Date: February 22nd
Location: Actors' Guild Hub at Spotlight, 7 Leicester Place, London, WC2H 7RJ
Time: 18.00 - 21.00

One of the UK's most respected directors, Stephen Unwin, leads a workshop for professional actors who want to discover how to take their interpretation and performance to the next level...

Bring a copy of the complete works and prepare a section (of up to 20 lines) from any one of Shakespeare's plays that you would like to work on.

Feedback on Twitter following Stephen's first Shakespeare Surgery includes:

"Thanks to The Actors' Guild for bringing Stephen Unwin to us. Last night's Shakespeare workshop was a revelation. Real 'Lightbulb' moments - Shakespeare would approve!"

Stephen Unwin

Stephen Unwin was the Artistic Director of the Rose Theatre Kingston, where he has directed many home-grown productions, including: The Winslow Boy, Miss Julie, Hay Fever, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Lady from the Sea and The Second Mrs Tanqueray.

Stephen founded English Touring Theatre. His first production was Hamlet, which transferred to the Donmar. Subsequent productions include A Doll's House; The Beaux' Stratagem; As You Like It; The School for Wives; Macbeth (Lyric Hammersmith); Hedda Gabler (Donmar); Henry IV Parts One and Two (Old Vic); The Seagull (Donmar); Marty Cruickshank's A Difficult Age; The Taming of the Shrew; Don Juan; The Master Builder; The Cherry Orchard; Love's Labour's Lost; Ghosts; King Lear (Old Vic); John Gabriel Borkman; Romeo and Juliet; Twelfth Night; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead; Hamlet (New Ambassador's); The Old Country (Trafalgar); Mother Courage and her Children; Someone Else's Shoes (Soho) and The Changeling.

Stephen has directed for The Peter Hall Company; Born in the Gardens, Home and This Happy Breed.

Earlier in his career Stephen was Resident Director at the National Theatre Studio, where his work included: Marivaux' The Lottery of Love; Goethe's Torquato Tasso; A Yorkshire Tragedy; the British premiere of Peter Handke's The Long Way Round. Before that Stephen was Associate Director at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh. Productions that transferred include Michel Tremblay's Sandra/Manon (Donmar); Mario Vargas Llosa's Kathie and the Hippopotamus and Peter Arnott's White Rose (Almeida); and two plays by Manfred Karge: Man to Man and The Conquest of the South Pole (Royal Court).

Stephen has written 10 books on theatre, drama and related subjects for Faber and Faber, Methuen, Nick Hern Books and Oberon. He has also written four plays and numerous translations.