Madeleine Hyland

Madeleine will be exploring how Shakespeare’s verse pattern can guide you to both a greater understanding of his meaning and more interesting acting choices, and how coupling this with alive and spontaneous play can open up joy and profundity to both actors and audiences.

Madeleine trained in New Zealand, and shortly after met Tim Carroll in a masterclass, prompting her to form her own theatre company, Peripeteia, producing and performing in Cymbeline, Pinocchio, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest, Three Women, and Three Sisters, mainly in non-theatre spaces. In 2008 she moved to London and joined The Factory, performing in Hamlet, The Seagull, The Odyssey, Round 2, Bugs, A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Cymbeline, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Measure for Measure, and Timon of Athens. In 2010 she directed and performed in A Midsummer Night's Dream in the gardens of St Anne's, Soho, a collaboration between actors and Soho locals, and in 2012, Troilus and Cressida in a disused factory in Vauxhall. While performing with the RSC on Broadway last year she led workshops with members of the NY Factory, culminating in a midnight promenade performance of Measure for Measure at The Players Club in Gramercy Park. Recently she played Titania with Factory actors in Tim Carroll’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Orchestré National de Lyon.

Other acting work includes Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies (RSC/West End/Broadway), Romeo and Juliet (Serious Mischief), Hangmen Rehanged (NT Live/Omnibus), Richard III and Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Love & Madness, UK tour), Othello (Downstage, NZ), Closer (Hamilton Gardens, NZ), Macbeth (The Large Group, NZ), King Lear (ATC, NZ).

She currently leads many workshops for The Factory. She has also taught at Shakespeare's Globe since 2009, frequently assisting Tim Carroll in his work
with students from Rutgers University, as well as directing various Shakespeare projects in schools across London, and most recently at Verbier Festival, Switzerland.

She also sings, recording and touring the world with Dexys on their 2012 album One Day I'm Going to Soar, and has just released her debut album Love Run with her own band, The Amazing Devil.

Meike van den Akker

During our shows we like to be inspired by objects that the audience bring and objects in the space we play in. It gives us new impulses and allows us to explore Shakespeare's lines in a new way.

Meike van den Akker is specialised in puppetry and objects in play. In her 2 day masterclass she will guide us through the world of object theatre.
How to manipulate an object?
How to get some 'juice' in a dead material?
The object is starting point of telling a story.
The object is making the images that are main frame of the dramaturgy. There are many ways of using an object: object as a prop, object as a character, object as a way to transform into a character. “I am interested in working with the question: who is manipulating who, is it the actor or the object?”

Federay Holmes

Federay will be giving a writing workshop, exploring Richard III from the point of view of a writer.

Federay is an Associate of The Factory in London and has worked extensively with them since 2008 as performer, director and writer. She directed the Dutch Factory's productions of Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Nights Dream. She mentors student playwrights at London’s Central School of Music and Drama where she also directs for the Contemporary Acting course. She has for several years now directed productions for Rose Bruford; the Baroque collective Solomon’s Knot and the Sonnet Walks for Shakespeare’s Globe. As well as directing she teaches verse and Shakespeare in a wide range of settings.

Christina Völtl

Christina Völtl studied classical singing in Germany and at the Conservatory in Rotterdam.

She finds it fascinating and inspiring to work with actors on sound and resonance of their voice and on their diction. It's important to search for a true and own sound, which is free and therefore has both strength and resonance, and gives the actor freedom to play with expression and a variety of volumes.
Next to the sound the intelligibility - especially with Shakespeare! - is of enormous importance. When Christina works on articulation she not so much approaches it in a technical way, but rather uses it as a tool to strengthen the expression and the presence of the text.
Ideally everything should coalesce into one, strengthening each other: the sound, diction, expression and individuality of the actor.

As a singer, maker and performer Christina creates at the crossroad of disciplines. In 2004 she received the first Margit Witlund Stipendium for her work. She was part of The Dutch Factory and worked on theater productions of het Kameroperahuis and Theater Nijt, and as a musical advisor for theatermaker Dries Verhoeven. She has years of experience as a singer and teacher, making full use of her classical training, her lessons from Marjan Kuiper and the Lichtenberg Method.

“In my work as a teacher and conductor I find it important to let people experience how much they can achieve with their voice. Not only technical, but especially in expression and presentation as well. It’s wonderful to see and hear how much you can achieve in yourself, in singing together with others and eventually in your audience if you experience how you can use the full potential of your voice and expression! Completely in line with my favourite quote about art:

‘Kunst ist ein Beitrag zur grössten aller Künste: der Lebenskunst’ B. Brecht

Scott Brooksbank

Scott will be exploring how Shakespeare’s verse pattern can guide you to both a greater understanding of his meaning and more interesting acting choices, and how coupling this with alive and spontaneous play can open up joy and profundity to both actors and audiences.

Scott trained at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. In his final year he won the BBC Radio Carleton Hobbs Award, and subsequently spent six months acting with the BBC Radio rep. company. Since then his work has been mainly in theatre.

He has been a member of The Factory since the beginning, and has played in all its major projects (The Odyssey, Hamlet, The Seagull and Round 2), as well as several short-term Shakespeare projects (As You Like It, Cymbeline, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Pericles and Measure for Measure). Recently he played Puck with Factory actors in Tim Carroll’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Lyon with the orchestra there.

His other recent acting work in theatre includes: Mobile 4 (Orange Tree Theatre), iAm (Spid Productions), Bread (Metta Theatre for Theatre Uncut at The Young Vic), The Spire (Salisbury Playhouse), The Merchant of Venice (Creation, Oxford), Brazil, Prometheus (Secret Cinema), Macbeth (Baz Productions), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Jagged Fence), 3rd Ring Out (Metis Arts), Now is the Hour (Edinburgh), and Hamlet & Much Ado About Nothing (Stafford Gatehouse Theatre).

Scott currently leads many of the current Factory sessions, and is the company’s Head of Ongoing Development. He is a workshop leader for the Education Department of Shakespeare’s Globe; teaches the Short Course on Shakespeare at The Central School of Speech and Drama; and recently directed The Medieval Mystery Plays project at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama.