From dramatic text to performance

Aims 

This course aims to:   

• develop and understand how different dramatic texts are structured and can be performed  
   
• investigate a play script and its language for acting and directing cues  
   
• explore how classical texts can have contemporary relevance when performed today 

Content 

In this course you will look at three classical dramatic texts as both great works of literature but, more importantly, as blueprints for action and performance. In each class session you will always be asking the fundamental questions: How does this play translate from the page onto the stage? How do I bring this character and her/his words to life for an audience? You will explore the structure and impulses of dramatic language in monologues, dialogue and scenes from each of the plays and also investigate different styles of basic acting and directing techniques that might be appropriate to the individual texts. You will also explore different notions of dramatic action from the point of views of acting, directing and design. The course will include group and partner work and end with a public performance as an ensemble of short scenes and monologues. However, no previous acting, directing or theatre experience is required. These basic skills are what the course will help you creatively uncover. But if you do have previous theatre experience the course certainly will help you enhance your ongoing practice. For Sophocles’ Antigone you will be working with a play that dates back to the 5th century BCE, where Antigone appears as a character in a trilogy of plays by Sophocles (Oedipus, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone). You will explore how contemporary translations and adaptations of the play bring the drama into sharper focus for us now. Shakespeare’s As You Like It is a pastoral comedy with Rosalind (who dresses as a man), one of Shakespeare’s most luminous characters, at the centre of the action. The Three Sisters, a landmark tragicomedy by Anton Chekhov, is a play that defines so much of 20th and 21st century realistic and domestic drama. You will explore how to inhabit a Chekhov play, using the methods of Stanislavski, and make it feel like it is happening for the first time for both actors and audience. Each of these plays will take you on a theatrical journey inside the workings of three great plays and encourage you to engage with your creative self.  

Presentation of the course  

This course will be taught as a studio workshop where together we will be investigating texts and applying different directing and acting techniques. You will explore each of three plays in turn, looking at its dramatic structure and historical context, then we will take the play onstage to uncover how it works as theatre and as a set of actions to be brought to life by actors and a director. You will explore basic acting techniques suitable for each play. Where possible, filmed examples of each play will be shown and used. You will also look at different translations and adaptations of the plays by comparing and contrasting different versions and what they tell us. So the course will involve both reading and understanding different parts of a script and then putting it on its feet as a piece of theatre and eventually performing a selection of scenes and speeches before an audience in a public studio performance in the final session. Some extra work outside of class work as rehearsal preparation will be required of you as well as your commitment to be part of an ensemble. 

Course sessions 

1. Reading a Script: 
   Uncovering the dramaturgy or dramatic structure of a script in order to see how any play works as a series of actions involving characters and driving towards an end point. But also investigating what gives a play multidimensional life as a work to be acted, directed and visually realised in a theatre space before an audience. All three plays will be summarised and discussed in this introductory overview session and work over the two weeks laid out.  
    
2. Acting Antigone: 
   Approaching a classical Greek text what can we uncover that will enhance its appeal to contemporary audiences? Different versions of the same text will be compared. You will also be exploring the fundamental protagonist and antagonist conflict and the outside forces that control the play and drive classical drama. Certain scenes will be developed as you explore styles of acting and we get the play on its feet and off the page.  
    
3. The Individual Actor and the Chorus: 
   Critical to the performance of ancient Greek texts is the crucial role of the Chorus. This session will engage in group acting and vocal work in order to reveal the power of the Chorus and how it is set against or sides with the individual protagonist, Antigone.   
    
4. The Shakespeare Text and Performance: 
   In this session we will look at how a Shakespeare play works and what acting and directing cues are built into the language of the script by the playwright. This will give us a chance to explore the shape and language of As You Like It, its characters and come to a decision as to what kind of play it is and how it might be performed. 
    
5. Acting Gender: 
   One of the most intriguing facets of As You Like It are its themes of gender transformation and the search for identity. What happens to Rosalind when she disguises herself and becomes a young man? Both contemporary as well as more traditional productions of the play, and a multiplicity of actors, have approached this issue in many different ways as we will explore in this session through studio work on acting and directing.   
    
6. The Chekhov Play: 
   We will start this second week by reviewing the progress we have made so far during the first week. Now we begin to look at what happened to a dramatic text in the late 19th- and 20th-centuries, taking us to where we are now. The Three Sisters allows us to explore a text full of psychological impulses, nuances, modernity and life with mixed and conflicting desires. This session looks at challenges posed by the text that appears fragmented from its very first moments to its last.   
    
7. A Revolution in Acting and Directing: 
   Using Chekhov and the work of the Russian director Konstantin Stanislavsky as examples, we will use this session to explore how the classical play starts to become contemporary, opening up and exploding the fault lines that are part of being human in a modern world. The rich and varied textures of the play, its overlapping scenes, and the conflicts of its multiplicity of characters will be sampled in different acting challenges.   
    
8. Building a Character, Building a Performance: 
   In this session you begin to build characters, picking and choosing scenes and speeches that have been explored previously in the three plays to create a final studio performance in session 10. The class will come together into a working ensemble to play together in different mixed scenes and speeches. Out of all the work done so far the class will start to create a performance. For the final part of this week you will need to commit extra time to rehearse outside of class. The instructor is happy to look in on these rehearsals and give feedback.   
    
9. Preparing to Perform: 
   For this penultimate session you will work together and bring life to your final performance by running through scenes and speeches and taking ownership of your creative work. But also looking at what extra scenic or technical support might be needed for the final Friday performance. This is a chance to still explore texts by fine tuning and giving attention to details.  
    
10. Final Presentation: 
    You will perform to an invited audience. This will be followed by a feedback session with the Course Director. 

Learning outcomes 

You are expected to gain from this series of classroom sessions a greater understanding of the subject and of the core issues and arguments central to the course.  

 The learning outcomes for this course are:  

• understanding how classic dramatic texts emerge out of contexts and are structured as literature but also how they work theatrically as performance scripts 
   
• to engage with performance and directing techniques that extend the individual’s  
  creative capacity 
   
• shaping a final ensemble piece of creative work and presenting it to an audience 

Required reading*

Chekhov, Anton, The Three Sisters, Translated by Michael Frayn (London, Methuen 2003, student edition) ISBN: 9780413771407  

Shakespeare, William, As You Like It (Cambridge: The New Cambridge Shakespeare 2021 third edition) ISBN: 9781108969192  

Sophocles, Translated by Raynor, Diane J, Antigone (Cambridge: Cambridge University  
Press 2011) ISBN: 9780521134781  

Stanislavski, Konstantin, Translated by Benedetti, Jean, An Actor’s Work  
(London: Routledge 2016) ISBN: 9781138688384 

Typical week: Monday to Friday 

Courses run from Monday to Friday. For each week of study, you select a morning (Am) course and an afternoon (Pm) course. The maximum class size is 25 students.   

Courses are complemented by a series of daily plenary lectures, exploring new ideas in a wide range of disciplines. To add to your learning experience, we are also planning additional evening talks and events. 

Evaluation and Academic Credit  

If you are seeking to enhance your own study experience, or earn academic credit from your Cambridge Summer Programme studies at your home institution, you can submit written work for assessment for one or more of your courses.  

Essay questions are set and assessed against the University of Cambridge standard by your Course Director, a list of essay questions can be found in the Course Materials. Essays are submitted two weeks after the end of each course, so those studying for multiple weeks need to plan their time accordingly. There is an evaluation fee of £75 per essay. 

For more information about writing essays see Evaluation and Academic Credit. 

Certificate of attendance 

A certificate of attendance will be sent to you electronically after the programme.