John Freeman, United Kingdom 2022
John Freeman teaches Theatre at the University of Huddersfield. He has a PhD from Brunel University London and holds an Adjunct Professorship in Theatre at the University of Notre Dame Western Australia. He has written extensively on actor training in a series of books and articles and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Higher Education Academy. John has taught, examined, led residencies and directed productions in a dozen countries, been published extensively in international journals and has written and edited numerous books, his most recent being Approaches to Actor Training; he is currently writing a book on nation and identity in Australian theatre.
Scene Study: Putting it Together
Scene Study is about answering a number of questions related to the scene you are set to perform. These include: What is the scene really about? What is your character’s role in the scene? Who is the character and what do they want?
In your workshop, you will explore and share ways of applying fundamental and core acting skills into scene study work. Sharing is key here, and it is expected that you will learn as much from each other’s approaches as you will about story and character, inner monologues and physical actions. Notwithstanding this, understanding scenes as miniature dramas, as battlegrounds where advantages are won and lost is at the heart of the workshop. A selection of scenes will be available in the workshop, but you are encouraged to bring to the session copies of any scenes you might currently be working on.
Scene Study is a way for you to continually work on your craft. It’s a way to put into a performance the exercises and techniques you have learned to create characters and connect to the demands of a role. Technique classes are where you learn the exercises and build up your foundational skills, Scene Study is where you put it all together.