Dubbed a “live interpretation takeover,” the performance event presented a “mashup” of Shakespeare, interpretive dance, and swordplay across the vast Tower complex.

Getting invited to perform at the Tower of London even once is no small thing, Pogson said. The Tower belongs to the Historic Royal Palaces, holds the Crown Jewels, and runs under the auspices of the Royal Army. There are many constituencies involved, not least of which is the resident group of professional actors called Past Pleasure, who have portrayed historical events for more than 25 years.

“It’s run by the military, so to get in there you have to work with thousands of stakeholders,” said Pogson. “We pulled it off and didn’t ruffle any feathers, and it seems to have pleased everybody.”

Though it was their first time at the Tower of London, LDA students were no strangers to performing in royal palaces, thanks, in part to Charlotte Ewart, a Fordham instructor in period dance who is also an associate artist with Historic Royal Palaces. Since fall 2017, Ewart has arranged for students to perform at Hampton Court, a palace once occupied by Henry VIII that sits about 18 miles southeast of London.

An Interpretive Takeover

The Hampton Court performances taught students and teachers alike about the possibilities and limitations of immersive theater on a grand scale. The genre started to take shape professionally through historical reenactments in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, said Ewart. She also tipped her hat to hobbyist reenactors of historic events, such as the Civil War reenactors.

“The costumed interpretation of historic events falls between theater, education, and tourism,” said Ewart.

Traditionally such performances attempted to portray what’s happened historically, she said, and authenticity was the driving objective in order to give audiences a view of the past.

“We can’t actually recreate 1536, so now we’ve shifted our performance toward highlighting the themes or stories and telling them in an accessible in an entertaining manner,” she said. “This way we can create a theatrical presentation and it can be in modern dress using modern dance or movement. “

Ewart noted that the Tower complex is large and diverse. It holds an infamous former prison, acts as a fortress, and serves as a functioning palace. The performers were charged with tying in those particular themes, which they explored through workshops. They spent weeks in a movement class, for example, delving into what it feels like to be imprisoned; the resulting performance melded their individual interpretations into a cohesive whole that was performed in the tower’s prison.

Those abstract movement pieces were complemented by reimagined performances of classic plays, like Shakespeare’s Richard III.

Ewart said that while LDA students may have helped tourists better interpret the Tower’s history with their performances, it was nearly impossible for them not to be affected themselves as well. After all, more than 10 centuries of history took place in that very space.

“The students were doing the Richard III speeches exactly where the king stood,” she said.

But while the spaces hold tremendous history (prisoners included Thomas Cromwell and the future Queen Elizabeth I), the vast rooms can seem to hold little context to some visitors.

“When you place a special performance in there, it brings the space to life and people begin to see it in a different way,” she said.

Working with Local Teens

In spite of the very real challenges posed by a rambling ancient site, the performances were deemed a success and prompted Tower management to invite the students to come back next spring—this time with young people from the area, said Pogson.

Unbeknownst to the students, their professionalism succeeded in bringing a pilot program to Fordham London Centre next semester when LDA students will coach acting for local teens from underserved neighborhoods.

Fordham London Centre got its start 40 years ago when leadership at Marymount College of Fordham and a group of instructors from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts established LDA as a conservatory steeped in the British acting tradition. Liberal arts and business programs soon followed. Like the rest of the center, the conservatory accepts students from Fordham and students registered full time at a U.S. college or university.

“When we moved to Clerkenwell, Father McShane said he wanted us to come into the neighborhood as proper, good neighbors,” said Pogson. “We were looking for an overall link into the neighborhood, and we’ve found it.

As rehearsals for the November performance progressed, Pogson invited management from the Tower of London to visit the new London Centre. The close proximity and professional facilities more than impressed them, she said.

“When they visited and saw the space and they said, ‘Oh, you really are in the neighborhood,” said Pogson.

The Tower was already seeking programming for the area’s 11-to 18-year-olds. Having student mentors close to the teens’ age that were supervised by LDA’s professional staff seemed to be a perfect fit.

“They will have the benefit of being mentored by students not too much older than themselves, which is a great way to build connections,” said Pogson. “Many of these state schools cannot provide one-to-one connection for acting classes that we’ll provide.”

Students from nearby state schools and youth centers can try out for 25 slots and perform alongside LDA students at the next Tower of London performance in April 2019.

“It’s quite a coup, and I do think it’s the cura personalis that we talk,” said Pogson. “It’s a win-win for the Tower, for the teens, and for Fordham.”

Fordham’s London Dramatic Academy Newsletter | Spring 2011

Download Newsletter (PDF)

Edward Fox, the eminent British actor, brings to life the author and the world of Anthony Trollope in a one-man performance drawn from extracts of the Barchester Chronicles and from An Autobiography.

Anthony Trollope stands out as a hugely popular novelist, one of the greatest of the Victorian era, an author invested with a wonderful gift for words. For six of his novels he invented Barsetshire, both a county and a town and he filled this world with an astonishing range of characters from Dr. Harding, the gentle Warden, to Mrs. Proudie, the domineering Bishop’s wife. Like all truly celebrated novelists, Trollope deals with conditions of life that touch men and women, against the background of country life and the complexities, plots and counter-plots of the cathedral close. Humane, witty and well-observed Edward Fox wields his magic to bring many of these much-loved characters to life. The extracts from the novels are joined together with parts of Trollope’s controversial autobiography published a year after his death in 1883. This book, unlike the novels, is as famous for what it leaves out as for its plain spoken directness.

This piece is the result of a collaboration between Richard Digby Day and Edward Fox, which began five years ago. The play opened in 2008 and was widely performed again in 2010, its success resulting in the current run for six weeks in the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, London. Throughout his long career, Digby Day has made many other one person performance pieces for a variety of famous British actors, including Honor Blackman and Geraldine McEwan. Digby Day is the Artistic Director of Fordham University’s London Dramatic Academy, a challenging, practical study abroad program focusing on British theatre.

POST-SHOW DISCUSSION

There will be a post-show discussion at the Riverside Studios with Edward Fox and Richard Digby Day on Fridays February 25 and Friday March 25.

TICKETS and INFORMATION

February 22 to April 2, 2011

Riverside Studios, Crisp Road, Hammersmith, London W6 9RL

Box Office: 020 8237 1111 www.riversidestudios.co.uk

£15 – £25

https://youtube.com/watch?v=s_ZzUM1EIho

LDA is a fully accredited, 14-week intensive theatre programme at the Fordham University London Centre in Kensington Square (located at Heythrop College, University of London). March 1 is the application deadline for Fall 2011. The most up-to-date application forms are available at: www.fordham.edu/LDA. Completed forms can be emailed to [email protected].

This semester the London Dramatic Academy (LDA) hosted visits from Matthew Maguire, head of the Theatre Department at Fordham, who was seeing our work for the first time; and Alan Wade from George Washington University, who brought a party of students to hear a lecture/masterclass by Richard Digby Day on A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Other visitors have included a welcome return from LDA tutor Miriam Karlin.

The final theatre visits included a stupendous performance by the Mark Morris Company at the London Coliseum, showing in the way that only he can the perfect marriage of music (in this case Handel) and movement. There have been two visits to the National Theatre seeing highly contrasting works: Alan Bennett’s The Habit of Art, a meditation on the nature of artistic inspiration using WH Auden and Benjamin Britten as the principal characters; and Bulgakov’s The White Guard, a play set in Russia during the civil war following the Communist revolution. Faculty and students also visited the British Museum, the Royal Academy exhibition of Van Gogh’s letters and paintings, and Stratford-upon-Avon.

For programme information, please contact either Sara Karen Arlin at (212) 636-7714 in New York, or the London Centre (see below).

Important Application Updates

APPLICATION FORM

Our most up-to-date application forms (as PDF files) are available on our website: www.fordham.edu/LDA. Completed forms can be e-mailed to [email protected].

APPLICATION DEADLINES

Spring 2011: October 1

Fall 2010/Academic Year: A few spaces are still open for the fall 2010 term, please contact us as soon as possible at [email protected]

Since the number of participants is strictly limited, we strongly suggest you take advantage of our Priority Deadlines: September 1 for spring applicants and February 1 for fall and academic year applicants.

AUDITIONS

Students can audition either in person or by submitting a DVD recording. Students who cannot audition in person should send a DVD together with their application.

In-person auditions for spring 2011 will be held at Fordham University during the fall, at a date and time to be announced. To arrange an audition or meeting with Richard Digby Day in the United States, please contact us at [email protected].

Finally, We wish the best to the LDA Class of spring 2010:

Evan Cucciniello, Catholic University of America
Danny Goodman, College of the Holy Cross
Kathryn Lawson, Fordham University
Alia Ledford, Occidental College
Caitlin Ludin, Bennington College
Josephine McAdam, Manhattanville College
Rem Myers, Hamilton College
Chris Olmsted, Bard College at Simon’s Rock
Tim Rogan, Catholic University of America
Zoe Rudman, Occidental College
Sean Tivenan, Catholic University of America
Megan Walker, Catholic University of America
Lauren Williams, Catholic University of America
Emily Woodhouse, Catholic University of America
Chad Zimlich, Catholic University of America