DE-MYSTIFYING SHAKESPEARE:
11th - 15th April 2024
We are so lucky to welcome Edward Bennett for this workshop. He was recently seen on BBC4 playing Laertes to David Tennant's Hamlet at the RSC.
“We think that theatre has a special role to play, because it give audiences an opportunity to be in the room and feel that incredible magic, when you feel that you are seeing something that’s happening live in front of you that no one else will ever see again.” Benet Brandreth
How do you generate incredibly alive and intimate and electric performances?
We think that there’s a tool to helps an actor get to that place by giving them a way very quickly to access character and to make the words that they’re speaking seem alive as if the character is thinking of them and expressing them for the first time in that very moment.
And that tool is rhetoric: Which is the study of language and the study of the way that language works on the minds of others.
Rhetoric is no longer part of education, we’re not familiar with it from our schooldays.
"And the point of this workshop is to find a way to clothe our work with a vocabulary that doesn’t alienate anyone, that everyone is able to access them." Iqbal Khan
Edward Bennett will be joined by Benet Brandreth & Iqbal Khan to share this wonderfully empowering tool over a five-day workshop.
“This work necessitates actors taking away from themselves that part that feels they have to ‘act’ What this work does is that it creates an environment for actors to concentre on nothing else but the argument that’s being made and how to win it!“ Edward Bennett
Limited places available: We aim to work with a group of no more than 15
Price: £350/£300 (Conc.) Early Bird (before 31st October) £300/£250
Price includes 5 days training. Timing flexible tbc.
Bookings & information: info@cygnettheatre.co.uk
Creative Actor Training
1-3rd March
“In our lore, to understand means to feel” Stanislavski
Facilitators Matthieu Leloup and Matilde Jalles Bred In The Bone Theatre Company www.bredinthebone.co.uk
In this three-day workshop and work showing BITB will share their corporeal, organic physical approach to actor training. The workshop will facilitate techniques that aim to harvest the embodied creativity generated during rehearsals and sustain them for the time of the performance.
Participants will practise the tuning of the mind-body instrument and explore the organic connections between Movement, Voice and Text. They will be introduced to performative physical scores and how they can structure character embodiment. They will be led into the rich and playful realm of Ensemble practices, practising co-ordination and nurturing the creative relationship with oneself and with others.
Residency Schedule
(Optional) Warm up of the Ensemble, Introduction to practice of Scales for the Actor
Morning sessions : Daily Actor Training routine/techniques
Afternoon sessions: Creative paths into Text embodiment, play with character(s), creating in the theatrical space.
Final day: Late afternoon showing in front of an audience, sharing of work.
This residence is addressed to all actors/performers in theatre and movement-based practices. It is an invitation to train and (re)collect the body and the mind of performer practice. It is open to all walks of life in a celebration of inclusivity and diversity
“It was the most fulfilling experience and the biggest change in perspective I have ever experienced. It has changed my perception of theatre and the reasons why I want to do it, but also my outlook on life. It placed me on a search for more and made me question my honesty to myself and those around me, my relationships as a whole.” Ariadna Tilve, Spain, Residency 2010
Matthieu is a Theatre maker who has trained acting in Paris (Lecoq, Zadreddin Zahed), and the UK (Cygnet patron Peter Brook, M. Chekhov UK), movement in Indonesia (Prapto Suryodarmo) and physical theatre acting in Poland (Piesn Kozla, Grotowksi Institute).
Matilde trained at the National Theatre Conservatoire of Lisbon in Portugal and in the UK. She works as a professional actress in theatre, TV and film in Portugal.
Limited places available: We aim to work with a group of no more than 14
Price: £200/£170(Conc.) Early Bird (before 15th January) £180/£150(Conc.)
Price includes 3 days training.
Bookings & information: theatre@bredinthebone.co.uk
Meisner Technique Acting Course: Fortnightly SEPTEMBER - November 2023
Improvisation Acting Course ongoing
Join Sam Morgan and more (final list to be confirmed) for ongoing Improvisation workshops. Playful learning and development.
Method acting, short form games, clowning, characterisation, connecting with scene partner, story-telling skills, long-form narrative, scenes, songs and silliness!
At the Cygnet Theatre for various dates
Price TBC but will remain low to encourage and support all local actors and improvisers. If you feel you would like to support us and are able to pay more, there is an option to donate an additional amount that you choose.
Dates for Autumn:
Sundays September 10 & 24, October 8 & 22, November 5 & 19
10am - 1pm.
Cost £60 for this course of six sessions.
Contact: thatmarkcassidy@hotmail.com
Our previously participants are warmly invited to continue with us, developing their technique and applying it to scene work
If you have any questions or would like to book contact: info@cygnettheatre.co.uk
or
thatmarkcassidy@hotmail.com