A New View of Eternity

The British Council in Uzbekistan continues its campaign devoted to the 400th death anniversary of the great playwright William Shakespeare. The first Shakespearean festival has turned into another stop in this theatrical trip, which had started last year with the tour of the English troupe “Globe” with the production of “Hamlet”. 

Students and actors of the Youth Theater of Uzbekistan manifested everything they had learnt during master-classes held in December 2015 by British specialists from the Rose Brooford College of Theater and Acting Skills at the State Institute of Arts and Culture. Then 30 students, 15 teachers of the Institute and 40 young actors from the capital city worked on scenic speech and improved their acting skills. All those willing were invited to the final training lesson. Students recited Shakespeare’s sonnets and monologues from his plays at this kind of open lesson in three languages, that is, Uzbek, English and Russian. Our readers were able to learn about details of conducting master classes in one of Uzbekistan Today’s issues.

The Shakespearean festival was produced by one of British specialists, who trained the Uzbekistani actors last year – teacher of the College of Theater and Acting Skills, stage director John Taker. The program was made up of two parts - that of Shakespeare’s sonnets and monologues from plays. There were no decorations; the participants were dressed in simple dark clothes so that nothing distracted the audience from the Shakespeare’s word. It did not matter which language the playwright’s works resounded in: they were all rather dramatic, expressive and emotional. And the silence standing in-between the readings of sonnets seemed to have left some short time span for the audience to comprehend the meaning of the heard.

“I can see how the participants in the last year master classes have progressed since we met last. I am pleased that the actors of the Youth Theater had taken part in the festival. Although they did not work directly with the students, their professional performance had inspired the novice actors, set the bar and demonstrated what they could achieve,” says John Taker. “It was not in vain that the works by Shakespeare were taken as a basis. Their value rests in that through deep characters and different life situations they reveal the human nature, and the iambic pentameter text size, inherent to the writer, sets a certain rhythm.”

By the end of this week the specialist from the Great Britain, jointly with the faculty of the State Institute of Arts and Culture will elaborate a practical module for students and young actors on the development of modern scenic speech.

Source: Jahonnews.uz