RADA Blogs

Neil Fraser in Delhi, India

Neil Fraser is Director of Technical Training at RADA and he is away in Delhi, India, this week teaching Lighting Design.

Day 2

Day 2 in India visiting the National School of Drama (NSD) in Delhi - 5.30 a.m. and the world explodes, awakening us all (we conferred later - we are NOT sharing a room) with a prolonged and threateningly loud concussion of thunder rolls around the hotel. In my half awake state my first thought is that a building nearby has collapsed or exploded - 'terrorist attack in London' I think, and then remember where I am. A few smaller claps of thunder follow but little sign of rain later when we surface for breakfast.

Teaching goes well for me today - my small class responds well to talking about and then creating lighting based on the human figure. This follows yesterday's introductory lecture on 'what does/can stage lighting achieve?' as part of which each student used one instrument to light one object of their choosing. The objects chosen were a baby doll, an electric floor fan, a small bulb horn and a broken pot - and from this we got stories, mystery, beauty, domesticity, industry, fear and suspense and many other ideas. But with such a visual art you really did have to be there to appreciate the work!

Today we discussed how lighting works similarly but even more so on the human form and the results were exciting and very interesting. Three hours in which hopefully the students learnt much. I certainly did - it is good to be using the raw material of light again.

After lunch David and Chantal picked up the education baton and I retired to read - when (at 5.30 p.m. this time) I am entertained by more thunder and amazing multi-directional lightning which plays on the sixties hotel block opposite my hotel balcony to amazing effect.

More tomorrow...

ma theatre lab blog

Benjamin Blyth is a MA Theatre Lab Student. 

Wednesday 29 February

And what do you do? The RADA MA Theatre Lab is a mysterious course. Most of this mystique has been deliberately peddled by me and my ilk in an increasingly desperate attempt to appear both sexy and aloof. Having achieved neither of these goals, I have broken rank in order to write this monthly blog on the RADA website – with the specific aim of enlightening the interested in the ways of one of the most exciting new drama courses in the UK. 

Lasting one calendar year (run from September to September) the MA Theatre Lab is the only vocational acting MA offered by RADA. The course is comprised of practical classes in voice, movement, acting, contextual studies and theatre history - with the sole aim of creating a new breed of ensemble performer suitable for the theatre of the 21^st century. Firmly rooted in the dramatology (which spell check insists I change to dermatology) of Jerzy Grotowski, a strong focus is placed in class work on ensemble playing – keeping alive the traditions of the greatest theatre troupes; the Moscow Arts Theatre, Berliner Ensemble and (of course) the Lord Chamberlain’s Men.

Our first term focussed on the Stanislavskian framework, culminating in a promenade production of Chekhov’s Three Sisters, directed by the unstoppable Sue Dunderdale who somehow managed to fit running a RADA MA fundraising half marathon around rehearsals. Presented in Bloomsbury’s Russian museum ‘Pushkin House’, the performance saw the fruition of 12 weeks intensive physical and emotional training. I played the put-upon elder brother Andrei, a casting that proved incredibly difficult for me as an actor. Being able to laugh at Andrei’s incompetence is one thing, but playing this genuinely is quite another. I found that vulnerability so difficult to show at first. Being laughed at when you yourself are in tears, however, felt truly Chekhovian. As with any show you only play once, it felt over before it had truly begun.

Alongside the production the academy ran a fantastic course called Development of Performance under the tutelage of Annabel Arden and Kasia Zaremba-Byrne. Classes focussed on how to ‘be’ on stage, developing our physical work and providing a base in the Feldenkrais method. Working towards the true vulnerability of the naked actor continued in this vein in the second term, with extensive work on neutral mask and Commedia-del-Arte with Clara McBride.

This second term culminates in two in-house performances; a Brechtian production of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata (for which I must now go to the gym- cutting this blog entry short) and a cabaret evening under the sure guidance of our excitable Welsh singing teacher Phil Raymond. These classes in the second half of term are taught alongside our Laban-loving, force-of-nature movement coach Darren Royston. To be singing and moving in the same class has led to some surprising insights into the performance of songs, and why a character chooses to sing. This sort of risk-free, experimental approach is what the course is really about – being able to play without fear of reprove. In the classroom, anyway.

Check back to see how these are developing, and how the course continues to take shape in this, its very first year.
 

ma theatre directing blog

Matthew Monaghan is a MA Theatre Directing Student. 

Thursday 14 January

It is the first week back after the Christmas holiday and already things are very busy. Last night I transported my heavy portfolio of last term’s design work home - this gave me a chance to reflect upon the density of material we had worked through before the break.

The end of last term culminated with a design presentation on Riders to the Sea (documenting our process of work- from unit tables, to research, creative visual response, storyboarding, sketches of the floor pan, initial design drawings, and finally the making of a model box) a performance of Three Sisters in Pushkin House, and workshops with professional actors (each director had two actors) which culminated in showings to each other of the work we had brought into life.

The two days of workshops with professional actors were extremely rewarding. I worked with Sean O’Callaghan and Robin Morrissey, both RADA graduates, on a beautiful little scene from the end of Act Four of Shakespeare’s rarely performed Timon of Athens. I staged the scene in traverse and in performance Sean and Robin gave very touching and human performances. They were both a delight to work with; both of them were generous, giving and openhearted in the rehearsal room.

I had prepared many on-text and off-text exercises before the workshops started, but in the rehearsal room I quickly realised a lot of them were unnecessary and what was needed in that context was spontaneous nurturing of the energy both actors brought to the table. I think a lot of the time young directors feel they need to have a limitless supply of creative exercises to do with their actors, when really what is often needed is simple work on the text and what the actors bring to the text. Preparation is important (I’d prepared four scripts- one for units, one for actions, one for changes in thought process and the other for metre/form, and I’d thought deeply about how I would stage the scene) but actors often have insights you haven’t seen, and nurturing and responding to these are equally important.

The showings of the scenes were very interesting- you could really see each director’s personality coming through in the scene they had directed. This development of a creative voice will grow in the four of us this year. This term I am assistant directing a RADA third year production of Sondheim’s Saturday Night- we are on our second day of rehearsals- and then doing a technical attachment (lighting) before a rehearsed reading with the first year actors at the end of the term. As it is a new year I’m both looking back at what I’ve learnt and looking forward to new challenges.

Watch this space to find out about how Saturday Night is progressing.

technical students blog

Janine Forster is a studying on the four term Scenic Construction course at RADA.

As you can probably tell I was in the metal workshop this week and I was set a 3 day project.
In three days I had to design and make a working lamp using mainly metal but was free to use other materials as well.

Now, the last time I had to design a lamp was three years ago for my undergrad final project so it was a little daunting and needed a little metaphorical oil to loosen up my rusty joints, so I headed to the library to look for some inspiration.

I wanted to do something that did reflect a design period and one of my favorite design movements is the Bauhaus movement, but I wanted to steer away from that as I wanted to challenge myself a little.

I started looking into Art Deco designs and then moved into Art Nouveaux and the Arts and Crafts movement. I also looked into things like Tesla and the early electricity experiments see if I could draw and inspiration from them.

This is a very cool picture of a Tesla coil at work the shape of which I think would have made a very cool looking chandelier but was a little too ambitious for a three day project!!!

I did a little bit off sketching trying out different designs and styles and then I settled on a design that was inspired but the Charles Rennie Mackintosh rose.
I made a cardboard model at 1:1 scale so I could see the dimensions that I wanted to use. I always find it easier to make a model so I can actually see the proportions.