Our poster/flyer, designed by the wonderful Polly Boon

18/6/11, Day One

Exactly four months until opening night. Some of the Lear company are gathered for the first text workshop. Everyone is excited and apprehensive.

After half an hour of so of general chatter and introductions, I started the session with a brief introduction of the text we are using and how we came to it. I gave an overview of the differences between the quarto and folio texts, and explained that the director and I have conflated the two to create our own edition of the play, cutting about twenty minutes from performance time.

For most of the rest of the session, we read the play as a group; rather than reading in character, the actors read around the room, one speech at a time. Our aim was to create a sense of ensemble. Those with fewer lines remained involved throughout, and those with the most lines didn’t have to ‘perform’ for the cast. Interestingly, our Lear was unable to attend on this occasion, giving everyone – men and women – the opportunity to read his lines.

Possibly the most revealing aspect of this exercise was how bawdy our cast is – something I’m sure the Bard would appreciate.

In the afternoon, Fran – the director – lead two exercises using the opening scenes from Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. We explored how Shakespeare creates the world of the play in Hamlet through his use of supernatural imagery in the writing, and we played with physicalising the sexual tension between Hippolyta and Theseus in Dream.

The final task for the actors was some homework. We asked them to start looking at character, by noting what they say about others, and what others say about them.

All in all, a very successful first session.

Soph, Assistant Director/Dramaturg

Cast and Creative Team

King Lear	Michael Elliott
Goneril	Jenny McQueen
Regan	Alison Feilding
Cordelia	Bridget Collins
Albany	Peter Emmanuel
Cornwall	Glen Marks
Burgundy	Ed Jones
France	Chris Woodward
Gloucester	Humphrey Skett
Kent	Matt Penfold
Edmund	Kris Robertson
Edgar	Mark Hoskin
Fool	Bridget Collins
Oswald	Sam Cork
Curan/Old Man/Doctor	Chris Moreton
Lear’s Knight/Gentleman	Derek Hollweg
Director	Francesca Gilpin
Assistant Director/Dramaturg	Sophie Gilpin
Set Designer	Andy Newell
Composer	Leopold von Bülow-Quirk
Costume	Diana Byers
Production Manager Poster Design Fight Choreographer	Paul Rowlandson Polly Boon Ronin Traynor