The Drama Department was delighted to welcome back actor Adam Gillian (RBAI 2003-2010) on Friday 19th April to take a Shakespeare workshop for Mrs McCord’s year 8 Drama class. Adam began by explaining to the pupils that his love for Shakespeare’s language was first fostered during his A’ level studies of “The Tempest” and “King Lear” with Mrs. McCord and that he had recently played the role of Romeo in the highly successful Lyric Theatre’s production of “Romeo and Juliet”. It was extremely apt then that the focus of the workshop was on the opening Prologue of “Romeo and Juliet”.
The pupils enjoyed a range of vocal and physical warm-up activities to energise and focus their minds, imagining themselves standing on the stage of the Globe, ready to perform to the C17th masses. Once in groups, the boys quickly got to grips with the nuances of the iambic pentameter rhythm under Adam’s expert guidance; firstly clapping out the beat and then adding the opening lines of the Prologue. After some rehearsal time volunteers performed individual lines and the possible meaning of the language was discussed with some pupils showing excellent insight.
The workshop culminated in a whole class performance of the Prologue, with just enough time at the end for a question and answer session with Adam about his acting career and his time at Inst! The year 8 drama class now look forward to developing their acting skills and building on their knowledge of the Bard with Adam promising to return to see their progress!
On Friday afternoon the language of Shakespeare rang out once more in the Drama studio as auditions for the Drama Department’s highly anticipated production of “Anthony and Cleopatra” with Hunter House College and directed by Mrs. McClean got under way.