We will concentrate on two of the late plays: The Tempest and The Winter's Tale, both with exciting
elements of the fantastical expressed in playtext and song as well as exploring themes of romance
and comedy. While The Tempest exploits the new possibilities of the venue's opportunities for
Prospero's and Ariel's magic, The Winter's Tale offers a highly complex plot, with Leontes struggling
to come to terms with his own lethal actions.
We will explore some of the wonderfully dramatic moments in these plays as well as look at how to
come to grips with the inherent tensions in some of the ‘difficult’ scenes.
We will join the singing group on occasion to share our discoveries and work.

Music and song appear throughout Shakespeare’s plays with over 2 000 references to music in the 38 plays as well as more than 100 songs. Very little of the original music exists, either because it wasn’t written down or manuscripts failed to survive for later generations to discover. We do, however, have some written music for songs from the first productions of The Tempest and The Winter’s Tale composed by Robert Johnson (c. 1583–1633), a lutenist and composer who worked for the King’s Men.

The workshop will focus not only on Johnson's songs but also on modern compositions from and inspired by Shakespeare's two plays. Possibilities are the Beach Boys Good Vibrations from the rock musical Return to the Forbidden Planet based on The Tempest and songs from Howard Goodall's musical The Winter's Tale.

We will look at singing technique using exercises and singing rounds of the period, sing arrangements of songs for the ensemble, offer solo opportunities, and explore methods of storytelling through song.We will have serious fun singing, and on occasion, join the acting group to share our discoveries and work.