Each year, our Second Year students embark on the long-held OSD tradition of Garden Shakespeare. This is an intense module of rehearsal and performance of a Shakespeare play, performed outside, no matter the weather, in June. Performances take place both here at OSD and for paying audiences in the beautiful gardens of a historic home near the school.
Garden Shakespeare marks the end of the second year of training. It is the first time students perform for their friends and family, as well as the first time they perform for paying audiences! Building on the experience students gain from the Schools Tour (which we wrote about earlier this year), Garden Shakespeare is a much-loved module central to OSD’s teachings for over 10 years. This blog will take you behind the scenes of the module, give you some insight into why it’s so central to our identity, and share some images from this year’s production!
Why Garden Shakespeare?
Garden Shakespeare challenges students to put into practice some of the heightened language skills they have been exploring in voice and acting classes. Students also explore their expressivity in heightened states, playing in an open-air environment, and their ability to be professional and take on multiple production roles alongside their performance roles.
Performing outside presents unique challenges that stretch the skills we focus on in our second-year curriculum. Vocally, students must sustain their voice and vocal health over a number of performances, while also working on being heard when competing with distractions such as aeroplanes and motorbikes passing by, which is not something you usually contend with inside a theatre! No lights, no stage, no set, other than what you can carry with you onto a bus – all of these things push students to build characters and relationships that shine without the trappings of a traditional theatre space.
The touring aspect of Garden Shakespeare means that each student takes on production roles in addition to their acting roles. Stage management, props, costumes, music…the list of jobs is varied, but they all teach students the value of collaborative work as a theatre company in charge of all aspects of a performance.
Additionally, and arguably most importantly, numerous theatre companies tour open-air productions to gardens and outdoor venues every summer. Having experience with the unique challenges (and joys!) of performing outside can be the difference in whether you get the job or not.
Our students regularly go on to perform in professional open-air productions, some grads who are working on outdoor tours this summer include: Jowan Jacobs in Twelfth Night with Miracle Theatre, Freddy Williams in both Twelfth Night and Julius Caeser with Bowler Crab Theatre Company, David Koski in Pride and Prejudice and Christiana McTaggart in The Merry Wives of Windsor both with Illyria Theatre Company, Charlie Maddison in Twelfth Night with Changeling Theatre, and Peter Dewhurst in Twelfth Night with The Lord Chamberlain’s Men.
Twelfth Night seems to be a popular choice this year, but we didn’t follow that particular trend…
Slings and Arrows
This year, our students were tackling Hamlet. Directed once again by the brilliant Cordelia Monsey, rehearsals began in the second week of the summer term with a sit-down round-table read-through of the play. During the read-through, the cast discussed the themes of the play and presented some of the research they had done independently before the first rehearsal.
Once they had completed the full read-through, Cordelia led the group in a translation exercise, where they translated the lines into modern-day or colloquial English. This helps identify the core of each line and highlights where emphasis lies or where lines are directed, if not clearly stated as an aside to the audience.
Only once this textual work had been explored did the company begin blocking and rehearsing the scenes on their feet. For the majority of rehearsals, students work outside in our courtyard space (a treat for those of us in the office, as we get a free show every day!), which helps them to prepare for whatever weather may face them.
Another factor of this year’s Garden Shakespeare was the need for choreographed Fencing scenes. We had the incredible Claire Llewellyn in from Rc-Annie to choreograph the fight scenes. Rc-Annie is an extremely well-respected and experienced fight and intimacy direction company that regularly works with the likes of Shakespeare’s Globe and The RSC. Claire made sure our students were safely using the rapiers and choreographed a magnificent and thrilling duelling sequence. Many thanks to Claire and the whole Rc-Annie team for all their help!
Rehearsals for our Garden Shakespeare module typically occur over six weeks alongside other classes, making the time spent with Cordelia both precious and intensive, as students must balance their training commitments with rehearsals. Rehearsals often take place after school in the evenings, as well as during the school day.
Usually, we’re all looking up to the sky and wishing for a dry performance week without any rain; however, this year our wishes were for cooler days and more cloud cover! Our British readers will be well aware of this already, but this June we experienced unusually hot weather with temperatures in Oxfordshire regularly reaching up to 34 degrees Celsius. With a Hamlet production featuring traditional costumes and a lot of black velvet, staying cool between scenes became a crucial part of the rehearsals. Paddling pools in the wings isn’t a common request, but needs must!
The performances took place between the 18th and 21st of June to great success. Our second years all did a fantastic job, and they can head into their Summer Break with much to be proud of ahead of their final year with us.
Garden Shakespeare is a wonderful tradition at OSD, and we’re already looking forward to rehearsals beginning again next Summer!
If you like the sound of Garden Shakespeare, you might be interested in our Unlocking Shakespeare Short Course. This fantastic 4-day course will take place in August here at OSD and will be taught by RSC regular and OSD tutor Tom McCall. You can read more about the course and apply for a place here.
