The History of Actor Training in the British Drama School.

In this episode Robert discusses the Meisner Technique its practise and place in the British Drama School with Dr Philippa Strandberg-Long.

Philippa  has published several excellent papers on the Meisner technique : Mapping Meisner – how Stanislavski’s system influenced Meisner’s process and why it matters to British Drama School training today  and The reaction in counter-action: how Meisner technique and active analysis complement each other.  Which can be found here :

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/20567790.2018.1437956
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20567790.2019.1576114

Philippa Strandberg-Long is an acting teacher, director and researcher, originally from Stockholm, Sweden. In 1998 she moved to London to undertake the BA Acting programme at Italia Conti Academy before going on to gain experience as both an actor and director within London’s theatre world. In 2008 she decided to focus on the training process itself, and has since taught Stanislavski-based acting and scene study – as well as directed productions – at many of London’s drama schools.

 In 2011 Philippa began her service in the Italia Conti faculty, which she continued for nearly a decade. During her time at Italia Conti she co-created their Foundation course programme, whilst undertaking practical research on the Meisner technique, devising and developing a number of her own exercises along with a pedagogical foundation to underpin the technique. Philippa received her MA in Actor Training from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in 2012, specialising in the teaching of the Meisner technique.

 In 2016 Philippa was awarded a full 3-year PhD scholarship from the University of Kent to study the Meisner technique and the psychology of attention. During this time, she combined her research activities with teaching and directing, allowing her to see the practical effects of her studies and providing valuable empirical data for her research. Philippa’s doctorate was awarded in early 2020, and her research has significantly furthered our understanding of the Meisner technique and its interplay with attention, self-consciousness, action-perception theory and mind-wandering. Her articles have been published in the UK, Europe and the US, and some of them in association with practitioners such as the late William Esper and the renowned Stanislavski scholar Sharon Carnicke.

 In 2019 and 2020 Philippa was the Course Leader and Head of Acting of Fourth Monkey’s two-year actor training programme – a programme underpinned by the ethos of Meisner’s principles and the concept of ‘play’. She continues to develop both her research profile and her studio practice, always putting the individual’s creative potential in focus. She is currently lead acting tutor on Rose Bruford’s MA in Actor and Performance Training.

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In this episode we look at the decline of the Stock System the emergence of the Long Run and what was said at the opening ceremony of 'Mr Tree's School' the Academy of Dramatic Art on April 25th 1904. The image is of His Majesty’s Theatre where his school began before moving to its current location in Bloomsbury.

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ABIGAIL ROKISON-WOODALL

Abigail began her career as a professional actor, training at LAMDA. She completed her PhD at Trinity Hall, Cambridge University in 2006 after which she became a lecturer in Drama and English in the Education Faculty in Cambridge. In January 2013 she became Lecturer in Shakespeare and Theatre at the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham.  Abigail has written a number of journal articles and chapters on Shakespeare and other drama. Her first monograph, Shakespearean Verse Speaking, was published in 2010 by Cambridge University Press, and won the inaugural Shakespeare’s Globe first book award. She has published three more books - Shakespeare for Young People: Productions, Versions and Adaptations (Bloomsbury Arden, 2013) and Shakespeare in the Theatre: Nicholas Hytner (Bloomsbury Arden, 2017) and As You Like It: Language and Writing (Bloomsbury Arden, 2021).  She is the co-general editor with Michael Dobson and Simon Russell Beale of The Arden Shakespeare Performance Editions for which she has edited A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet and is currently editing King Lear.  She is also co-general editor of the Arden Shakespeare in Performance A Practical Guide series, for which she is co-writing Shakespeare and Lecoq. She is currently working with RSC Education on a project about teaching Shakespeare to D/deaf children.

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In this episode Stephen Macht describes how a chance meeting with Michel Saint Denis after a performance of Danton's Death at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire led him to attend the Lamda of Michael MacOwen and Norman Ayrton in the 1960's, how it was Brian Cox that told him Kennedy had been assassinated and how he returned to Lamda a few years later to research a unique PhD dissertation about the history of acting teaching at the school.  

This episode contains some adult material and language. Maybe don't play it in the car on the way home after picking up the kids from nursery....

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In this edition Robert discusses the deep roots of the British Drama School in the French avant garde and wonders does the modern drama school start under the dome of His Majesty's Theatre or on the left bank of Paris in the Theatre du Vieux Colombier ?    

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In this special bonus episode, Alex Bingley, voice teacher, interviews Professor Nadia Kevan  about her journey and approach to integrating the Alexander Technique in to the professional training of dancers, actors and singers. 

Nadia Kevan  is English dancer , dance teacher , choreographer and movement teacher . She lives in Nijmegen , the Netherlands , and has been teaching at the Folkwang University in Essen , now Folkwang University of the Arts , since 1993.

Kevan studied classical ballet , modern dance, dance pedagogy and voice training in England . From 1973 she was in Germany , where she danced for various theatres and worked as a freelance dancer and dance teacher in Hamburg . In the tradition of Mary Wigman and Gret Palucca , she gave her own solo dance evenings. In 1981 she came into contact with the Alexander Technique in London and then trained as a Teacher of the technique in Denmark with Karen Wentworth and Chris Stevens, which she completed in London through further training with Walter Carrington. 

Alex Bingley has been a voice teacher since graduating from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in 2002, prior to this he had been an actor. Alex currently teaches at Rose Bruford, Arts Ed, Drama Centre London and The Italia Conti Academy of theatre arts. Prior to this Alex had taught at Lamda, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and East 15. Alex has been a student of the Alexander technique since 2002 and he encountered the Psycho-Physical Support System through Ron Murdock in 2016 . Alex uses this approach extensively together with his voice teaching and continues to be mentored by Nadia Kevan and one of Dr Chris Stevens students Stephanie Smith.  

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In this episode Robert talks to Ed Hicks newly appointed principal of the Oxford School of Drama. Ed was previously Head of Film at Rada and before that a professional film maker and actor.  

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In this episode recorded on Christmas Day, Robert recounts the sad tale  Fanny Kelly's disastrous attempt to launch the Royalty Theatre and Dramatic School on Dean Street in Soho between 1840 and 1849. This episode includes an account of Samuel Pepys visit to the nursery theatre of George Jolly in 1668.  

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In this episode, recorded live at East 15 in November 2020, Gerry McAlpine, a graduate of the school and currently head of the First year of the BA and Cert HE, talks about the spirit at the heart of Margaret Walker's drama school, established to promote and develop the ideas and working methods of Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop. The other voice you will hear sometimes is that of Andrea Brooks who currently runs the MA acting degree at East 15. The photograph is of the pond dug as part of the living history project a good example of East 15's working methods.

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