This Shakespeare Workshop will be run by Nora Williams, who will direct next year’s production of Richard II. This will be a practical and accessible workshop focussing on three ways of developing a character through movement:
• elements - the four natural elements of earth, water, fire, and air. These each have different properties that can be combined in various ways to help develop the physical and vocal traits of your characters
• archetypes - understanding your character's archetype and to what extent they fulfil its core characteristics can help you narrow down their style and quality of movement, as well as how they related to other characters.
• Laban efforts - developed by dancer and choreographer Rudolf Laban in the mid-twentieth century, this system for analysing movement breaks all actions down into four constituent parts: direction, weight, speed, and flow. Each of these parts can be described through a binary -- direction, for example, can be direct or indirect. By combining these in different ways, Laban arrived at eight "efforts" that describe different qualities of movement.
These three foundational techniques are applicable to a wide range of characters in different genres, periods, and styles, and they are adaptable to any level of experience or mobility. We will apply them to a selection of characters from Shakespeare and early modern drama.
Please wear clothing and footwear that you can move in comfortably, and bring a bottle of water. If there is a specific character you'd particularly like to work on, please feel welcome to bring along a short speech of theirs (up to 10 lines).
Also check out other Workshops in Colchester, Performances in Colchester, Arts events in Colchester.
