If asked to describe Max Stafford Clark in one word, it would be ‘legend’. On Wednesday 29th April we were unbelievably lucky to attend the 2015 Wontner Masterclass led by him.
We had all watched Max's production of Crouch, Touch, Pause, Engage by Robin Soans (Sn 64) the evening before, and had been blown away by it. So, we were unbelievably excited about the prospect of the workshop the following day, although it is fair to say none of us really knew what to expect. What struck us almost immediately was the energy that Max had, as did his cast.
The workshop was split into two parts revolving around the two rehearsal methods that Max is most famous for – ‘status’ and ‘actioning’.
In the first section, we were each assigned a random status, and through our interactions with each other, had to identify each person’s status in the group. Then, through a series of improvised scenes we played with the idea of how status can influence strength of motivation.
In the second part of the workshop we examined the idea of actioning. This is the idea that each word or line has an individual action attached to it. Here, the two actors from the production who play the characters Meryl and Darcey read through one of the scenes with the actions attached to them. We saw how useful this would be in rehearsals and how fundamental it is to the process of directing in Max’s productions.
We were surprised to hear that two out of five weeks rehearsal time for Max’s shows is spent doing table work and actioning. We each had a chance to work with actioning, and it was harder than it looked, especially having to do it in some highly questionable Welsh accents. But we could see how useful it would be to the development of characters and the portrayal of distinctive emotions.
Everyone would agree that we learnt an unbelievable amount during the workshop. The two actors and Max were truly inspirational.spent doing table work and actioning. We each had a chance to work with actioning, and it was harder than it looked, especially having to do it in some highly questionable Welsh accents. But we could see how useful it would be to the development of characters and the portrayal of distinctive emotions.
Hetty Hodgson (D)