Acting and Singing- A Masterclass by Tim Hardy
Saturday 12 March 2022 at 17,00 (4pm UK time)
On Zoom )
THEATRE? OPERA? What an earth are they for?
We are delighted to announce our next masterclass led by acclaimed actor, director and teacher Tim Hardy. Tim trained at London’s prestigious RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) and has taught and directed there since 1994. His outstanding work as an actor and an opera singer, make him a very rare figure in the world of theatre and opera.
In the class, suitable for anyone who loves theatre, but also for emerging practitioners, Tim will be exploring different forms of acting and singing. The class (duration 90 mins) will take place on Saturday 12 March at 5pm (Roma) and will include a final Q&A.
Sign up as soon as possible; places are limited to twenty participants.
Maggie Rose, Sal Cabras
BOOK NOW!
If you wish to take part in Tim Hardy’s Masterclass, please make a donation of 20
euro (Members of English Theatre Milan: 15€; Students 10€),
by Paypal paypal@EnglishTheatreMilan.org
or by bank transfer:
Bank: INTESA SAN PAOLO
Recipient: ENGLISH THEATRE MILAN
Iban: IT95B0306909606100000169520
Reason of payment: MASTERCLASS 12 MARCH 22-[YOUR NAME]-DONATION
TIM HARDY WRITES:
Theatre? … Opera?
Two disciplines attempting to achieve the same thing. Or at least they should be: to shine a light on the human condition.
To help us understand why we are here, and what may be the best way by which to survive this extraordinary adventure. But as performers we are only the messenger, the material we are entrusted with is the message. Too often in this age which worships celebrity, it is the messenger whom we most focus on. We hear a new film is being released:surely the question should be: ‘What is the subject?’ Much more often the question is: ‘Who is in it?’
So let us look at what acting actually is – can we define it? My very first job after drama school was in a company full of famous actors, headed by Dame Judi Dench. She said,‘Tim, if acting is anything, it is the shy person’s revenge.’ I think she may well be right. And what is singing for? What does it achieve that acting cannot? I sang the role of Sarastro in The Magic Flute. I attended the auditions for his sworn enemy, The Queen of the Night – a role famous for the terrifying technical challenges of an aria which demands six top ‘f’s. Singer after singer achieved this with ease. ‘How wonderful,’ I said, ‘to have so much talent to choose from!’ ’What I’m still looking for,’ said our clever director, ‘is the performer who tells me why she sings those top ‘f’s. In a play by Frederic Garcia Lorca, my character had to deliver a most beautiful poem. After the performance, another clever director said, “Tim, I saw how much you loved the poem, but I never heard the poem.’ We who perform must always stand behind the material, never in front of it.
In this masterclass, we will look together at what theatre in all its forms may be for. Perhaps, in the end, it may be here to tell us that whatever we have experienced, there are those who have been down the same path before; that – in the end – we are not alone. I will be illustrating my talk with short extracts from some of the plays I have performed in, and giving one or two sung examples of the modern text written to accompany the original music.
TIM HARDY
THEATRE
Tim’s very first public performance was while still at school. St. Paul’s School celebrated the 450th anniversary of its foundation by inviting The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh to a performance of Comus by Milton – an old boy of the school. Tim played the title role and was then introduced to Their Majesties.
After training at RADA, Tim’s work for the Royal Shakespeare Company includes: Henry V directed by Peter Hall and Marat\Sade directed by Peter Brook which played on Broadway before being turned into a film. Other theatre credits include: Hotspur in Henry IV and Dauphin in Henry V, for Prospect Theatre Co., (The Roundhouse Theatre), Rupert in Melon by Simon Gray, (Haymarket Theatre), The Spartan Leader in Lysistrata, directed by Sir Peter Hall (The Old Vic Theatre and Wyndham’s Theatre), Alan in Mary Barnes, by David Edgar (Royal Court Theatre), Perchik in Fiddler on the Roof, (Her Majesty’s Theatre) Mr.Kruger in Mephisto, (The Roundhouse), Peer Gynt in Peer Gynt, (Battersea Arts Centre), Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew (The Open Space) and Vladimir in Waiting for Godot. (The Tricycle Theatre). This Autumn Sigmund Freud in Love, Genius and a Walk, at Theatro Theatre, Camden. Nathan in Guys and Dolls, Dunois in St. Joan, Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice, Rosencrantz in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, and Colonel Cathcart in Catch 22, adapted by Joseph Heller, (all at Leeds Playhouse ) Lord Darlington in Lady Windermere’s Fan, (Theatre Royal, Windsor). Title role in Macbeth and Reverend Hale in The Crucible, (Oxford Playhouse).
Cleante in Tartuffe, and Jo Mankiewitz in Judy for Bristol Old Vic, which transferred to The Strand Theatre, and Bertram in Largo Desolato by Tom Stoppard which transferred to the International Arts Festival, Hong Kong. Performs the one-man shows, The Trials of Galileo, by Nic Young, and A Substitute for Life, by Simon Brett.
In Europe title roles in Life After George and A Picasso, Michael in Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me for the Vienna English Speaking Theatre.
In the US for ‘Actors from the London Stage’ he played Leontes/Old Shepherd in The Winter’s Tale, Mercutio/Lord Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice.
OPERA
Music Theatre London, Tim has sung Sarastro in The Magic Flute, Commendatore in Don Giovanni, Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro, and Don Magnifico in Cenerentola. He also performs a song-cycle based on The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.
DIRECTING AND TEACHING
Going back to RADA in 1994 as a free-lance faculty member, he has directed on the annual Summer Shakespeare Course, the twice-yearly Shakespeare course in association with NYU, and on the annual Tree Evening for the leaving graduates. Tim is also a Member of the Admissions Panel.
TELEVISION
Credits include the title role in Galileo, and Arthur Taylor in Oscar Wilde for the BBC, Jesus in Son of Man, John Rampayne in The Trial of Sir John Rampayne , The Doctor in The Wife of Bath, David Manners in Eastenders, leading roles in Midsomer Murders, Casualty 1909, and Macbeth.
FILMS
Credits include Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, The Duellist, Nothing but the Best, and Marat\Sade. This Autumn; Father Pietra in American/UK/Czech production of Dangerous Liaisons.
DIRECTING
Credits include The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter, for the Covent Garden Festival, Dangerous
Liaisons, and Rebecca for Vienna’s English Theatre, and Gaslight by Patrick Hamilton for English Theatre Frankfurt.
In America: As You Like It at Notre Dame University, The Merchant of Venice and Romeo and
Juliet at Butler University, and in Michigan, The Royal Hunt of the Sun. In the Autumn of 2018 played Thomas Hardy in ‘A Pure Woman’, by Simon Reade, which toured throughout the West Country.