Shakespearean Expert to teach at Patel Conservatory | Arts & Culture

Tampa, Florida-- If you want to learn Shakespearean lingo and acting, you’ve got to have a teacher with a British accent, right?

Tampa is now incredibly lucky to have Shakespearean expert Giles Davies teaching Beginning Adult Acting and the summer theater intensive for teens and college students at the Patel Conservatory – and he even has an English accent.

No one could sound more authentic – but Giles has never lived in England. He was raised in Hong Kong to British parents. Since then, he’s traveled so extensively, the only continent he hasn’t visited is Antarctica.

“I travel to experience life. As an actor, it’s important to have many experiences. I’ve tried to live a full life,” Giles says. “A soul that understands an array of experiences can portray that on stage.”

Theatrics came to Giles early; he’s been performing poetry and prose since the age of five. Since then, he’s acted in hundreds of performances worldwide and has taught the art of acting to hundreds of students, of all ages.

While with the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, Giles helped create an educational theater program for middle and high school students who would study the Bard and put on one of his plays. The close knit group formed special bonds and stays in touch today, though he moved to Tampa three years ago.  “It feels special to be able to work on something as rich as Shakespeare with a generation who’s been fed a fast food culture,” Giles says. Shakespearean theater is 500 years old rich in history and culture, he adds.

While in Tampa, he has taught acting at the Patel Conservatory and is currently directing a Gorilla Theatre production. He’s an experienced Shakespearean instructor for students of all ages, including college level.

So it’s appropriate he’ll be teaching students in grades seven through college to comprehend and deliver Shakespearean texts, taking a vigorous approach to the Shakespeare class, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.

“We will tackle Shakespeare through the text, given a series of tools that allows students to translate Shakespeare in a way that will illuminate the plot. This is

practically a foreign language for most modern students; they need the tools in order to unlock the jewels within,” Giles explains. “It’s my job to find a way to turn them on to Shakespeare through any number of techniques.”

This intensive is already attracting international attention; one of the first students to sign up is from Italy!

Giles adds that the Tampa community is lucky to have the Patel Conservatory here, bringing these opportunities to younger audiences.

For adults, Giles will teach Adult Acting 1 on Tuesdays from 7 - 9 p.m., June 5 through August 7.

Auditions are required for theater intensives. Theater placement auditions will be held Saturday, June 2. Call 813.222.6414 to request an audition.

Visit www.patelconservatory.org or call 813.222.1002 for information about summer intensives, classes and camps at the Patel Conservatory.