Category Archive: Acting Shakespeare
Open Workshop with Ben Crystal & Company – London – September 2013
Come and work with the Passion in Practice Company
A day-long intensive workshop, introducing our work towards fresh and accessible approaches to playing Shakespeare.
Over the course of the day we will share our method in finding fluency with Shakespearean text, to discover a truthful and simple way of speaking verse.
The workshop will include:
- Text and rhythm exploration
- Performing Shakespeare with a free physicality
- Speech and scene analysis
- Mini Sonnet workshop with Will Sutton **NEW**
- RP accent absolutely not required…
Places limited
COST
£50 / £40*
DATE
14th September, 10-6pm
WHERE
Central London – Moving East
Interested participants please email your CV by clicking here
*Early bird rate for the first 10 participants
Shakespeare Verse Masterclass – June 18th
In celebration of my forthcoming Springboard Shakespeare series:
A Shakespeare Verse Masterclass
with Ben Crystal & Company
Guest Sonneteer – Will SuttonTuesday 18th June, 2pm
Jackson’s Lane Theatre, Highgate
£10 on the door
First 10 places £0email us at Verse Masterclass
“One of the most-shared, most popular performances” – Shakespeare Sonnets
Very nice to hear, from Henry Volans at Faber & Faber:
Ben Crystal’s reading of Sonnet 141 in Original Pronunciation is one of the most-shared, most popular performances in the app…
More on Wired.com’s interview with the creators of the Shakespeare Sonnets iPad App here…
Shakespeare Sonnets iPad App – “Wonderful… Extraordinary… A treat!”
The Shakespeare Sonnets iPad App came out a couple of weeks ago, to great acclaim:
Ben Crystal’s reading of Sonnet 141 in Original Pronunciation is a treat – theverge.com
Ben Crystal’s reading of Sonnet 141, delivered in Original Pronunciation, is a salutary reminder of the warmth and unpretentiousness of our national poet – Poor Rude Lines
A digital delight – Ben Crystal gives his approximation of Shakespeare’s own pronunciation, rugged and lilting at once – The Independent
An extraordindary achievement – The Times
A wonderful app that will provide hours of enjoyment –
The TelegraphFaber’s app commissioner now wields as much power as the person who decides where to open a new Waitrose –
The GuardianJust a wonderful iPad App… An absolute star for classrooms – iPadinsight.com
The App is produced by Illuminations Media, Faber and Faber, Arden Shakespeare and Touch Press, and features Sir Patrick Stewart, David Tennant, Fiona Shaw, Kim Cattrell, Dominic West, scholars James Shapiro and Katherine Duncan-Jones, and the poet Don Paterson, amongst many others.
I act Sonnet 141 – In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes in Original Pronunciation – take a look at the video here:
And you can download the App now from iTunes UK or iTunes US
Shakespeare’s Original Pronunciation – Live! – The British Library – May 4th, 6.30pm
First, a very happy 448th birthday to Will… Your work never ceases to amaze. Well done. Take the rest of the day off.
Now! This coming Star Wars Day, I’ll be giving a talk at the British Library based on the CD of Shakespeare sonnets, speeches and scenes I curated for the BL.
Together with a fab line-up of actors, we’ll intercut the blah-blah-blah by performing speeches & scenes from Shakespeare in Original Pronunciation. Some will be from the CD, some won’t have been heard in OP for over 400 years… Come one, come all…!
For details of the event, and to purchase tickets, click here…
How did Shakespeare sound to the audiences of the day?
Ben Crystal, together with actors from the company formed for the new British Library Shakespeare’s Original Pronunciation CD, offer us a rare chance to hear new meanings uncovered, new jokes revealed and poetic effects enhanced.
‘Shakespeare’s Original Pronunciation’ is currently available on CD & to Download here.
You can have a sneak preview to Sonnet 116, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet here…
Shakespeare’s Original Pronunciation – CD Available Now
The first ever CD of Shakespeare sonnets, speeches and scenes that I curated for the British Library launched yesterday. Click here for the full press release.
It’s now available to buy, and the Live event will take place on May 4th, 2012, at the British Library.
The Telegraph ran a feature on it with some extracts to listen to, as did the New Statesman, and Mark Lawson interviewed me on BBC Radio 4’s Frontrow last night (available to download as a podcast, dated 14th March 2012).
Enjoy!
Hamlet – Year of the Prince
Photos of the Contemporary World Premiere of Hamlet in the Original Pronunciation can now be seen here:
www.YearOfThePrince.com
Hamlet. In OP. In Nevada. This November… & a few other ‘bits’…
Apologies for the lack of posting to this site in recent months…
Unless you follow me on Twitter you may not know I was playing Demetrius in Iris Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream this last July, in the gardens of St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden, London.
Nor that I curated a 70 minute CD of well-known – and not so well-known sonnets, speeches and scenes of Shakespeare for the British Library, the first of its kind spoken by professional actors, and out March 2012.
I’m about to adapt Venus and Adonis for Roughhouse Theatre & Bath Theatre Royal… and very excitingly, will be beginning work on a new series of books I’ve been commissioned to write for Arden Shakespeare…
Nor indeed, will you know that I am about to leave for Nevada, USA, to start rehearsals to play Hamlet…
It’s going to be an Original Pronunciation production, the first for 400 years, and will open November 1st.
I’ll be keeping an account and diary of the whole process – the first of which will be up very soon – and found via my Twitter feed…
Passion in Practice – May 2011 – Acting Shakespeare Workshop
Passion in Practice is a collaboration between actor Ben Crystal and director Dan Winder exploring fresh approaches to acting Shakespeare.
The starting point for all our work is the words of the writer. Using a solid textual foundation, we play Shakespeare as simply as possible, without any great conceptual frame placed between participants, audience and the play.
By allowing Shakespeare and his words to direct us we discover new ways of approaching Shakespeare for the 21st Century with honesty and great passion.
The next Passion in Practice workshop will be May 16th-20th 2011 in London.
Please head to www.passioninpractice.com for more details.
