{"id":214546,"date":"2023-09-20T12:03:16","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T16:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/?p=214546"},"modified":"2023-09-20T12:03:16","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T16:03:16","slug":"curtain-rises-on-royal-shakespeare-company-residency-at-montclair-state-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/2023\/09\/20\/curtain-rises-on-royal-shakespeare-company-residency-at-montclair-state-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Curtain Rises on Royal Shakespeare Company Residency at Montclair State University"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Royal Shakespeare Company held court in September at Montclair State University, presenting a series of master classes for theater students in the College of the Arts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n

The residency \u2013 by one of the most famous theater companies in the world \u2013 was led by three Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) practitioners, actor Emma Manton and directors Ewa Dina and Aaron Parsons, who guided students as they explored key aspects of verse speaking.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a real honor for the RSC to spend an intensive two weeks with the faculty and students of Montclair. We have been privileged to work with students, many of whom had reservations about Shakespeare and who have grasped his words with such insight and enthusiasm,\u201d said the company\u2019s Head of Learning Fi Ingram.<\/p>\n

That was evident at the script-in-hand performance of\u00a0Richard III<\/em>, performed on the stage of Memorial Auditorium. In a nod to the thrust-style stage layout of Shakespeare\u2019s Globe Theatre, the audience was seated on three sides of the stage, creating an intimacy between the performers and audience.<\/p>\n

\"Five
Seating for the script-in-hand performance increased intimacy between actors and the audience.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMany of us were not connected to Shakespeare before this residency,\u201d said AJ Love, a senior Musical Theatre major who performed. \u201cIt felt outdated. But we discovered how to connect the text to today. It was full of surprises.\u201d<\/p>\n

The three-year pilot program with Royal Shakespeare Company Learning will pave the way to establishing a long-term partnership, aligning Montclair\u2019s and RSC\u2019s mutual dedication to unlocking the transformative power of Shakespeare and theater practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just the beginning of our collaboration, and we are so excited to see what will come next. It\u2019s been a transformative experience for RSC practitioners and students alike,\u201d Ingram said.<\/p>\n

College of the Arts<\/a>\u00a0Dean Daniel Gurskis said, \u201cWorking with members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in the environment of an intensive, extended residency is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our theater students. I am confident that five or 10 or even 15 years from now, not only will these students vividly remember this residency, but they will also continue to find new ways to apply what they have learned.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An
Alex Fontes,<\/b>\u00a0a junior BFA Acting major playing Richard III in the final scene, voices the famous line, \u201cA horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"An
Royal Shakespeare Company guest artist and actor Emma Manton leads a workshop on performing the classical text.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
The residency was called a \u201ctakeover,\u201d as it put on hold regularly scheduled classes in the Theatre programs, substituting them with a series of \u201cShakespeare Gym\u201d master classes for Acting and Musical Theatre students.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"An
RSC guest artist and director Ewa Dina, right, leads a master class.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The
RSC guest artist and director Aaron Parsons, center, talks with students before the script-in-hand performance of\u00a0Richard III.<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
Following along with the script for\u00a0Richard III.<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
Students were inspired by the takeover. From one of the Montclair students involved: \u201cI have completely changed my mind about Shakespeare, and that means I can change my mind about anything in acting. And life!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AMontclair theater students perform a scene from Richard III during a “takeover” of classes by The Royal Shakespeare Company.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Story by Staff Writer\u00a0<\/i>Marilyn Joyce Lehren<\/i><\/b><\/a>. Photos by University Photographer\u00a0<\/i>Mike Peters<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The College of the Arts hosts world-renowned British theater for master classes on performing Shakespeare<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":214547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214546"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214548,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214546\/revisions\/214548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}