Spring Acting Classes Postponed
Out of respect for societal efforts to minimize person-to-person contact, and due to the uncertainty of many people’s schedules, workloads, finances, etc. during this time of coronavirus countermeasures, we are postponing our spring acting classes until things become more normal. We hope to bring them back in the summer or autumn.
In the meantime, check out what we had planned below. We hope to get to this same material later in the year.
Movement & Ensemble
Sundays, 12:00-1:50pm
King Lear rehearsal photos (2019) by Robert Michael Evans
Prague photos (2018) by Lauren Ash-Morgan and Michael Downey
Spring Session 1: April 5-26 (Postponed until further notice)
Spring Session 2: May 17-June 7 (Postponed until further notice)
Tuition fee per 4-week session: 90,000KRW
(See discounts on our main Shakespeare Studio page)
Description:
Experience a series of movement and ensemble-building techniques designed to free the body, connect with others, hone moment to moment instincts onstage, and develop full in-the-moment presence.
Course Objectives:
-develop spatial awareness, body awareness, and physical and mental openness,
-develop greater ability to connect with and react to others,
-hone moment to moment physical impulses,
-break away from the idea of performing, stripping down performance to the pure self in the moment
Please wear clothes you can move freely in. We will be working barefoot.
Instructor's Note:
In the summer of 2018, I had the privilege of training in Prague Shakespeare Company's Summer Shakespeare Intensive, working with a variety of great teachers, directors, and actors, and had the transformative experience of being cast in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, directed by world-renowned Shakespeare expert Ben Crystal. The performance was largely improvisational, following the practice in Shakespeare's time of using cue scripts and performing largely unrehearsed, and we used our three weeks of rehearsal time to focus on a specific process of ensemble-building through movement. I recently utilized some of these techniques in directing Seoul Shakespeare Company's King Lear, as well as in coaching the short play Trumpus Rex and teaching acting classes in the autumns of 2018 and 2019.
These techniques can have wide-ranging positive effects, both on stage and in normal life. They tend to enhance spatial awareness, foster connection between people, increase ease with sustained eye contact, reduce anxiety, and open actors up to moment-to-moment reaction. While these techniques can have a quick and immediate effect even in the context of a short workshop, they are particularly effective when working regularly with a group of people over time, and can eventually be applied to rehearsing scenes.
In each session of this class, we will progress through these techniques in an introductory way. If there is enough interest to continue this class in the future, with a regular group of actors, we may be able to start applying the techniques to scene work.
RETURN TO THE MAIN SHAKESPEARE STUDIO PAGE FOR GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT ALL CLASSES
(Location, how to register, discounts for multiple classes, etc.)
Speech of Fire's
Shakespeare Studio
Spring 2020 Acting Classes
Spring Session 1: April 5-26 (Postponed until further notice)
Spring Session 2: May 17-June 7 (Postponed until further notice)
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:
Lauren Ash-Morgan is Founding Co-Artistic Director of Speech of Fire, together with New Zealand actor/director/playwright Michael Downey. She was the Artistic Director and Producer of Seoul Shakespeare Company (SSC) from late 2014 to late 2019 and an actor and board member for SSC starting in 2011. Last year she directed, designed, and produced her final SSC production, King Lear. She served as Seoul Shakespeare Company text coach, together with Michael, from late 2015 to late 2019, and was the movement/ensemble coach for King Lear.
Lauren and Michael have been training actors through workshops and rehearsal techniques since late 2015, first as the leaders of Seoul Shakespeare Company, and now as Speech of Fire. Over time they have incorporated techniques learned in Prague Shakespeare Company's Summer Shakespeare Intensive, the Shakespeare Theatre Association's annual conferences, personal study and research, and rehearsal processes for the shows they have directed and coached.
Lauren has previously taught the classes “Movement and Ensemble Work” (2018, 2019), “Acting Shakespeare’s Text” (2018, 2019), "Rehearsing Shakespearean Monologues & Scenes” (2019), “Exploring Gugak in Theatre Training” (2018), "Gugak: Movement & Voice" (2019), and “Preparing to Perform: Strategies for Approaching Shakespeare's Text” (2016) and has coached many actors in SSC's “Shakesperiments” workshops, which she first created in 2014.
Lauren's acting credits include Prague Shakespeare Company's The Two Gentlemen of Verona directed by Ben Crystal at the Estates Theatre (Silvia/Ensemble); Seoul Shakespeare Company’s The Merchant of Venice (Portia), Garage (Susan), The Winter’s Tale (Paulina/Time/Bohemian), Much Ado About Nothing (Beatrice), Titus Andronicus (Tamora), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Oberon), Hamlet (Gertrude), The Tempest (Alonsa), Macbeth (Lady Macbeth), Shakespeare's Love and Despair (Lady Macbeth, Trinculo, Gertrude, Tamora, Desdemona) and Shakespeare's Gore and Madness (Portia, Queen Margaret, Gertrude); Probationary Theatre Company’s Popcorn (Farrah), Betrayal (Emma), and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Martha); Eurasia Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Richard III (Queen Elizabeth) at the National Theater of Korea; and the independent feature film Amiss. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Education (Voice) from Ithaca College and an M.A. in Ethnomusicology, specializing in Korean traditional music and dance, and has studied and performed pansori, Korean traditional dance, and gayageum, in various capacities, since 2005, often using these techniques in theatre performance.
"When praise is lavished upon the famous,
the people contend and compete with one another.
When exotic goods are traded and treasured,
the compulsion to steal is felt.
When desires are constantly stimulated,
people become disturbed and confused.
Therefore, the wise person sets an example
by emptying her mind, opening her heart,
relaxing her ambitions, relinquishing her
desires, cultivating her character.
Having conquered her own cunning and cravings,
she can't be manipulated by anyone.
Do by not-doing.
Act with non-action.
Allow order to arise of itself.
― The Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu, translated by Brian Browne Walker
(Thank you, Ben.)