Shakespeare for Adults

630pm-930pm Mondays

28 August - 18 September 2023

$180 per person for all sessions or $50 for one session

This course teaches all the practical tools required to approach Shakespeare’s text. The renowned Shakespeare director, Sir Peter Hall said “First comes the form and second comes the feeling”

You will learn the form of iambic pentameter and all other Shakespearean components of verse such as line endings and caesuras. Most importantly, this form will be taught with feeling! The bulk of the course is practical with physical exercises to embody Shakespeare’s text.

Shakespeare’s form is made up of rhythm, rhyme, antithesis, personification, paradox and all the other ancient verbal techniques of the rhetorician. Teachers will intellectually understand rhetorical devices such as ‘metaphor’ or ‘irony’ and they can easily learn the meaning of ‘epistrophe’ or ‘epanalepsis’. Knowing this form is useful. Knowing how it feels is powerful. Dame Peggy Ashcroft is known for saying that Shakespeare’s language is like perfume: Shakespearean language versus everyday language has the same density as a bottle of perfume versus petals. It takes 10, 000 roses to fill 5 millilitres of perfume.

The depth of Shakespeare’s poetry is also similar to libretto on the page. The black and white notations on a stave pale in comparison to the music created from it. Script is libretto; the moment of it being performed is symphonic in scale and experience.

Learn the tradition of physicalising and embodying the complexity of Shakespeare’s text - it can provide limitless potential for your acting. It certainly provides a new access point for language which aids those who already master the intellectual side and overcomes the barriers for those who may struggle with intellectual understanding.

If you wish to attend only one session, that is entirely possible. Please select the single session ticket and Lexi will contact you to find out the date you will attend.

Course Content

Week 1 – Iambic Pentametre – the Actor’s Score

Week 2 – Line energy – the sanctity of the line

Week 3 – Speech structure – speed of thought and length of thought

Week 4 – Patterns of Rhetoric – perfumed Words to reveal depth of thought

LOCATION

The Mill Theatre is in Building 3.3, the Screencraft and KeepCo building which is a short walk from Capital Brewing. There are two easy ways to approach the Theatre:

PARK in P3 at the back of the precinct. From there you will see building 3.3 which has a large Screencraft sign. The public entrance is just up from that sign (not underneath it!). Once inside, walk about 5 metres and the theatre is to the right, next to Mojo Guitars.

WALK from Capital Brewing or the Less sculpture into the KeepCo building, pass Ramen Daddy and at the end of the corridor we are on the left.

PARKING

All parking in the precinct is free with several accessible parking spots in all the parking locations. The best spot to park is P3 at the back of the precinct. If you park elsewhere please be warned that signage and way-finding around the precinct is extremely difficult. Arrive in plenty of time to possibly get lost, possibly be in a bad mood!

About Lexi Sekuless

Lexi graduated from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama with a Bachelor of Acting in 2013. She works extensively in the voice and presenting space as voice-artist, MC and keynote speaker. She uses this experience in combination with her acting training to provide voice coaching for those seeking to increase their confidence and vocal presence. Lexi has performed in London, Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra on stage and screen.