2021 Highlights: A Message from the Director of Short Courses

As 2021 draws to a close, Geoff Bullen, Director of RADA's Short Courses, looks back at the year we've had and the highlights of our short course programme, and gives the lowdown on what we're excited about in 2022.

Dear Short Course friends,

What a year. What a two years! But they say Necessity is the mother of Invention.

Bringing our courses online has brought us so many benefits. We have made friends with learners from all parts of the world. Bright, curious and adventurous people who have fostered a real sense of global community in the most difficult of times.

Highlights of the passing year? Spoken English for Actors kicked off in January. This brainchild of RADA tutor Michelle Chadwick will have its fifth iteration at the start of next year. The incomparable duo of Brigid Panet and Katya Benjamin gave us courses on Stanislavski; on Shakespeare’s Sonnets; and on how to learn your lines. Vivian Munn devised and delivered A World in Translation: a unique voyage into the Golden Age of South American theatre; and RADA dramaturg Lloyd Trott translated the mighty apparatus of his Contemporary Drama course online; while Nona Sheppard and Mixalis Aristidou inspired a whole online company to execute Greek Tragedy with heart-stopping intensity.

There was Women of the Stage, a feminist re-evaluation of English dramatic history, created and directed by Ingrid Schiller. Plus, Rehearsing With RADA under Mel Jessop’s suave direction, and so much more!

But what’s next?

Online in February and bookable right now, we have Devising Your Own Work, showing you how to turn deep conviction into drama; Animal Studies, which relocates the human in the animal world and will transform your physical expression; and Playwriting for Actors – you always get the bad roles? Learn to write better ones.

We can't wait to be back in the RADA building in person from January with our new Acting Fundamentals and Advanced Acting Fundamentals, which blend both online and in-person teaching. Then in April, we have our Introduction to RADA Workshops – intensive one-day courses in Movement, Voice, Improvisation, Devising, Text and Acting, Dance and Singing, for beginners and seasoned performers alike.

We are thrilled that Acting Shakespeare will be in-person; as will the Shakespeare Summer School; the Young Actors courses for 16 to 18 year-olds; and our celebrated Musical Theatre course.

Our courses are communities. Through them, we celebrate the art of performance. While 2022 may be an unknown in some respects, RADA Short Courses shall continue to offer first-rate classes, in-person or online, to the whole world.

Stay safe and Happy Holidays,
Geoff Bullen and the Short Courses team

Browse our 2022 Short Courses here.