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 …
Sathya Sridharan and Angel Desai, both former students of mine in NYU’s Grad Acting program, are performing together at the Manhattan Theatre Club in India Pale Ale, a new play by Jaclyn Backhaus. They are terrific! It’s rewarding to hear the voice work that they did in class be connected to their acting in such an emotional and unique play. …
I’ve been to the Globe Theatre in London before but this time my former student from NYU Graduate Acting, André Holland, was playing Othello! It is difficult to describe the feelings of seeing someone you taught perform on such a prestigious stage. From the first moment André entered, he commanded our attention. He had the audience in the palm of …
It was very exciting to see and hear my former students from NYU Grad Acting in the Shakespeare in the Park production of “Othello”! Corey Stoll was a fascinating Iago. Heather Lind was an illuminating Desdemona. In addition to Corey and Heather, the other Grad acting alums were Motell Foster (Roderigo), Chris Cassarino (Ensemble). Also in the cast were David …
Two of my former students received Academy Awards this year. I have never written that sentence before! Mahershala Ali (NYU Tisch Graduate Acting) in “Moonlight” for Best Supporting Actor and Viola Davis (Juilliard) in “Fences” for Best Supporting Actress. The academy awards made history this year with “Moonlight”. This was the first film with an all African-American cast to win …
I recently assigned Shakespeare monologues to the students in my Advanced Class. For many of them it is their first time doing Shakespeare monologue coaching. We finished a series of scanning exercises, which included discussions about short verse lines, long verse lines, shared verse lines, epic caesuras, elisions, stretching a word, and acting on the verse line. Now the fun …
My First Year students in the Graduate Acting Program at NYU have been very enthusiastic about using the Audio Shakespeare Pronunciation App as they rehearse “Hamlet” and “Macbeth”. They told me that at the beginning of the rehearsals, they used it every night to check the pronunciations of the unusual words and the character and place names in Shakespeare plays. …
Joe Girgis completed my Voice and Speech program in February, auditioned for the BADA (British Academy of Dramatic Arts) Summer program and was accepted! I am so proud of him. BADA‘s intensive summer conservatory program for serious actors, is held at Magdalen College, Oxford, in association with the Yale School of Drama. The program concentrates on classical acting with an …
Harry Ford (one of my students from NYU’s Graduate Acting Program), just completed filming his first TV show, “Code Black” and he was terrific. He came to NYU to be on a panel of alums who talked to the actors who were Called Back to the final audition of the Grad Acting Program. The panel is an opportunity for the …