Teaching
“Working with Simon was an incredible experience and the highlight of my time at drama school”
“We weren’t afraid to fail, to experiment and to play. No idea was too wild to try”
“You trusted our talent, you made the process fun, I felt that I was given the approval to play”
I had a wonderful time over 3 months of the Autumn term, exploring the whole Shakespeare canon with the MA Classical students at Central. We majored on my favourite themes: playfulness, the dangers of emotion, using the words to achieve things, surprising each other.
The work gave me no reason to review my long-standing rule: smiling is almost always a bad move in a Shakespeare scene.
It was a real privilege to have that time and that pool of talent to play with and I can’t wait to go back next year.
“Simon Scardifield has a way of teaching Shakespeare that engages, inspires and pushes students of all levels. Whether experienced in Shakespeare’s works or not, through a process of guidance, support and experimental play, each actor who works with Simon leaves his classes richer”.
I have taught at most of the major drama schools
- Central
- Lamda
- Mountview
- E15
- Rose Bruford
- Drama Studio London
- RADA
- Shakespeare’s Globe
2023 ended with a workshop for Eksi on Altī Theatre company in Istanbul. I love doing scene work in a language I don’t understand. It makes you listen and watch in a completely different way.
Speaking through an interpreter is fun too. Do it right and it makes you sound at least as wise as you are.
I have also tutored at British American Drama Academy and taught Theatre History at The London Drama Academy (Fordham University), and led masterclasses in Barcelona, Germany and Rome.
I am on the Higher Education Faculty at Shakspeare’s Globe. I specialise in text work, but I also do regular work as Course Director, which involves editing a text to around an hour, leading to a showing on the Globe stage.
I collaborate with designer Michael Pavelka on a course for students at Rutgers University, focusing on creating a design for a show in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.
Whenever I teach I try to bring into the room the discipline I learned at drama school, the experience I had playing long runs of big parts with Propeller, and the playfulness on which Philippe Gaulier so rightly insists.
More of what students have said about working with me