Approaching Text: The Actor's Work At Home

online course

An actor's work on a play is more than just learning the lines: in this six-week online course at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, you will explore the analysis that actors and directors are required to do on a playwright's text and you will build a toolkit to use for the future. An insight into the theoretical side of acting, you will also draw on the ideas of Stanislavski, via contemporary directors like Mike Alfreds and Katie Mitchell.

Ages 18+

Tuesday evenings on 27 April, 4, 11, 18, 25 May and 1 June 2021

Course leader

The course has been developed and is led by Patrick Osborne. He graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2010 and worked in theatre, TV and film. He has taught at Guildhall on the Acting Summer School and the Preliminary Acting Course.

Target group

Anyone aged 18 and over with some prior knowledge of approaching text (whether watching, reading or performing in plays), who would like to improve skills in text analysis but no acting experience is necessary.

Course aim

You can expect to explore a text together in depth, including:

- Piecing together the imagined world of the play
- Compiling clues about the characters
- Looking at the motivations behind characters' words and other sub-textual details
- Investigating how all of the above can inform the work of actors and directors

We will layer up these concepts over several weeks and apply them to Chekhov’s play Three Sisters. There will be opportunities to act, but the main focus is analysing the text itself.

You will need to complete some reading and independent work each week.

Fee info

GBP 250: £250