[NEohioPAL] One week left to enroll in BardLab: A Course in Verse Acting

[Cleveland Shakespeare Festival via NEohioPAL]

*BardLab* is a six-week course designed to prepare the actor for acting in
verse drama, with a special emphasis on skills needed for outdoor
performance.


*Saturday mornings between 10am and 12pmMay 6-June 10Ensemble Theater2843
Washington Blvd in Cleveland Heights*COST: $100 for 12 hours of instruction
To enroll, visit our website <http://www.cleveshakes.com/1421-2/>.
*Topics covered include:*
Week 1: Paraphrasing
Week 2: Scansion
Week 3: Rhetoric
Week 4: Direct Audience Address
Week 5: Performing Outdoors
Week 6: Putting it all together

*Paraphrasing*
This is more than just putting Shakespeare into your own words. Shakespeare
wrote during what is termed the early modern​ era – the vocabulary that he
used and we use today are almost identical so less “translation” is needed
than we think.
Shakespeare’s ability to use a word with a multiplicity of meanings in
multiple ways is one of the reasons we keep performing his works. This
method of paraphrasing not only helps the actor find Shakespeare’s multiple
meanings but also allows for better communication between the director,
scene partners, and the audience.
*Scansion and Rhetoric*
In Shakespeare’s time, theater companies didn’t have directors. One theory
is that the playwrights left clues in the scripts to help the actors find
their way through a character and scene. Scansion and rhetoric are those
clues.
Many of Shakespeare’s plays are written in verse form that has a specific
rhythm. The scansion class will help you identify those rhythms and to
learn what they might mean to help you make
choices as an actor.
*Rhetoric*
is “the art or science of all specialized literary uses of language in
prose or verse, including the figures of speech” (dictionary.com).
Shakespeare uses many figures of speech in verse and prose, but rhetoric is
what provides the rhythm for his prose speeches.
*Direct Audience Address*
Get comfortable playing to the groundlings by addressing your speeches
directly to the audience by learning how to treat it as another character
in the play.
*Performing Outdoors*
All the above information is useless if the audience can’t hear or see you.
This class will explore ways to warm up and perform in order to adjust your
voice and physicality to the space.
*Putting It All Together*
The final class is an opportunity to get everyone on their feet to use the
information to perform a small scene.

Instructor:
*Kelly Elliott* has a MLitt and a MFA in Shakespeare and Performance from
Mary Baldwin University. While there she worked with the American
Shakespeare Center and both acted and directed on their recreation of the
Blackfriars Playhouse. Before graduate school, Kelly choreographed stage
combat, performed, directed, and produced in theaters all around Northeast
Ohio. Her play KILL WILL (co-written with Joshua Brown), which addresses
all the deaths in Shakespeare in about an hour, had its world premier at
Cleveland Public Theatre and was also performed at the Minnesota Fringe
Festival. Kelly’s extensive experience with Shakespeare includes (but is
not limited to) a stint co-running the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival
(1999-2001), choreographing violence for many Shakespeare productions,
working for Great Lakes Theater’s education department, playing the titular
role in MACBETH, and receiving positive reviews for her portrayal as Bottom
the Weaver in Brave Spirits Theatre’s A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
(Washington, DC).
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