Ryan and John Bell, congratulating the youngster on winning the 2006 performing arts scholarship. [Photo: Courtesy, Tatia Sloley]   

Each year Bell Shakespeare awards young actors in regional areas the Bell Shakespeare Scholarship for Dramatic Performance. 2006 recipients, Ryan McLean and Caity Stafford, won a week of workshops with John Bell and The Bell Shakespeare Ensemble, featuring advanced masterclasses, voice training, movement and combat training with the Company’s professional actors. Here, Ryan shares his diary of the experience with Arts Hub.

Day 1

I left home early on the Sunday morning. The plane was a smooth ride, thankfully we were on Qantas, so we got free food, drinks and headphones. Today we had the choice of a cake or biscuit. So my mother was quite happy after scoffing into her cake and my biscuit. When we arrived in Sydney, I made my way to the baggage carousel to meet Marcella, the woman that makes things happen. I soon noticed a woman eagerly watching the passengers make their way down the escalator. The woman was quite young with slim glasses and casual attire. She looked at me for a moment, slightly unsure of herself. I had just found Marcella.

After meeting Marcella, we took a cab to the Oaks Trafalgar apartments. The cab driver was quite the chatty kinda guy. He drew breath almost twice. Once I reached the apartments and said goodbye to Marcella, I got myself acquainted with the pool and gym, and then did some shopping down at Pitt Street. And when I say shopping, I mean looking at different stores without buying anything. After winning the scholarship, I believed I had the entitlement to choose bedrooms. I picked the one at the end with a stunning view of the city.

Day 2

Today was a Bell Shakespeare welcome breakfast down at the Rocks. Marcella joined us at a small restaurant, called City Extra. Bell Shakespeare shouted the meal, so nobody went hungry. The sausages and eggs were especially good. We then made our way to the rehearsal room.

It was quite a large place, with posters of previous plays pinned to different walls. I then got to meet John Bell and the rest of the team at Bell Shakespeare. We had a quick company meeting, where we introduced ourselves and told everyone what our job was or what we were doing here.

And within minutes the parents were kicked out and the exciting discussions for Bell’s next production began. I thought it was interesting to see how the best Shakespearean actors in the country first start their work. It got even more entertaining when they started the reading, which gave the actors time to think about the meanings of certain texts.

In the afternoon we had a tour of the Sydney Opera House. The tour guide took us around different rooms and theatres and gave us the full narrative of what’s what on the way. After climbing the many, many steps we had seen the greenroom, backstage, studios, and anything else we could push our tour guide into taking us to. The end of the day was spent with photos by the Opera House.

Day 3

The four fans whipped across forcefully on the hot dry day inside the Bell Shakespeare rehearsal room. The beginning of the day started with the witch’s workshop, where we had to scream, laugh and cry at everyone we came into contact with. After a couple of warm-up exercises, we had to imagine a destroyed city, and send words out aloud to describe what we saw. When a picture of the ruined area was locked into our minds, we had to think about the people still alive, and then become them. We walked around, slowly taking in some qualities of an animal. When the workshop was over, it was time to look over some costumes, straight from Vinnie’s.

When I came in that morning I noticed a small square marked with yellow tape that could only have been the stage in which they were going to rehearse. It looked quite small, but considering the size of the stage they were going to perform at the Opera House, it was quite considerable. The script was displayed on a screen at the front, giving the actors a hands free approach to each piece. They started off with the opening scene, where they rushed around getting blown up, hitting the ground, and then doing it all over again.

After an entertaining round of rehearsals, it was time for the entire company to join up in the rehearsal room for a welcome lunch. It was a great time to have a chat with the cast and most of the organisers. After lunch John Bell presented me with a certificate, and then we had time for photos.

At 4:00 I had my first masterclass with Julia Davies, I felt quite ready to work. We started off lying on the floor, relaxing every muscle in the body, and start different sorts of breathing exercises. Which had some great techniques to calm you before a performance or audition. I then did my first monologue, where I played Shylock from The Merchant of Venice. First I explained to Julia what the piece meant; how Shylock is trying to explain he’s the same as anybody else, but he gets treated unfairly because of his religion. When I performed it again, I had to use less facials, and make the piece more sad, to make people understand; rather than a Shylock so angry and bent on revenge. My second monologue was the Porter from Macbeth.

I was very happy with my performance, and glad I used Mark Latham as an example of an equivocator.

The second time I did it, it was plainly done to show flexibility. The porter was now a posh young man, who was acting as though he was the compere in a discovery channel. I left the rehearsal room feeling quite satisfied and happy with myself that day.

Day 4

Today we went smack bang into rehearsals. We watched a commentary on a war-ridden town, where the cast could look over what the people were wearing and how they reacted in such a devastating area.

John took the cast in and out of rehearsals and readings.

I left at one o’clock for lunch, and then made my way down to Snugglepot and Cuddlepie at Theatre Royale. After the show, I went to an Imax theatre for the first time. The ads looked really cool in 3-D and the screen was very impressive. We saw Open Season, but after one minute of viewing the film cut out. One of the operators told us to hold back and wait for five minutes tops. Five minutes later they said it would be another twenty minutes. After another half an hour mum persuaded me to wait it out.

A good hour later the ushers came out bearing free ice-creams and said it would be for another ten minutes. Ten minutes later the film started, and it was looking good beside the fact the voices weren’t timed correctly. Just after another five minutes of watching the film, it cut out again. The operator apologised and refunded our money, as well as giving everybody free tickets to any film. My first Imax experience was quite the memorable one indeed.

Day 5

When I arrived there were only a couple of people in the rehearsal room. One of the cast members called in sick. So David Hynes came in and rehearsed part of his porter scene. I found it quite interesting because I did the same piece. His explanations of each sentence were about spot on with my own. When he performed, it was quite a bit different than mine. He moved around less than I did and had a few different and interesting ideas to go with it. After lunch was another set of rehearsals with Sean and Linda. I thought it was one of the best pieces because the acting was incredibly high standard.

After the last rehearsal, I had my masterclass with Julia. This time I played Macbeth in a piece about deciding whether or not I should murder Duncan. I thought it was great fun and spent the rest of the day shopping at Bondi Junction.

Day 6

We had an early start today. I had my last masterclass at 9:30 with Kylie Bonaccorse. In this we learnt some of the key characters in Commedia del Arte. She brought masks and other equipment straight from Italy. I thought it was fun to learn a completely different way of acting.

From there we walked over to the Sydney Theatre Company, where they had everything in the one place. That’s a very unique thing to have no matter what part of the world you’re in.

Overall I thought it was really interesting, especially the varied amount of props that are just made out of plastic from a big machine. And then there were the costumes. They looked incredibly well designed and some of them were also incredibly heavy.

After lunch we all went back into the rehearsals for the last few hours of the scholarship. Most of the cast were there to perform their reaction on the death of Duncan. Their discussion beforehand of who might be suspicious of who was also quite funny.