The Studio

Kasia Lech:

Performing Verse Structure through Body, Voice, and Technology

What can verse teach us about making theatre? How can we generate ideas about staging by sounding out the words? What is caesura, enjambment, heteroglossia and what does it have to do with performance? Join Kasia Lech’s masterclass to find out the secrets of working with verse in theatre from Pushkin to hip hop and beyond. 

Kasia Lech is a scholar, actor, storyteller, and puppeteer. She is the author of Dramaturgy of Form: Performing Verse in Contemporary Theatre (2021), which pays attention to the dramaturgical effects of verse on the contemporary stage, exploring case studies from playwriting, musicals, experimental performance, hip hop and gig theatre and digital media, across a number of cultures and languages.   

Watch Kasia summarise her book Dramaturgy of Form: Performing Verse in Contemporary Theatre (2021). 

This class was recorded on Zoom on 24th May 2021. 

[00:00:21] Intro
[00:03:22] Verse as Pattern
[00:23:40] Verse Analysis
[00:35:36] Caesura
[00:38:16] Performing the Verse
[00:48:59] The Machine of Sounds
[00:58:04] Performance Possibilities

With thanks to the students of MA Advanced Theatre Practice at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama for taking part in the making of the video, especially Maria Colonescu, Jack Hilton, Pei Yu Huang, Linda van Egmond , Dana McMillan, Alessandro Meringolo, Grace Kavanagh, Jenia Kovryga, Holly Nomafo, Billie Osborn Harrison, Sam Roberts, Gaurav Singh, Emma Wagstaff, Dominic Weatherby, Kiki Ye who gave their permission to be featured in the final edit. Also thanks to Nohar Lazarovich incorporating this session into the curriculum, as well as MA ATP convener Lynne Kendrick and lecturer Jane Munro for their support.   

 

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