Shakespeare in Performance at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art

This intensive course aims to immerse the student in the world of Shakespeare, while developing skills necessary for the performance of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, under the guidance of RADA/NYU Course Director, Vivian Munn and members of the RADA faculty. 

Key performance elements in the semester are:

• Shakespeare Prose & Clown Scenes
• The Masque (an historical sixteenth-century entertainment )
• Shakespeare Verse Scenes & Sonnets
• Shakespeare Speeches
• Shakespeare Our Contemporary (incorporating Shakespearean text and contemporary and/or original material)
• Studio Production (an abridged Shakespearean play before an invited audience)

 
Core classes include Voice, The Acting Voice, Voice into Text, Expressive Movement, Armed Combat, and Cultural Context. Across the semester there are regular sharings of work to faculty including, verse scenes, sonnets, and speeches.  Students receive a number of one-on-one tutorials and feedback with key staff. This course, with its emphasis on performance, makes great demands on students’ time and concentration, requiring vivid and accurate processing of material within short periods of preparation. During the course, students are not required to audition, and participants have equal opportunity within the allocation of roles and assignments.

Throughout the semester you will occasionally be required to work in the evening. Rehearsed Readings will take place around the last week of the program; RADA students will be cast in the Screenwriting in London and/or Playwriting in London students' work for the Rehearsed Readings. All students must attend all classes.

This course offers a wide-ranging introduction to London’s history and contemporary developments and explores the capital through field trips to galleries, museums, and places of iconic interest. Lectures and visits by practicing artists, as well as discussions and debates, stimulate interest in a wide spectrum of the arts, including architecture, music, photography, painting, the applied arts, and aspects of performance. 

This course examines the role that the capital has played in British film from the early, silent years to today. Many directors have used the iconic status of London as either the protagonist or backdrop in films of different genres, from the silent era to World War II documentaries, from the “swinging London” of the 1960s to the social satires of the 1980s, and from gangster films to romantic comedies. The course explores the significance of this world city and its representation of Britishness. It also provides the opportunity, where possible, of exploring the real locations and venues where films were shot.

The focus of this course is Shakespeare’s text as performance.  The study aims to uncover clues apparent to an Elizabethan actor and consider how this might inform current theatre practice.  Each sessions is a discrete unit, each with a separate focus blending academic and theatrical in areas such as adaptation and sources, style and interpretation, structure and genre, mythology and history.  The course encourages students to develop a working knowledge of the canon and read as widely as possible.  A chance to specialise comes in the final presentation which is in the form of a production proposal based on the experience of the course.  Work is enhanced by a visit to Stratford-upon-Avon, a performance by the Royal Shakespeare Company, a visit to the Globe theatre and opportunities to view a wide range of recorded productions.

A selection of theatrical productions is chosen to give students a feel for the breadth and depth of London theatre during theatre visits to the West End and fringe theatres. Each production is viewed and analyzed as a whole, but the many and varied elements that go into making London theatre supply a different focus each week. In addition there are occasional field trips to sites of theatrical interest with a guest speaker or two thrown into the mix each semester to discuss his/her work (from writing to directing to acting to designing), to share knowledge and expertise and to help demonstrate how high-quality parts are needed to make a high-quality whole.