MORE THAN JUST ENGLISH

Our English and Art Course combines our highly popular General English Course with an exciting and creative course covering theoretical and practical approaches to art.

This course is available for students with an intermediate level of English and above.

We have a very experienced drama teacher who trained at The Central School of Speech and Drama in London. The course is taught partly at Loxdale, but mostly at the Southwick Community Centre in the Barn Theatre. This is a marvellous, professionally equipped theatre space, so students are able to work on their acting skills in an inspiring environment. The aims of this course include developing self-confidence, imagination, individual expression and creativity.

Exploring and Developing an Actor’s Skills
In this unit we consider the actor’s use of voice and body to interpret the playwright’s words through a series of structured exercises. This includes working on short open dialogues and exploring different vocal emphasis, different movement and different body language to change the meaning.

Text Work – from Page to Stage
We work on texts leading to performance of selected scenes in the final week of the course in the Barn Theatre. The skills and techniques covered in the first unit will be used in the rehearsal of the chosen scenes. The choice of plays and scenes will be dependent on the number in the class and the male/female ratio. The intention will be to choose texts that give good opportunities to all members of the class, playing roles that allow them to develop their acting skills.

Physical Theatre
Work on images, tableaux, metaphor and Expressionism to create non-naturalistic improvised work. We will look texts that allow us to explore physical theatre techniques and develop physical theatre skills.

Commedia Dell’arte
A practical exploration of the stock characters and key aspects of Commedia such as Lazzi. Building physical comedy skills. Then dividing into groups to rehearse and perform some Commedia scenarios.

Improvisation
Exercises to introduce a variety of improvisation techniques such as Accepting, Building, Blocking, Thought tracking, Spotlighting, Hot Seating, Rewind.

Mike Leigh
Working in the style of Mike Leigh, the students will create naturalistic three-dimensional characters and then develop these characters in a variety of scenes. Scenes will be edited and rehearsed to create short pieces of drama. The students work towards putting on a short performance to fellow students.