Theatre director training for classical theatre

Swain, Robert (2019) Theatre director training for classical theatre. In: Theatre Director claasical theatre workshops, 8 March 2014; 9-10 Jan, 14-15 May 2016; 14-15 Jan, 6-7 May 2017; 19-20 May, 1 July 2018, London and Stratford upon Avon, UK.

Abstract

The theatre industry is aware that many emerging directors are not choosing to direct classic texts, and that the theatre is losing innovative re-imaginings of these classic play for contemporary audiences. Many directors who have successfully directed new and modern plays are inhibited about directing a classic play because they believe they lack the specific skills and knowledge to: practically understand and explore iambic pentameter, rhetoric and other devices used in classic texts; to research and interpret the themes of classic texts in a way that will positively inform their re-imagining of these texts; to plan, assemble a creative team, and organise and rehearse a production of the scale and complexity of most classic texts. In 2013 the RSC launched a programme, Open Stages, to encourage amateur theatre companies to produce plays by Shakespeare for the first time. At the request of Ian Wainwright, the producer of Open Stages, I devised the structure of a weekend of workshops that would give amateur directors the skills, knowledge and confidence to direct their first Shakespeare production, and led workshops on how directors plan their research and lead rehearsals. By March 2014 we had held workshops at the RSC for over 50 theatre companies. In 2018 the RSC organised The Big Directors Weekend for 30 directors, using the same structure and for which I led a workshop. There will be further weekends in the future. In 2015 Shakespeare’s Globe Head of Education commissioned me to devise and structure a similar weekend of workshops, but with a different emphasis, based on the spaces at the Globe, for directors wishing to direct Shakespeare for the first time. The Directors’ Studio has run twice a year since 2016 for over 140 UK and international directors. There will be further workshops in the future.

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