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Reddit mentions of Mastering Shakespeare: An Acting Class in Seven Scenes

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We found 1 Reddit mentions of Mastering Shakespeare: An Acting Class in Seven Scenes. Here are the top ones.

Mastering Shakespeare: An Acting Class in Seven Scenes
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Height9 Inches
Length6 Inches
Number of items1
Release dateOctober 2003
Weight0.87523518014 Pounds
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Found 1 comment on Mastering Shakespeare: An Acting Class in Seven Scenes:

u/rising_moon ยท 1 pointr/Theatre

Warm-ups, Games, Exercises:

This largely depends on who you are working with, but I stay away from requiring actors to do group exercises. The more experienced and professional they are, the more likely they are to resent group exercises. Experienced actors often have their own warm-ups they do before they even arrive in the rehearsal room, or that they show up early to do and feel like their time is wasted with group warm-ups. However, group warm ups can be very good if you have new actors in your cast, because they do not know HOW to warm themselves up, and it's a good way to encourage them to get in their bodies and voices without singling out the new actors. Just be prepared for some push-back.

Getting off-book:

Generally you can request that people be off book at anytime as long as you announce it early. Shy away from announcing an off-book date less than 2 weeks before the actual off-book date, which means that if you want them to come in on day-one off-book that you need to be sending e-mails 2 weeks before you begin rehearsal, at the very least. That said, it's generally accepted that if you don't give an off-book date that people should be mostly off-book during scene work and totally off-book when you start doing run throughs. Because you have three months, I would encourage you not to put the off book date too early. In fact, encourage your actors to have scripts in hand. This will help them grapple with the language on a deeper level. Also, have an off-book date (which means no books in hands, but they can still call line) and have a no-calling-line date, too (this should be much later in the process, perhaps during tech.

Staging:

I think this will come down to good planning in your blocking. Find the elements that don't change from space to space (for instance, there's always a stage left and stage right entrance in every space) and do most of your blocking around that. When you're rehearsing, tape out or flesh out somehow the dimensions of different spaces that you'll be in each time - so the actors can get a feel for how each space might be different. If possible, make time to do a dress rehearsal in the space before you perform in it. Or if that's not possible because of budget or because of scheduling, make sure that you make time for your actors to walk through the space at least to get a feel for it.

Initial Sessions:

Depending on the group, I would avoid giving the actors homework. They'll have their own ideas about what kind of homework is valuable. But having a discussion about the play and doing table work is a great way to start it off. First rehearsal should be a short discussion about the play and a first read-through of the script. Then table work is usually reading the play with full-cast scene-by-scene and at the end of every scene stopping and inviting questions or responses about the scene. Because it's Shakespeare there will be a lot of questions about what a word or phrase means. While you don't have to have all the answers, you should come very prepared to explain the meaning of things, or have references readily available that you can read from. But encourage broader discussion too about theme or character, or scansion.

Minor Roles:

Absolutely do not call them to every rehearsal. They are not playing a principal role and should not be expected to show up to as many rehearsals as principals. Respect the time of minor roles by only calling them when you're working on their scene or even their french scene, but make sure that they are integrated into the cast as a whole by having regular all-calls for the cast where you do something meaningful as a group (table work, stumble throughs, dance choreography, etc)

Individual Work:

Yep, this is absolutely the status quo and is the most respectful use of people's time.

Technical Stuff:

Stage management should be there before day one. They can help you organize scheduling, and often can help you even during casting. They should be in the room every rehearsal taking blocking notes for the actors and for your reference and making notes for designers as well. (A lot of these notes will likely be props notes, for example: "Props: we're adding a handheld lantern to Act I Scene 2"). These notes can be e-mailed out to actors and designers as a rehearsal report at the end of every rehearsal. You should know who is designing from day one, but they don't need to be involved that early, necessarily. Ideally, you will have had a chat with your scenic and costume designer weeks before day 1 of rehearsal and they will be prepared to give a presentation to the actors with their scenic model, renderings, and costume illustrations, but this is not always necessary and is more the professional model than the typical community theatre model. Depending on the technical ambition of your show and your resources available, you may not even need to give a presentation to actors, but remember that you cannot start blocking until you have an idea of the set so scenic sketches should be acquired ASAP.

It's typical for all of the designers to be present at your first stumble through of the show (this might be very early on depending on how you set it up) and also customary for them to be present during the first read-through. This will help them to get an idea of where you're taking the show, and will help the scenic and lighting designer get an idea of how you're using the physical space. This is an important part of their process and if they cannot make it to the first stumble through, find another early run-through that they can attend. You should be meeting with them regularly throughout and they will probably have a better idea than you about what their milestones are and what dates those milestones will be due (costume fittings, light plots, costume parade, etc). As a new theatrical director, rely on your designers to inform your process a lot.

Apart from the first stumble through and the first read, often designers do not need to come to rehearsal until tech week, or just before tech week in order to prepare for tech week. (For example, a good experienced lighting designer will show up 2 or 3 days before tech week to write down where they think lighting cues will go in their scripts. They may even start programming earlier than tech week).

Books, Resources:

Do you have any books about this kind of stuff that you think could be useful? I've got several on the artistic side of things, but nothing about how to organise rehearsal, measuring progress, case studies, and other questions mentioned above.

You should get and read through a Stage Management book. This will answer a lot of questions you have about etiquette and about scheduling. My all time favorite stage management book is this one and another good book is this one. You should also get Notes on Directing and Tips: Ideas for Directors. This two directing books are my favorite because they are not long winded explanations about the theory of theatre - they are practical, very short snippets of advice and that you can take piece-meal. Another great book for Shakespeare is Mastering Shakespeare by Scott Kaiser. This is a great book about the actors process with Shakespeare, so as a director it might not seem super helpful, but it really and truly is, especially if you're new to the theatrical process - understanding how the theatrical actors process is different than films is very important. Another very good series on acting Shakespeare is the series that BBC aired called Playing Shakespeare by Jon Barton and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Here's a link to youtube, they have almost the full series online. I'd recommend particularly the video I linked to on Verse and another video they have on Rehearsing Shakespeare.