Practitioner Responses
1. Emma Rice
Emma rice style is about modernising a story. I personally enjoy watching performances in this way because
it makes the performance more relatable, this would cause the storyline to be more enjoyable and make
more sense to a larger audience. I also admire how her company is all about collaborative process. I also
admire Rice’s rehearsal techniques; she allows an actor to get into a character’s head by having an actor
answer question in a hot seat as if they were the character. Emma Rice’s methodology is to reimagine a text
to a new context. She has done this with performances such as Rapunzel. This idea of modernising old tales
would allow us to make a storyline make sense to an audience. Emma Rice’s style would also allow us to
have more creative freedom as we would be allowed to choose the storyline of our performance instead of
following the original text. Emma Rice’s methodology would make the most sense with texts that don’t have
a happy ending, giving the audience a different perspective on a story, such as a story like Romeo and Juliet. I
would also like to rewrite a story like Rapunzel as stories with this series of events would have many ways to
change the story.
2. Katie Mitchell
I admire the process Katie Mitchell follows to produce and direct a play. This causes people to feel as if her
performances are as if you are flicking through a novel, or as one critic had phrased it as “between a dream,
a nightmare, an art installation and a melodrama”. The majority of Katie Mitchell’s work combines extreme
naturalism with multimedia, and she explores a lot of themes related to feminism. Katie Mitchell tries to
create an atmosphere as in real life but as a performance, this is what she uses extreme naturalism for. She
also puts a lot of thought into the way the camera is going to be filming the actors, this amount of attention
to detail makes her someone to admire because of how she can create a story that feels like the audience is
living. Her using current topics, especially feminism, is also impressive as this doesn’t take away from the
overall performance, as certain performances start to get boring as the story tries to talk about current
topics. Katie Mitchells techniques would be great for any Shakespearean play, such as the play And Juliet as
they had the same concept, as it explores what feminism could have looked like in the Shakespearean era.
This would allow the audience to relate to a story much more and male the story a little more personal to
people there who watch it.
3. Stephen Berkoff
Berkoff’s main techniques was mime, exaggerated movement, and improvisation. Berkoff often tells stories
in a poetic way, both vocally and physically using minimal set and non – naturalistic style with lighting and
music. This is known as an experimental style as there is many ways for the director to direct a show, this
style doesn’t really have many limitations but instead uses a lot more visuals to show what a character is
feeling, and visuals help influence the audience mood with lighting, music, and dance. I enjoy watching this
type of performance as it allows me to use my imagination and change the storyline in my head a little,
depending on what I would be interested in seeing. Performances such as the Lion King uses this in a very
interesting way as much of the performance is dances and exaggerated movements. Not only does this make
it easier for people in the back rows to follow the actors’ emotions more clearly. The Lion King had amazing
special effects, lighting, and music, and used an impressive amount of movement, but this never took away
from the performance. Being able to use these techniques in our performances would make our
performance more unique but would still be easy to follow.
1. Emma Rice
Emma rice style is about modernising a story. I personally enjoy watching performances in this way because
it makes the performance more relatable, this would cause the storyline to be more enjoyable and make
more sense to a larger audience. I also admire how her company is all about collaborative process. I also
admire Rice’s rehearsal techniques; she allows an actor to get into a character’s head by having an actor
answer question in a hot seat as if they were the character. Emma Rice’s methodology is to reimagine a text
to a new context. She has done this with performances such as Rapunzel. This idea of modernising old tales
would allow us to make a storyline make sense to an audience. Emma Rice’s style would also allow us to
have more creative freedom as we would be allowed to choose the storyline of our performance instead of
following the original text. Emma Rice’s methodology would make the most sense with texts that don’t have
a happy ending, giving the audience a different perspective on a story, such as a story like Romeo and Juliet. I
would also like to rewrite a story like Rapunzel as stories with this series of events would have many ways to
change the story.
2. Katie Mitchell
I admire the process Katie Mitchell follows to produce and direct a play. This causes people to feel as if her
performances are as if you are flicking through a novel, or as one critic had phrased it as “between a dream,
a nightmare, an art installation and a melodrama”. The majority of Katie Mitchell’s work combines extreme
naturalism with multimedia, and she explores a lot of themes related to feminism. Katie Mitchell tries to
create an atmosphere as in real life but as a performance, this is what she uses extreme naturalism for. She
also puts a lot of thought into the way the camera is going to be filming the actors, this amount of attention
to detail makes her someone to admire because of how she can create a story that feels like the audience is
living. Her using current topics, especially feminism, is also impressive as this doesn’t take away from the
overall performance, as certain performances start to get boring as the story tries to talk about current
topics. Katie Mitchells techniques would be great for any Shakespearean play, such as the play And Juliet as
they had the same concept, as it explores what feminism could have looked like in the Shakespearean era.
This would allow the audience to relate to a story much more and male the story a little more personal to
people there who watch it.
3. Stephen Berkoff
Berkoff’s main techniques was mime, exaggerated movement, and improvisation. Berkoff often tells stories
in a poetic way, both vocally and physically using minimal set and non – naturalistic style with lighting and
music. This is known as an experimental style as there is many ways for the director to direct a show, this
style doesn’t really have many limitations but instead uses a lot more visuals to show what a character is
feeling, and visuals help influence the audience mood with lighting, music, and dance. I enjoy watching this
type of performance as it allows me to use my imagination and change the storyline in my head a little,
depending on what I would be interested in seeing. Performances such as the Lion King uses this in a very
interesting way as much of the performance is dances and exaggerated movements. Not only does this make
it easier for people in the back rows to follow the actors’ emotions more clearly. The Lion King had amazing
special effects, lighting, and music, and used an impressive amount of movement, but this never took away
from the performance. Being able to use these techniques in our performances would make our
performance more unique but would still be easy to follow.
