Action To The Word provide an exciting education programme alongside the body of their theatre work, providing workshops up and down the country to pupils aged 11 – 23. As an educationalist and a graduate of Education and Drama from Cambridge University, these programs are designed by Company Artistic Director Alexandra Spencer-Jones. A selector for this year’s National Student Drama Festival, Alexandra acts as a mentor to young students of drama countrywide.
Current workshops include:
- Shakespeare and Language
- Shakespeare From Page To Stage
- Shakespeare Gone Wild
- Specialist Shakespeare (based on play study of choice)
- A Clockwork Workshop
- The Greeks In All Their Gory – An Oresteia Workshop
- Writing A Musical
For more details about what Action To The Word can offer your school please contact us at .
Not only was it fascinating to look at Shakespeare from such a well-read and practiced point of view but Alex’s passion and enthusiasm was also very infectious and inspiring.
Action to the Word offer a thrilling insight into the world of professional theatre, bringing a rare vibrancy and intelligence to school workshops. They unfailingly engage rather than patronise, and their ‘play’ in workshops is at once fiercely intellectual and excitingly physical. Every penny spent on, and every minute allocated to an Action to the Word workshop is not wasted. Even the most recalcitrant students will leave feeling exhausted, inspired, invigorated and ready to push their own textual understanding to greater heights. In performance, Action to the Word combine freshness and innovation with scholarship, bring alien worlds vividly to life, and make their characterisations real and relevant. Their shows will linger long in the consciousness when paler, more pedestrian productions have vanished. This is a superb company, offering a modern, academic, and uncompromising dramatic strength that will change the views of students (and teachers) as to what we deem theatrically possible.
Action to the Word’s workshops bring Shakespeare alive like no other. The dynamic way in which they engage with the text is completely unique and their combination of textual analysis and physical work is perfect for anyone looking for a fresh take on Shakespeare. A group of incredibly knowledgable, talented and friendly people that make Shakespeare fun again, Action to the Word’s workshops are inclusive, group orientated and crucially focus not only on the understanding the text, but enjoying it.
The movement workshop during rehearsals of my production of Les Mis̩rables: School Edition was fun, fast-paced and benefited my students hugely. They treated the young cast like professionals, had very high expectations of them, and introduced them to many new ways of working practically. They have an acute awareness of the needs of the students and an incredibly impressive CV Рwhich demonstrates a wealth of experience both in teaching and in professional theatre Рmean that Action To The Word are able to challenge and inspire every learner in the classroom. I would not hesitate to welcome them back to my school.
The boys got so much out of it and all came away having learnt so much. It was a very exciting day and Alex and Tom, who were leading the workshop, were inspirational and completely got the boys on-side. Since the workshop, the year 11s have worked incredibly well, still using many ideas from the workshop. I would highly recommend it