Date: November 17th
Location: Regents Studio, Diorama Arts Studios, 201 Drummond Street, London, NW1
Time: 10.30 - 17.30

Ryan works regularly with companies such as Cheek by Jowl, Complicite and with the Peter Hall Company.

This workshop introduces techniques and insights that use the sounds, rhythms and hidden images of the verse to unlock the meaning of the poetry, and which lead to performances that are fresh, spontaneous and daring.

Working with Shakespeare's verse can galvanise a creativity, imagination, and eloquence that transcend fixed ideas about "how to get it right".

The second definition of "poet" in the Oxford English Dictionary is "a person of great imagination and creativity". Shakespeare is revered as our greatest poet. It is precisely this reverence, however, that can often inhibit our own creativity when performing his work. We get bogged down by dogmatic rules and technical terms, hampered by a need to get it right and to "serve" the text. But Shakespeare writes mysterious images that clamour for form and sense,  compelling rhythms and sounds that are designed to stimulate our imaginations on a deeper level. He did this because, as an actor and theatre maker, he understood that it is only in the collective imagination that his writing can be brought to life.

So to perform Shakespeare, we must actually "re-see" his images afresh, not just understand or explain them,  before we can give them form through speech and motion...

As an actor, Ryan has performed Shakespeare internationally, and has numerous credits in the West End and on screen. Highlights include regular work with Cheek by Jowl, Complicite and with the Peter Hall Company.

As a theatre maker he has worked with the Southbank Centre, Southwark Playhouse and Brits Off Broadway in New York.

Ryan is also artistic director of aya (www.ayatheatre.com).