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Cicely Berry - The Working Shakespeare Library

Posted By: groovebeat

Date: 20 Sep 2012 05:47:07

Jeremy Irons Hosts the Five-Part Working Shakespeare Educational DVD Series of Historic Shakespeare Workshops Conducted by the Royal Shakespeare Company's Legendary Voice and Speech Teacher Cicely Berry. Twenty actors from both sides of the Atlantic, most of whom had never met before, convened in New York for three days of intensive Shakespeare training workshops. The group, which included Emily Watson, Helen Hunt, Samuel L. Jackson, Victor Garber, Blythe Danner, Lindsay Duncan, Toby Stephens, Claire Danes, Cherry Jones, Tony Goldwyn, and Robert Sean Leonard, didn't sign up to demonstrate "how to" perform Shakespeare for the general edification of the theatre-going public.

Publisher: The Working Arts Library/Applause

Five DVD set. Total running time 7 hours and 13 minutes.

Jeremy Irons Hosts the Five-Part Working Shakespeare Educational DVD Series of Historic Shakespeare Workshops Conducted by the Royal Shakespeare Company's Legendary Voice and Speech Teacher Cicely Berry.

Twenty actors from both sides of the Atlantic, most of whom had never met before, convened in New York for three days of intensive Shakespeare training workshops. The group, which included Emily Watson, Helen Hunt, Samuel L. Jackson, Victor Garber, Blythe Danner, Lindsay Duncan, Toby Stephens, Claire Danes, Cherry Jones, Tony Goldwyn, and Robert Sean Leonard, didn't sign up to demonstrate "how to" perform Shakespeare for the general edification of the theatre-going public.

Their reason for attending these master classes was entirely selfish. They flew in from Hollywood and London for the chance to study with the Royal Shakespeare Company's legendary voice and speech teacher, Cicely Berry, the subject of the PBS documentary Where Words Prevail.

A five-part educational video series for students of literature, speech, and theatre arts, WORKING SHAKESPEARE, is the record of these historic instructional workshops of major British and American actors together delving into the structure, imagery, meaning and power of Shakespeare's language. Jeremy Irons introduces each program and describes its educational themes and instructional purposes. Irons urges actors, students, and fans of Shakespeare everywhere to pay heed to the lively proceedings to enhance their fluency and ultimately enjoyment of Shakespeare.

Cicely Berry's workshops do nothing to enshrine Shakespeare. Nobody learns "the right way" to perform him. If anything, Berry and her associate, Andrew Wade, set out to disturb whatever complacency or sense of rightness her acting students may harbor. The audience sees the actors burrowing with their whole bodies, minds and imaginations into Shakespeare's most beloved speeches, scenes and sonnets, often to emerge with a resoundingly fresh grasp of the work. And, of course, it is the high risk factor for participant and teacher that fuels the programs with such high octane energy.

Among the subjects Ms. Berry takes up with her stellar cast of actors are the fundamentals of meter and rhythm and how they inform character, the structure of speech, how imagery shapes action and character, how vowels convey emotion, humor through rhythm and underplay, and how sound and meaning are linked to feeling. The actors share their questions and ideas in discussions throughout the workshops about the exercises, the texts, the roles they play, and their experiences in bringing Shakespeare to life. Andrew Wade's Voice Preparation Workshop offers direct stimulating guidance for actors at all levels who wish to realize their vocal potential. The five-DVD set also includes two workbooks that break down and expand on the subjects covered on screen.

"We assume," says Berry "that a sophisticated intellectual background is required to grapple with Shakespeare on stage. But there is a much deeper, almost primal response-as available to inner city English students as to their counterparts in private school-the sound and rhythm in Shakespeare's language which arouses our emotions -feelings of anger and sorrow, of passion and laughter. How do performers excite the audience with Shakespeare's rich imagery and dynamic rhythm and yet make it real for the twenty-first century? Our bodies and minds shall answer that question."

"Aside from our educational aims, it was a way of testing the primal hypothesis," said Executive Producer Glenn Young, "that Americans have a genetic deficiency when it comes to performing Shakespeare, that we are doomed to mutter four letter words in contemporary plays, while our British cousins control classical discourse on stage. Of course, you don't root for Americans or Brits; you root for courage and truthfulness."

"Take your liberty!" Cicely exhorts her star students before beginning their first acting lesson. The result is an ebullient collision of intellectual longing, vocal experiment and visceral liberation.

Cicely Berry's 128-page Teacher's Companion describes the mechanics of each performance exercise and discusses the pedagogical intention and instructional outcome of each.

Workshop 1: MUSCULARITY OF LANGUAGE: Motion and Rhythm

In this first workshop, Cicely Berry introduces us to the fundamentals of meter and rhythm in Shakespeare. The group discovers how that underlying beat, the iambic pentameter, responds to the different thoughts of a character. Students explore the length of vowels and consonants to feel the muscularity of the language.

Workshop 2: UNDER THE TEXT: Subtext and the World of the Play

The group explores how the very choice of language and imagery takes us into the world of the play, and into the inner world of the character. Cicely Berry introduces us to the opening scenes of two of Shakespeare's most powerful plays— A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hamlet. Students work on the first three speeches of The Dream where they uncover the hidden passion and sexuality in Shakespeare's language which set the mind's stage for the extraordinary romance of that midsummer night. In Hamlet, the spareness of the language and the spaces within it open our ears to the mystery central to Hamlet's dilemma. We learn how the vocabulary of each play takes us into its unique world. In the darkened rehearsal studio, the opening scene of Hamlet is whispered with stunning impact by Robert Sean Leonard, Toby Stephens, Lennie James and Paul Jesson.

Workshop 3: PROSE AND VERSE TEXTS: Language and Imagery Reveal the Characters Inner Landscape

This workshop examines the prose texts in one classic play, Henry V, and in one modern play, Edward Bond's Lear as well as texts from Julius Caesar, Richard III, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Macbeth. Cicely Berry opens up the process of integrating the meaning of the text with the motive and intention of the characters.

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 which arouses our emotions—feelings of anger and sorrow, of passion and laughter.

Workshop 4: THE WHOLE VOICE: Its Sound and Range

This workshop is a compilation of all the voice work the group practiced throughout the workshops. This is a rare opportunity to see how professional actors productively prepare their voices during rehearsals and before performances. It is also an unforgettable reminder of the physical nature of language.

Workshop 5: THE VOICE PREPARATION WORKSHOP

The Voice Preparation Workshop offers direct, experienced, and artistically stimulating guidance for students of all ages who wish to explore their vocal potential through the principles articulated in the Working Shakespeare series.

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