Coaching Shakespeare Victoria Pero and Amanda Whiteley

A&V coach Emma Magnus, a New School graduate, on the dizzying effects of speaking your monologue REALLY QUIETLY to a stuffed animal. Actors often go big when working a text but what can we learn from taking that in the opposite direction, after a good thrashing, and go really, really small?  Warning: Emma was still hung over for this episode but that kinda helped…

Emma (Mags) Magnus (she/they) is a graduate of The New School and BADA’s midsummer in Oxford program. They are an NYC-based actor and co-founder of production company The Fricks. Upcoming works include the films UFO Club and All Tomorrow’s People. 

@mags_magnus 

Emmamagnus.com

A&V coach Peren Yesilyurt, a University of Southern California drama student, on how working through the sounds in the language can unpack the ideas in a super visceral way. What does it feel like to run an “r” up your spine and an “oh” through your belly? And how do those glorious sensations reveal the meaning in the text and allow you to open up to the emotional possibilities hidden deep within?

Henry VI, Part 1:  Joan la Pucelle - Act 5, scene iii

Guest Director, Vanessa Mildenberg, whose work focuses on creating multi/cross disciplinary international work that’s both physical and text-based, blows our minds with detailed descriptions of her particular rehearsal formula. We dive into the challenges of creating trust in the room and discussions of the global research that has allowed Vanessa to discover techniques based in dance, movement, improvisation and collaboration, giving way to fresh, inventive, highly physical productions of Shakespeare’s plays.

King Lear:  Edmund - Act I, scene ii

A&V coach Maddie Powell, a Northwestern student, on a technique that makes Mrs Stupid looks like a rave. Get ready to DIG IN on a method that takes apart the text in grisly detail only leaving you wanting more. This episode does not require a lexicon, the Oxford English Dictionary, or the good old internet to do the dirty work of understanding all of your text in the context of the period, but you’ll want all those sources after the episode when you race to apply this technique to all your monologues.

Cymbeline: Imogen - Act III, scene iv

A&V coach Joey Nasta, a Fordham grad, on the most annoying but super helpful exercise that’s like a specificity pill. Swallow that thing and BAM, you are suddenly dragged out of being general and into really thinking about what the heck your character is saying. This super simple exercise will help you dig down to the real meaning of the text without having to crack a lexicon. Just trusting your own instincts and Shakespeare’s language, you can make sense of so much of the text!

A&V coach Anita, a high school junior, on the Princess monologue from Loves Labours Lost. Using a technique that assigns a location to each noun and pronoun, whole worlds of questions open up and Anita’s room gets covered in a ton of stickies. There’s no better way to pull apart the grammar of Shakespeare’s text and use it as a map for the “who, what, where, when and why” of your monologue.

Loves Labours Lost: Princess - Act II, scene i