THE WEEKS IN LONDON


The River Thames in London
     The main part of the program takes place in London, England's capital city and home to over eight million people. In 1595 Shakespeare was a member of the Lord Chamberlain's company and performed before the Queen at Greenwich at Christmas. He lived at various places in London: in 1604 he rented lodgings from a family named Mountjoy and in March 1613 Shakespeare's increasing affluence was reflected in the purchase of a house in Blackfriars.
    In 1599 Shakespeare was listed as among a group of people responsible for building and running the Globe Theatre.
    The Globe Theatre, now being fully restored on its original site, plays a prominent part in The Shakespeare Programme and has joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National theatre as a principal center for English drama. London theatre, commercial, institutional and fringe, arguably the best in the world, is most abundant including an array of both classic and modern legitimate drama always readily available.
    The Shakespeare Programme takes advantage of the British American Drama Academy's special relationship with the British professional theatre to provide a constant interchange between the practicing theatre and the academic world so that participants can benefit from the most interesting and creative minds working in British theatre. London is unique in the resources it offers to those studying classical theatre, and in no city is it so easy to meet those whose mission is to make classical theatre alive and as relevant today as it was to those who watched performances in daylight or by candlelight so many years ago.
    The Shakespeare Programme's academic faculty has been selected for its ability to excite the imagination and invigorate the mind and the Programme's acting teachers have been chosen for their ability to stimulate creative intelligence and arouse even the most dormant talent.

BADA'S NEW FACILITY - 14 and 15 Gloucester Gate, Regent's Park
    Designed by Joseph John Scoles in 1827, these magnificent villas form part of the renowned Nash Terraces which surround Regent's Park. Acquired by the Academy in 2001 from the Crown Commissioners, the buildings have been extensively refurbished to provide handsome classrooms, a Green Room library/computer room, offices (general and production), dining area (with coffee machine, refrigerator, microwave, and vending machines), a garden, and individual lockers within No. 14. The Shakespeare Programme office and classroom is housed primarily at No. 15 with acting classes at No. 14. The nearest tube station is Camden Town.


Norman Ayerton Teaching a Class

Students are housed nearby in fully-equipped flats located in the heart of beautiful St. John's Wood. The riches of Regent's Park and the London Zoo are a few minutes walk away. The British Museum, The National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal National Theatre and the University of London are within a short distance, while London's underground and bus systems offer easy access to all of London's theatres and museums, extensive shopping, restaurants and cultural amenities of Camden Town, Covent Garden, Soho and Oxford Street.

LONDON COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Core Courses - to be taken by all students
Shakespeare: The Tragedies
EN346
3 semester hours
Dramatic Criticism
TH334
3 semester hours

Theatre and Culture II (Modern Theatre History)
or
Shakespeare: Comedies and Histories
TH234
or
EN345

3 semester hours

Optional Courses - one, two or three may be selected

Acting Styles
TH303
3 semester hours
Acting Shakespeare
TH304
3 semester hours
Directing
TH231
3 semester hours
Playwriting
TH325
3 semester hours
The 19th Century Novel*
EN316
3 semester hours
Shakespeare's Contemporaries*
EN343
3 semester hours
Theatre and Culture II
(if not taken for the core)
TH230
3 semester hours
Shakespeare: Comedies and Histories
(if not taken for the core)
EN345
3 semester hours

Professional Field Experience in Theatre
(requires special permission)
TH399
3 or 6 semester hours

*only one of these courses will be offered based upon enrollment

Course Descriptions

EN346 Shakespeare: The Tragedies -- A study of Shakespeare's tragic work, including the four great tragedies: Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear and Othello. The course will include study of contemporary critical perspectives on Shakespeare (e.g. New Historicism, Gender Studies) and study of Shakespeare on film and television.

TH334 Special Studies in Theatre History and Theory: Drama Criticism -- A series of discussions of productions seen each week. Discussion will be led by a leading London theatre critic. In addition students will be required to write a critique of each performance.

TH234 Theatre and Culture II: A study of Western theatre from the19th century to the present day relating the development of theatre to changes in society. Students explore and analyze how theatre's components — plays, acting, design, theory, and management — combine to express and reflect a culture's dominant values. (Schools may regard this as either a drama course or a theatre history course).

EN345 Shakespeare: The Comedies and Histories -- A study of selected comedies and histories that will include contemporary critical perspectives on Shakespeare (e.g. New Historicism, Gender Studies) and study of Shakespeare on film and television.

TH303 Acting Styles (Comedy) -- Concentrated scene study from major periods of theatrical history. Among the styles to be explored are Restoration comedy, Oscar Wilde, Noel Coward and Harold Pinter. Prior undergraduate courses in acting are a prerequisite for this course.

TH304 Special Studies in Acting: Shakespeare -- Concentrated scene study of a number of Shakespeare plays. Prior undergraduate courses in acting are a prerequisite for this course.

TH231 Directing -- An intensive introduction to the craft of directing for the stage. The fundamentals of script analysis and interpretation, and production research and preparation will be explored in a seminar setting, while the studio will be the laboratory for developing clear lines of action and the world of the play through composition, picturization, and improvisation, as well as exploring the collaborative process with actors and designers.

TH399 Professional Field Experience -- Skidmore Theatre students with appropriate experience in stage management, theatre administration or technical theatre may apply for a limited number of opportunities to work in a professional theatre while in London. Qualified students will be placed in a theatre (such as the Donmare Warehouse or the BAC). Students will work approximately 10 hours per week for each 3 semester hour internship. Please contact Lary Opitz at Skidmore College if interested in this option. Please note that this unique opportunity is based upon the qualifications of the applicant and the availability of appropriate internships.

TH325 Playwriting -- During this course writers will work on scripts which will be discussed, analyzed and evaluated in terms of character development, dramatic structure and originality. Selected scripts will be read in public at the end of the course.

EN316 The Nineteenth Century Novel -- A generic, thematic and cultural consideration of selected novels by Austen, The Brontes, Thackery, Dickens, Elliot, Trollope and others.

EN343 Shakespeare's Contemporaries: Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama -- Study of the drama of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, exclusive of Shakespeare, but including such writers as Marlowe, Jonson, Webster, and Beaumont and Fletcher.

Class of 2000

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