The complete set is accompanied by a 128-page Guide for Teachers by Cicely Berry.
Featuring Samuel L. Jackson, Emily Watson, Robert Sean Leonard, Helen Hunt, Blythe Danner, Toby Stephens, Kate Burton, Victor Garber, Clare Danes and other fine actors.
The landmark five-part video series gives voice to Shakespeare's most beloved and widely known speeches and sonnets performed by a powerhouse ensemble of American and British actors, as they delve into the structure, meaning and power of Shakespeare's language. Aimed at students of literature and theatre arts, each video explores a different aspect of Shakespeare's work. How do we enter the heightened, extravagant language of Shakespeare and yet feel truthful in today's world? How do performers excite the audience with Shakespeare's rich imagery and dynamic rhythm and yet make it real for the twenty-first century? We assume that a sophisticated intellectual background is required to grapple with Shakespeare. But there is a much deeper, almost primal response, as available to inner city students as to their counterparts in the private school, to the sound and rhythm in Shakespeare's language that arouses our emotions - feelings of anger and sorrow, of passion and laughter.
These totally unrehearsed workshops are sure to enthuse young people with an active curiosity in our greatest dramatist and make them want to speak Shakespeare themselves, and make his language their own.
Texts are supplied onscreen as well as in Cicely Berry's teacher's manual to the set. Cicely Berry, director of voice of the Royal Shakespeare Company, has developed her approach in schools and community groups in the States and Great Britain and with students as far apart as Brazil and China.
“Adrenaline flowed freely as the actors pitched into Ms. Berry’s vocal and physical exercises….She guided the actors into becoming a combined force exploring the drama of language.” - The New York Times
The set includes:
Workshop One: Muscularity of Language: Motion and Rhythm
Workshop Two: Under the Text: Subtext and the World of the Play
Workshop Three: Prose and Verse Texts:
Workshop Four: The Whole Voice: Its Sound and Range
Workshop Five: The Voice Preparation Workshop
The workshops are available individually as well
Softcover with DVD. Pages: 157
