Dear Everybody,
Greetings. I left Central School (etc) in '76, and have since been employed as an actor (off and on - so it goes). In the early '90s I was ensnared by Patrick Tucker, and so became a member of the OSC (Original Shakespeare Company) for the duration of its existence. My interest in the subject of Elizabethan original practice (i.e. no formal rehearsal) has not diminished with time, and I have recently been running monthly workshops in Sheffield on the subject. My unconcealed agenda is to develop a company of actors skilled in original practice, with a view to performance.
That said, the skills taught to me by this particular approach has informed all of my work since (film, telly, voice-over, and audio books). The attention to the text required by this approach is an advantage in situations in which rehearsal is viewed (at least by management) as an expensive luxury. By this I mean film and telly. Elizabethan actors worked in a similar way to the modern actor in these two mediums. Now, the audition is the rehearsal. You get a read-through (without following notes), and subsequent contact with the director (in a theatrical sense) is minimal (at least in the smaller parts), so the only information/acting opportunities the actor receives is through their text. No other text that can teaches these skills better than that of Shakespeare's plays (which is one of the reasons we are still doing them).
So far, the workshop company consists of older actors (myself included), and a balanced company needs younger ones as well, so here I am. So far, workshops are held once a month at Sharrow Community Forum. If you would like to have a look at this, please contact me via email (hankfab@hormail.com).
Yours truly,
Lewis Hancock
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