London Theater Exchange inspires

Author: May Chan

For all enthusiastic theater majors and Shakespeare lovers on campus, London Theater Exchange (LTE) has been providing a cross-cultural experience on the techniques of voice and movement in Shakespearean and Jacobean text through an intensive three-week workshop which began on Sept. 18 and will run until Oct. 8.

The program is headed by Chris Hayes, whose theater skills have strengthened over the years through experience at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. Hayes is here at Middlebury with his colleagues, voice specialist William Richards and movement specialist Vanessa Mildenberg. Mildenberg is also acting as dance choreographer for the College's upcoming performance of the British playwright Peter Barnes' "The Bewitched."

"We introduce actors to a different way of looking at things so they can add a few more things to their tool bank," said Hayes. "Our purpose is not to turn people into Shakespeare actors, but to use Shakespeare as a tool to train their acting - by stretching their imagination, stretching them physically and vocally because Shakespeare demands more from actors than other playwrights."

LTE was founded in 1991, formed by actors, directors, and teachers from The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Royal National Theatre, The RADA and London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA). Hayes' efforts to make American theater more accessible to British audiences and to facilitate "the exchange of culture" inspired the development of LTE.

Attending intense workshops in the Center for the Arts, students have been working on exercises dealing Shakespearean sonnets and excerpts from "Richard III" and "Macbeth." Though this may imply a similar experience for participants, Hayes emphasizes the personal nature of the work

"Everyone may be working on the same piece," he said, "but we work on exploring that piece vocally and physically." LTE's sessions are based on British perfomance traditions, and therefore these actors are getting a taste of something quite different from their regular coursework. "Every country has a different way of doing acting," said Hayes, "We're here to offer actors a glimpse of how it works and how the British classic tradition works by giving the students different tools and new alternatives."

Laura Harris '07, a participant of the workshop, is grateful for this dynamic training. "I'm learning how to marry movement, line study, word study, emotion and prep exercises into a unified character, and that is a study that I'll be using and referencing for the rest of my life," said Harris.

Rishabh Kashyap '08 was just as enthusiastic about learning from these experts."I was excited about the workshops from the get-go," he said. "The program brought in a lot of new techniques and guided us to integrate all of them and helped us with our acting immensely."

For Harris, too, the experience has been "intense, but extremely gratifying." She also praised the teachers, saying, "Chris, Vanessa and William are such a big part of my enjoyment of the process. Every session, I sit there in awe of the three of them because their expertise is so evident in every observation they make, every piece of advice they give, and every exercise they lead. We're extremely lucky to be able to experience such a unique workshop."

LTE is also doing work with Middlebury's Teacher Education Program, the Creative Writing Program and the local Bridge School. The company is not a permanent organization, but comes together three or four times a year to travel and work with theater students around the United States. They have previously worked with programs in Nashville, Atlanta, New York City and Michigan. Hayes has also previously directed for the Middlebury affliated Potomac Theatre Project. This is the second time the company has held the workshop and, as Hayes said, "Both times, the quality of students here has been very high."

"The overall enthusiasm, the appetite - they have a high caliber and they're very responsive and stimulating to work with," he said. "Unlike working with English acting students, who tend to be a little more narrow-minded, they're more open. In the groups, there is a generosity of spirit from one participant to another. It's a joy to be here."