Date: April 11th
Location: Diorama Arts Centre, 201 Drummond Street, Regents Place, London, NW1 3FE
Time: 10.00 - 17.30

A thirty-minute (or hour if you book two slots) 1-2-1 to help you prepare in detail for your next Shakespeare audition with one of the UKs top directors (RSC, NT, Royal Court). 

Maria will help you make the most of your audition by unlocking the text, helping you really use the language and encouraging you to make key decisions about character and motivation. Using your own intuition about the character as starting point, Maria will help you to explore the text and allow you to be playful and open in an audition. You can choose from a range of speeches Maria has worked on in the past, or you can bring your own. 

Maria Aberg is a theatre director working in the UK and internationally.  Her recent work includes Dr Faustus, The White Devil, As You Like It, King John, The Gods Weep, Days of Significance (all Royal Shakespeare Company), Hotel (National Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing (Royal Exchange), The Chairs (Theatre Royal Bath), Alaska (Royal Court), Wildefire, Belongings (Hampstead Theatre and Trafalgar Studios), Kasimir & Karoline, Fanny & Alexander, Love and Money (Malmö Stadsteater in Sweden), Amerika, Krieg der Builder, Die Kaperer (Staatstheater Mainz in Germany).

If you don't have your own speech you want to work on please choose from one of the following:

King John, act 5 scene 2, Bastard speech beginning 'By all the blood that ever fury breathed'

King John, act 3 scene 3, Constance speech beginning 'Thou are not holy to belie me so' (up to 'My widow-comfort and my sorrows' cure')

Much Ado About Nothing, act 3 scene 1, Benedick speech beginning 'This can be no trick'

Much Ado About Nothing, act 5 scene 1, Leonato speech beginning 'I pray thee, cease thy counsel'

As You Like It, act 2 scene 7, Jacques speech 'All the world's a stage'

As You Like It, act 3 scene 5, Rosalind speech beginning 'And why, I pray you?'

The Winter's Tale, act 1 scene 2, Leontes speech beginning 'Gone already?'

The Winter's Tale, act 3 scene 2, Hermione speech beginning 'Since what I am to say'

The Winter's Tale, act 3 scene 2, Paulina speech beginning 'What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me?'

Please note you do not need to adhere to the gender of the character if you would rather do a speech by a character of the opposite gender.

Please bring a copy of your speech

Sessions are for half an hour each:

10.30 - 11.00 
11.00 - 11.30  
15.00 - 15.30
15.30 - 16:00
16.30 - 17:00  
17.00 - 17.30 

Please book online as usual and then email us to reserve your time slot with your first and second choice. Times are allocated on a first come first served basis.