BADA Update

School remains interesting and provoking.  My voice and movement classes revolve around each other as they both help the actor to find his proper alignment and best vocal positioning.  I have experienced similar training with professors Sean Dooley and Daina Robins at Hope, but these two professionals really know how to get the best out of each individual while in the context of a group.  The classes are focused on ensemble building within each of the areas, and how the power of the group gives power to the individual.

Acting Shakespeare is a class that I've already experienced at Hope.  We began with sonnets, are currently working on solos, and will soon work with scenes.  What is different about this class is the professor, Sheila Allen, who has built her career on playing Shakespeare at the RSC, Globe, and National Theatre, as well as doing other important work in both Theatre and Film in London.  Her view on speaking Shakespeare is to always allow for endings of each line in verse speeches, (something always debated upon in the U.S.).  Her technique allows the actor to free himself of trying to make sense of the line by completing the sentences, but rather gives the actor a chance to pause and listen to himself during the speech.  What seemed unnatural at first has now become a major ally for myself in delivering a speech honestly by letting the words in each line motivate the emotion.  Too often Shakespeare teachers tell actors to move quickly through the phrases rather than taking time to account for each word, each image created, each important moment in the context of a large body of work.

Modern Physical is a class that influenced Nathan Allen, (who came to write Rose and the Rime at Hope), to build his company, The HOUSE Theatre of Chicago.  It is obvious how Mick Barnfather of Theatre de Complicite in London influenced Nathan while he was at BADA.  The classes are all about group building and devising to create new and imaginative work.  We are still in the early stage of this, so more to come later.

High Comedy is instructed by Annabel Leventon who was in the original production of Hair and the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show.  (How great is that, right)?  Her credits are endless in London and the U.S., and has so much to give us.  We're currently working on the play The Relapse by John Vanbrugh which will be performed at the end of the first 8 weeks for everyone wanting to see it.  I play Lord Foppington, (the name will give you an indication of this character), who recently bought his right of nobility and makes it his goal to bed the wife of a man named Loveless.  It's a beautiful piece of Restoration comedy, and will be very entertaining to rehearse and perform.

We're also learning intense Stage Combat.  I don't have many positive speculations on this one as the teacher is a bitter 30-something who obviously couldn't get work as an actor or dancer and so reverts to her training as a stage combat instructor (you may know the type).  Nonetheless, the fights are frickin sweet and I'll be a deadly force when all is said and done.

Theatre History and Theatre Criticism are both taught by Christopher Cook, a very articulate and accomplished theatre critic in London.  Every week we have a school funded production that we see for Criticism, and a play we read for History.  The challenge in these classes is to become more articulate about how we understand a play and a production.  We keep a theatre journal which accounts for every theatrical experience we have in London.  Cook then gives us feedback on our entries, and soon to be papers, as we become more enlightened through out craft.  I've always wanted classes like this.  Cook empowers us to know exactly what we are seeing, thus we are able to put our experiences into words more clearly.  So hopefully these posts will get better as my experience continues!