Day 1,
Saturday:
Introductions
with Rob Swain brought us into the beautiful Sam Wanamaker Playhouse where I
pulled out my notebook to begin taking notes.
The lovely actor Dickon Tyrrell was our instructor for ‘An Actor’s
Perspective’ where he told us what it was like playing in this beautiful space
as well as in the Globe theatre. He said
the mistake an actor could make in the indoor playhouse was ‘going too
intimate’ and that actors should ‘play it like you’re in the Globe’. Then we were given an extensive tour of the
playhouse from Hell to the Heavens! I
couldn’t agree more with Mr. Tyrrell’s advice about how ‘Shakespeare is the
director’ and that there is ‘no generalized emotion in Shakespeare’. As a Historically Informed Practice director
myself, these are the same things I tell my actors, as well as my students in
the workshops that I teach. Then we met
with director Jacqui Somerville for ‘A Director Prepares,’ who taught us about
how important a support system is. I
couldn’t agree more. We also learned Ms.
Somerville’s process for her preparation and research and how she works with
directors. One of my favorite things
that she said was: ‘Don’t spoon-feed actors. Empower them.’ So inspirational!
After lunch,
we met with Simon Dormandy for our ‘Text and Language’ course. Such a fun discussion with my fellow
Shakespeareans! One of my favorite
quotes from Mr. Dormandy was ‘If it’s difficult to say, don’t make it
easy.’ Going back to what Mr. Tyrrell
said earlier in the day about how ‘Shakespeare is the director’: Shakespeare puts the character in the
language. If your character is given a
difficult line to say – there’s a reason for it. Perhaps your character is confused,
conflicted or not sure about what he/she is saying. Don’t try to ‘fix’ the line. Just say it and see what happens. Then we got into text and pauses and got to
get on our feet to work on lines. I was
fortunate to read a bit of Olivia from Twelfth
Night aloud using what we had learned.
Before we
knew it, class was over. But all of us
directing students wanted more. Shakespeare and directing is our passion! Being able to learn from some of the best
practitioners around was such a blessing and I wish (as did we all) it could
have been longer. Luckily, there was one
more day of learning, which I’ll write about in my next blog post: ‘The
Teaching, the Directing, the Passion Part II.’
Stay tuned!
-Elizabeth
Ruelas, Artistic Director of The New Renaissance Theatre Company
PS: Attached
are a couple of photos of my trip with my travelling companion Balzac (who you
may remember from Andy Kirtland’s blog post last year: ‘A Labour of Love, or There and Back Again’) with more photos & my tweets during the weekend via #EtoGlobe.
