Cassidy Cash, the podcast host of That Shakespeare Life, interviews Shane Ann about iambic pentameter in Shakespeare’s plays. Iambic pentameter verse consists of five feet (a foot is an iamb). Each foot is made up of two syllables – one syllable is stressed and the other is unstressed. Pentameter is taken from the Greek word “penta” meaning five. Therefore, iambic …
Had a wonderful time on my sabbatical in London! I visited the Royal Shakespeare Company and enjoyed various theater performances.
It was exciting to go to the theatre and see two of my former students, Mayaa Boateng and Hannah Cabell, in the acclaimed production of Fairview by Jackie Sibblies Drury and directed by Rachel Chavkin. The play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2019. This production started at Soho Rep and after a successful run it was moved to …
It’s not often that I go to see a play at the Public Theater, or any theater and four of my former students are in it! That’s right four – Marchant Davis, Crystal Lucas-Perry, Fedna Jacquet, and Simone Recasner. Their characters were fascinating and the actors used all of the techniques of voice and text that they learned in my …
Opening Night of “The Young Man from Atlanta” by Horton Foote at the Signature Theatre with Aidan Quinn (who played the lead Will Kidder). Aidan is with Ronald Castellano, Kezia Bernard-Nau and Kyriacos Michael, students in my Voice and Speech class. Signature Theatre kindly gave me comps to thank me for my work as the dialect coach for this production. …
Backstage with my students Nnamdi Asomugha (Private Melvin Peterson) and Lee Aaron Rosen (Captain Wilcox) who are in A Soldier’s Play on Broadway. The production is directed by Kenny Leon. The play, by Charles Fuller, was first performed in 1981 by the Negro Ensemble Company and in 1982 it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play was inspired by Fuller’s …
It was wonderful to work with these actors in the Master Class Monologue Workshop. The Workshop is for students who have completed the Voice and Speech for Actors program. After an intense vocal warm up, each actor works on whatever they want to. The variety of material has been fascinating. Their choices have included sides for an audition they are …
I’ve seen many productions on the West End in London but this is the first time I saw one of my students perform. Dominik Tiefenthaler stars in The Lehman Trilogy. He took over the role of Emanuel Lehman in The Lehman Trilogy and I jumped on a plane so I could see him. He was extraordinary. In the program notes …
Original pronunciation is a popular topic among actors, directors, linguists and scholars. OP, as it is called, is the dialect spoken in Shakespeare’s time. We cannot be 100% certain as to how the dialect sounded when Shakespeare wrote his plays because there weren’t any recordings but linguists have found many clues in the plays and sonnets. How we Know what …
Well that was a fun evening in the theatre! Watching Bernhardt Hamlet on Broadway with three of former students from NYU Grad Acting – Jason Butler Harner, Matt Saldivar, and Aaron Costas Ganis. The star of the show is one of my all time favorite actors – Janet McTeer. I have seen her in many shows at the Royal Shakespeare …