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Composer / Musician Sarah Sayeed leads 3 workshops at summer school June 14 - 19 The Playground Theatre, W10

In the Youtube video Sarah tells us about her 3 sessions

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Sarah Sayeed is a musician, vocal artist, composer, writer and workshop facilitator who has worked at both the RSC and Globe. She has more than 15 years of experience working collaboratively with a range of artists. She is currently director of Phakama Project, Queen Mary's University of London.
www.projectphakama.org

sarahsayeedartist.com is where you can read much more about Sarah's work


Over three evenings Sarah offers a range of workshops:

Free Your Voice - Discover your own natural voice, exploring different ways of working with range and dynamics. We will focus on expression, intent and clarity as we explore extracts from Shakespeare’s texts and dialogue. Monday 14th (5.30 – 9.30pm £65).

Composing Sound and Design - This session will explore ways of scoring a piece of Shakespeare’s text. We will discover natural resources the actor or performer can utilise in scoring using the body, through instruments and the voice. Tuesday 15th (5.30 – 9.30pm £65).

The Art of the Speech - What makes a good speech and how do we best approach it? Exploring different methods of approaching speech through language, meaning, voice work and delivery. Wednesday 16th (5.30 to 9.30pm £65) .

#Composer #SoundDesigner #MusicalDirector #Writer #performer #sound #sounddesign #speech #voice

Actress #RakieAyola cites Shakespeare in Italy's Associate Artist Bill Alexander as her #mentor

The Anthony and Noughts & Crosses star now in #BBC1 crimer thriller #ThePact was interviewed in recent Financial Times article by Hester Lacey.

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STOP PRESS - on June 6th, Rakie won Best Supporting Actress at the #BAFTA's for her role in #Anthony on #BBC1

Film, theatre and television actor #RakieAyola said in a recent interview in the Financial Times that Bill Alexander was her mentor and set her love of Shakespeare.

#RSCHonoraryAssociateArtist Bill is an Associate Director with Shakespeare in Italy. We are planning to stage his abridged six-character version called A Merchant of Venice later this year at The Playground Theatre in London W10.

Rakie, who recently starred in the ITV drama #Grace was named best female actor in the #2020BlackBritishTheatreAwards for her performance in On Bear Ridge. Her other television appearances have included Anthony and Noughts & Crosses.

In the interview she says: “Director Bill Alexander, who I did a lot of plays with in the 1990s set my love of Shakespeare.” She also describes her drama teacher at school and head of studies at the Welsh College of Music and Drama, together with actor girlfriends in a creative network as being mentors.

She adds further: “I’d love to do a costume drama. In period drama you can be larger and fruitier and juicier!”

It was 30 years ago, she says, that she wrote to the head of drama at ITV and said “why do I never see black people in your dramas?” He gave her one line and it got her a job. “I've been running on that ever since. Saying the thing that people want to say, but don’t, for fear of never working again.”

Rakie stars in the #BBC1 crime thriller #ThePact which begins on Monday May 17th.

 #BAFTA #BestSupportingActress

Corona Virus - a Great British Farce by Mark Daniels - absurdist, bravura black comedy that won our playwriting competition

See video below of Mark's winning entry - enjoy!

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Actors #LachlanForlong and #MartinNicholls star in Mark Daniel's comedy - pls see below

#blackcomedy #farce #twohander #upandcomingplaywright #upandcomingcomedian

#Welcome e #benvenuto! - the theatre director #IqbalKhan joins us at Shakespeare in Italy as a new #Trustee - Hooray!

We're thrilled to have Iqbal on the Board - he'll make an invaluable contribution given his acclaimed background as a director - please see below for his biog.

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Iqbal Khan is a freelance Theatre Director.

Productions at the RSC include acclaimed versions of Tartuffe, Antony and Cleopatra, Othello and Much Ado About Nothing (also the West End).

Other work includes Educating Rita, Oleanna, Rafta Rafta, Perfect Days & Beautiful Thing (Bolton Octagon)

Macbeth (Shakespeare’s Globe); Shakespeare at the Bowl (collaboration between LA Philharmonic & BBCSO at the Hollywood Bowl & Barbican); The Wildman of the West Indies (Donizetti opera for ETO, Hackney Empire & National Tour); Treemonisha (Pegasus Opera); The Importance of Being Earnest:The Musical (Riverside Studios)

The Killing of Sister George (West End); Broken Glass (Tricycle/West End); A Slight Ache & Landscape (National Theatre);

Snookered (Tamasha/Oldham Coliseum/Bush/UK tour): A Christmas Carol/ Romeo & Juliet/ The Tempest/ Merchant of Venice (Box Clever); East is East (Birmingham Rep); The Last Photograph (Edinburgh Festival); Otello (Birmingham Opera Company); Simply Cinderella (Curve); Too Close to Home (Lyric Hammersmith/Library Theatre); Madama Butterfly (Lyric Hammersmith/Minack)

Iqbal has worked extensively in Drama Schools including RWCMD, LAMDA, RADA & BSD. He has directed in Paris, Japan (awarded a year long prestigious fellowship, based in Tokyo), he’s had residencies and delivered lectures at Michigan State, La Fayette, Nanjing, and, most recently, was the Michael Douglas Visiting Artist at UC Santa Barbara.

Iqbal has an MA (Distinction) in Theatre Directing from Middlesex University, was awarded a RYTDS bursary, based at Leicester Haymarket, trained on the National Theatre Studio directors’ course and was, most recently, made an Honorary Doctor of Arts by De Montfort University.

Please see quote from Iqbal below.
#RSC #Tartuffe #BoltonOctagon #ShakespearesGlobe #HackneyEmpire #theatredirector #RWCMD #LAMDA #RADA #BSD #BirminghamRep #BoxCleverTheatre Co

 

And the winner is - Mark Daniels for 'Coronavirus - A Great British Farce' - bravura, absurdist writing - KEEP THEATRE ALIVE!

In association with #PropsMentalHealth our #short #playwriting #competition final last night with 4 plays for the judges to choose from.

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Well done and richly deserved Mark!

Superby well acted by Martin Nicholls and Lachlan Forlong who joined us from #NewZealand.

One of the finalists zoomed in from #California, Stephanie D Lewis for her play The View from the Middle.

Jon Platten's Black Dogs and Danish Men won plaudits as did Rock, Paper, Scissors by Rebecca Colmer.

Other actors featured were - Ruby Campbell  Ida Casilli  Mary Chater  Tiffany Parker  Emily Rayner  Florence Roberts

Martin Vaughan Lewis  Paul Westwood



It was a close run thing as the writing was forensically observed, absurdist and poetic in the four selected - such a difficult choice had to be made.
Several more potential finalists' plays will be read on Friday #March19th. They are also extremely accomplished pieces of writing.

A #review of the plays by #SimonJenner is below. #itsgoodtotalk #teamwork

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