Passion in Practice

Founded in 2010 by Ben Crystal, this is an ensemble company built from members of his workshops.

They aim to replicate or resurrect the way Shakespeare worked and to follow the silent directions he wrote into his scripts. While trying to stay true to Shakespeare, by analysis of First Folio texts for instance, they are not afraid to make cuts confident that Shakespeare would say—go ahead it's a 400-year-old joke they won’t get it.

They use cue scripts and original pronunciation and Crystal cites the influence of Tiffany Stern’s Shakespeare in Parts and physical disciplines he learnt from Complicité.

The award was presented particularly for original pronunciation in performance, but Brice also commented on their continuing company work—a theme through discussion on the day was the hunger for long-term work to foster development.