Knaresborough School of Speech and Drama

Since 2005 sprite has been working with one of the most longstanding Drama Schools in the North of England, KSSD in Knaresborough. The students have enjoyed numerous workshops including stage-combat, improvisation and Shakespeare.

After speaking to Denyse Smith (Principal) about what would be useful to her already highly-skilled young students, we decided on a series of 5 – 6 workshops with the aim of involving some of the students in our pre-show entertainment. We were not sure in what capacity but knew that we would like the students to look closely at some Shakespearean text.

We’ve all experienced the dread of trying to understand Shakespeare with its almost foreign Elizabethan tongue. The main aim of the first Shakespeare workshops – literally the first for some of the students – was to help the KSSD crew to look at a duologue and not get confused by the elaborate wording. The easiest way was to understand the main theme of each scene and then get everyone to put it into their own words.

By the end of our work together the students had a variety of scenes ranging from original Shakespearian dialogue to their own interpretations. All of the students then had the opportunity to perform in front of hundreds of Sprite audience members as part of our Pre-Show entertainment. They all excelled at working the crowds and for all of them it was their first taste of Shakespeare in performance: which is what it was written for, not to be pored over in a class room!!

In 2006, as we embarked on producing Romeo & Juliet, we realised the importance of the first scene, a brawl between the Montagues and the Capulets. With only a cast of ten we needed some extra actors to open the show and create something that exited our audiences as well as making clear to them the level of tension that the story opens on. After holding auditions we choose KSSD pupils to fill 6 of the 8 parts needed.

The young local actors rehearsed over three weeks, working with our professional company on Stage Combat and Shakespearian text. After six weeks work with a highly professional standard of practice the boys performed to combined audiences of 4000. They were fantastic, and as you would expect with a group of young lads, they took to the sword play with a swash buckling enthusiasm.

This year we aim to continue working with one of the most inspiring and longstanding Drama Schools in the North of England!

To find out more about KSSD go to ww.kssd.co.uk