Boxing Shakespeare

Sunday, 20 February 2005
Spooky Hall, Ngau Tau Kok

Get ready! Boxing Shakespeare is coming to you to take care of some Bardish business! Get ready to be entertained, and get ready to entertain us too! Getting to know William was never so much fun.

Your Workshop Guide:

• Who was Shakespeare? Why did he write?
• How did his audience view these productions?
• The Structure - What is a comedy? What is a tragedy?
• The Language - What is blank verse? What is this iambic pentameter stuff? We will use rhythm, percussion and games to explore this integral part of Shakespeare’s writing.
• Shakespeare Adaptations - Modern theatre, ballet, opera, movie, Broadway musical. Shakespeare is everywhere in the entertainment of yesterday and today. By focusing on two of the Bard’s most famous love stories we will explore adaptation. “The Taming of the Shrew” (love story / comedy) and “Romeo and Juliet” (love story / tragedy) we will look at two amazing Shakespeare adaptations sprung from these master works: “Kiss Me, Kate” and “West Side Story”. We will use story telling and performance to present to you excerpts from these wonderful pieces.
• Lets get busy - Why not do “Othello” as a Rap or “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” as a Radio Play? through theatre games and role playing activities we will have fun learning a bit of the Bard. Participants will have an opportunity, working in small groups, to put together the outline for their idea for a Shakespeare adaptation.

Elissa Rosati
Elissa has worked for over two and a half decades in the Performing Arts. A graduate of New York’s High School of the Performing Arts for dance, she went on to dance professionally in many prestigious dance companies around the world. Moving on to film school, Elissa completed a degree with honors in Film and Television directing. Elissa has taught dance in conservatories world wide. Throughout the years, Elissa has worked with children, teaching creative dance and mounting projects to the great enjoyment of those participating. Currently, Elissa performs and directs extensively in Hong Kong. Her recent projects include: “Fiddler on the Roof”, “Oklahoma!” and “Kiss Me, Kate” for the Hong Kong Singers as director /choreographer. “Words, Words, Words” and “Identity Crisis” as director/actor for ACT. Arthur Miller’s master work “The Crucible” as Elizabeth Proctor for ACT and Steven Sondheim’s “Into the Woods” as Little Red Riding Hood for Bloody Offal Productions. With her own company, Proxy Productions, Elissa produced Jason Robert Brown’s “The Last Five Years” for the Faust Festival 2004 combining multimedia with live performance to great critical acclaim.

Gilad Lotan
Hailing from Israel, Gilad has always had a passion for the stage. Since coming to Hong Kong, he has performed several principal roles, including Jack in Sondheim’s “Into the Woods”, Jud Fry in “Oklahoma!” and Chuck Cranston in “Footloose”. He has appeared in several films and TV commercials aired across Asia. Previous theatre credits include “Godspell” and “Tom Sawyer”. On the production side, Gilad designed the set for the recent production of Jason Robert Brown’s “The Last Five Years” and is for Faust’s production of “Peter Pan”. Gilad plays various musical instruments and instructs many budding musicians. As lead trumpet player, he has performed on tour through France with the Israel Youth Orchestra. Gilad is a certified photographer with the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art.