This course draws on the influential theories and techniques of the great French acting teacher Michel Saint-Denis, training the expressive body, voice and imagination. Working with some of the greatest dramatic texts ever written students are asked to consider what they mean now.
Four key periods of innovation and transition in Western theatre are examined: Greek Tragedy, Chorus and the Neutral Mask. Clowning and Commedia dell’arte. Shakespeare and the English Renaissance. Stanislavski, the Method and ‘Realist’ Theatre.

Students are encouraged to understand the demands of both art and craft, as participants in, and practitioners of, these theatrical traditions.