King Lear Online

The text chosen for this second stage was King Lear and we explored both a large ‘public’ scene and more intimate sections from the text in order to examine how this pedagogy enables rehearsal work in these differing circumstances. This second version refined both the technology and the teaching developed during the initial instalment of the project: Coriolanus Online. Work continued on developing both spaces to give the illusion of one single, unified rehearsal room. Placement of cameras and projection techniques was central to improving the performer experience, but we wanted to keep the equipment used both affordable and user-friendly so that it can be accessible to a wide variety of user groups.

A variety of online tools were used to support work in the main rehearsal spaces with a Facebook group created to assist with timings, schedules, sharing research and visual materials, and the web conferencing/presentation tool, Adobe Connect is utilised to provide a series of contextual lectures delivered by experts in both institutions as well as individualised rehearsal rooms for each student group. Complementing the work in the main space, Adobe became the place where the actors repurposed these online tools for social interaction.