Conservatory Actor Training

Mark Rylance as Richard II on Shakespeare's Globe stage John Tramper, photographer

At Rutgers, a select company of young actors is trained in the American Stanislavsky/Meisner tradition. Strong focus is placed on the mastery of voice, speech, and movement skills. Rutgers Conservatory at Shakespeare's Globe was developed to further enrich and complement this sequential training. Actors undertake a rigorous conservatory training program consisting of acting, voice movement (based on the Alexander Technique), speech and period dance. Particular attention is given to classical texts and traditions. This training allows the artist to capably handle a wide variety of texts with confidence. Rutgers University is unique in that it is the only member of the top five undergraduate conservatory training programs in America, which spends a full year abroad. With London as the campus, the young theater artist will live, study, and perform in an area rich in artistic and theatrical traditions.

· Credit: The Conservatory component consists of 12 credits of classes in acting and related skills in each semester. The students are in class for a total of 45-47 hours per week, plus preparation and rehearsal, and will earn 18 credits per semester.

· Acting: With input from leading teachers and practitioners in the field, the program offers intensive work in classical acting training. In groups, pairs, and individually, students will address such vital fundamentals as owning Shakespeare's language, mastering verse and the form of the text, and the realization of complex characters through a wide range of scenes and speeches from every stage of Shakespeare's career. The disciplines involved focus and draw together the most fundamental elements of theatre training, as well as testing their implementation in practice to the highest possible level.

· Voice: The voice work at Shakespeare's Globe Theater is modeled upon voice techniques for Renaissance theater. The Globe actors are encouraged to find their own signature note and to expand its position, resonance, and range, bringing dynamic, impacting, and natural expression to Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatic verse. Actors find a balance between form and feeling, centering and focusing the entire intention of the actor through the sound of his or her body.

· Speech: Classes will explore the nature of epic and lyric speaking, with strong emphasis placed on hearing the voice. Dialects and accents from the British Isles will also assist the potential range of character identity within the study of classical text. Much emphasis will be placed on the nature of rhetoric, and its potent effect on the listener.

· Movement: The movement courses (based in The Alexander Technique) will help the students become aware that expression requires both physical and emotional freedom. This fine-tuning brings the right tones, ease, and grace to their natural instrument, allowing the students to discover the true note of the Shakespearean roles they play.

· Stage Combat: Elizabethan rapier and dagger, history of combat, eye contact, balance, intent, and body mechanics approached through unarmed stage combat.

· Historical Dance: These classes will bring to life the history of Western European Social Dance through a practical experience of dances from the 12th to the 19th centuries. The work is accessible to all actors with or without dance skills. The application of the work in the fields of theatre, film and television will also be emphasized.