Welcome to Akanda

Welcome to the all new Akanda blog site!

It is here where you will be able to share your thoughts on theatre, methods, acting, etc...

For now, let me give you a little bit of information about Akanda...



Akanda is, apart from being a theatre company now based in Prague, a method I created many years ago and am perfecting now. It is based on the idea that an actor should be able to become a vessel for his or her character to walk into and completely express itself through the actor. The actor should therefore be completely able to understand and know the character - its life, actions, past, future, present... All that good stuff... This is not like the Stanislavskian method were the actor becomes the character, nor is it like the Brechtian method were the actor is always visible as an actor... Akanda is somewhere in the middle. The actor never goes away- he or she simply becomes a puppet that is manouvered by the character. Through non verbal physical exercises, the actor is able to understand the movements and motivations of the character. If the script is verbal, the actor must understand why the character says everything- his life before and after the script...
This may all sound evident to many people who have worked in theatre... It is in the process itself; the rehearsal process of character research... This is where the Akanda method differs... Since this is a blog though, I will leave it up to you the reader to ask specific questions... I will also leave it to the Akanda actors to comment on their experiences...



I will also post information on shows and the processes involved in them...

I hope you come see some of them!

Until then,



Melanie Rada

Aritstic Director, Akanda