the Lines

An interactive and physical workshop around the wonderful work of Shakespeare and the very important underlying rhythm of his work. Blank Verse and Prose- what are these, how do they work? This will be revealed and explained through the students experimenting with a few key rhythmic exercises to explore the text. Through using and understanding Iambic Pentameter, the students will read Shakespeare as it was intended and in turn gain a better grasp of the text. The rhythm is the key and within it the students will also find hidden clues about word pronunciation, intonation and character. This workshop will help the students break down those “Shakespeare is difficult” barriers. Suitable for English or Drama students.

Student Comments:

'Learning Iambic Pentameter in your workshop has made reading Shakespeare a lot easier.' ~Y13 English Student.

'I have learnt about the structure of Shakespeare’s writing, and how to analyse the rhythm and structure to find meaning. I could use this new material in my English essays, providing more in-depth analysis.' ~Y13 English Student.

'I have learnt finally, to understand what Iambic Pentameter is. I think I will be able to add something a little bit different to my essays.' ~Y13 English Student.

'It has helped me to develop ideas about a character through the way they speak, either in prose or iambic pentameter.' ~Y13 English Student.