Symposium Report - Day 4
As a cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland complicates air space all over Europe, Symposium had smooth and sunny weather today with the likes Shakespeare and Caribbean theatre as headline acts. Lyn Darnley, Head of Voice, Text and Artistic Development at The Royal Shakespeare Company took participants through the purpose and energy of Shakespeare’s language. This was followed by a meeting of the College’s Voicing Shakespeare Research Centre, set up to take work like Lyn’s into the greater public consciousness. Rounding this out was The Shakespeare Band, experimenting with what would happen if the Bard’s verse is set to music—percussion and jazz, in particular. What happened was a brilliant performance and lots of jamming with famous speeches and scenes.
Visiting from Jamaica this week is the distinguished Eugene Williams, Artistic Director of the School of Drama at Edna Manley College in Kingston. His masterclass resulted in a compelling production later in the evening in the Rose Theatre about the murder of children with a great performance by Honor Ford Smith. A Caribbean party and light show then erupted in the College courtyard to round out the themes of verse and Jamaica. All in the memory of the great Jamaican playwright Trevor Rhone (he wrote the film The Harder They Come), who died this year and was an early graduate of Rose Bruford College.
Elsewhere things got physical as physicality in public places, kinaesthetics, Caporeia, intercultural; performance training, salsa and African dancing got everyone on their feet and moving to a beat. Late at night there was limbo dancing in the Courtyard. And the beat could also be heard in the Sound Studios of the College where scoring for silent films continues alongside writing good music with computers.
Although premier league director Deborah Warner had to cancel her visit because of trouble with the National Theatre’s Mother Courage tour and Graeae Theatre could not come for other reasons, we were joined by Andi Watson, Radiohead’s lighting designer for a Q&A about lighting the legendary band. Forkbeard Fantasy, put animation, puppetry, film, sound and much else together to show how multimedia, at its best, is pure interaction. Wooden Tops played on the lawn. The Adventures in Drawing projects continues to astound and make believers out of those who thought they could never draw a line.
Hot playwright Dennis Kelly delighted a packed Spiegel Space with tales of his astounding rise as a writer through mean adversity . Companies from within the College put on performances of Rocinante! Rocinante! and Looking for Hannah. And multiculturalism infused the report of the students and young artists who made a recent trip to India to present the results of their Rokeya Project, which examined the significant but largely unknown contribution of the early Bengali feminist writer Rokeya Sakwhat Hossain. As always there was even more happening than can be included here.
OUR STUDENTS PICK THEIR ‘BEST OF THE FEST’:
‘I'm sorry that Ian Rickson did not want observers in his workshop on The Seagull because it was absolutely amazing! By far the best thing all week. I feel so privileged to have been a part of it. My vote for best bit goes to that.’ Javan Hirst
‘The highlights for me this week has to be either the installation by Apocryphal Theatre in the Barn on Monday about "celebrity" or Tuesday's performance by Richard Sadler of Alan Bennett's Playing Sandwiches. Both were flawless. I spent a good two hours in the installation. The stand up comedy lecture and pastel drawing classes are also well worth a mention.’ Andrew Read
‘The puppetry company was wooden Fingers, not wooden tops. Thanks for the kind words.’ Gremlyn Bridge
16/04/2010