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Shakespeare And Co Ma Actor Training Instructor Laughing

Our Actor Training Faculty

Susan Dibble (Interim Director)

Susan Dibble (Interim Director)

Susan Dibble is a choreographer, dancer, teacher and painter. She graduated from SUNY College at Purchase with a B.F.A. in Dance in 1976. In 1979, Susan was a participant in the first Shakespeare & Company January Intensive. Susan is a founding member of Shakespeare & Company where she has worked for the past 39 years as a master teacher of movement and dance for actors, movement director and choreographer. In 1987, after teaching at a variety of universities including NYU moreSusan Dibble is a choreographer, dancer, teacher and painter. She graduated from SUNY College at Purchase with a B.F.A. in Dance in 1976. In 1979, Susan was a participant in the first Shakespeare & Company January Intensive. Susan is a founding member of Shakespeare & Company where she has worked for the past 39 years as a master teacher of movement and dance for actors, movement director and choreographer. In 1987, after teaching at a variety of universities including NYU Tisch MFA in Acting Program, Susan joined the faculty of the Theater Arts Department at Brandeis University, where she is a full professor and teaches Movement for Actors, Modern Dance, Choreography, Clown, Mask, Period Styles, and Historical Dance. She has been on the faculty at Brandeis for 31 years and served as Theater Arts Department chair for 8 years. Susan is the director of Susan Dibble Dance Theater and has performed her work for over 40 years in New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont as well as numerous times at Shakespeare & Company in the program “DibbleDance”. She has worked as a choreographer and movement director for the Actors' Shakespeare Project, Berkshire Theatre Group, Manhattan Theatre Club, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, The Nora Theater and The Underground Railroad Theatre. Susan has taught at The Elements Theater, Yale School of Drama, New York University’s Tisch School for the Arts, the Denver Center Performing Arts Center, University of Ohio, University of Utah and Webster College. Susan received the 2006 Leonard Bernstein Festival of Creative Arts Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Arts at Brandeis.
Tina Packer

Tina Packer

Tina Packer is the founding artistic director of Shakespeare & Company. She has directed most of Shakespeare’s plays (some of them several times), acted in seven of them (never when directing) and taught the whole canon one way or another at over thirty colleges in the U.S., including Harvard, M.I.T. and NYU. At Columbia, she taught in the M.B.A. program for four years, resulting in the publication of her piece, Power Plays: Shakespeare’s Lessons in Leadership and Management with Deming moreTina Packer is the founding artistic director of Shakespeare & Company. She has directed most of Shakespeare’s plays (some of them several times), acted in seven of them (never when directing) and taught the whole canon one way or another at over thirty colleges in the U.S., including Harvard, M.I.T. and NYU. At Columbia, she taught in the M.B.A. program for four years, resulting in the publication of her piece, Power Plays: Shakespeare’s Lessons in Leadership and Management with Deming Professor John Whitney. For Scholastic, she wrote Tales from Shakespeare, a children’s book and recipient of the Parent’s Gold Medal Award. She began her career in England, having trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she won the Ronson Award for most Outstanding Actor. Following this, she became an associate artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company, performing at Stratford, in the West End, and on tour. She has worked at The Royal Court in London; Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leicester, Coventry and Hornchurch repertory companies. For BBC Television, she played Dora to Ian McKellen’s David Copperfield, was a love interest for Patrick Troughton’s Doctor Who (which she has never lived down), and also performed in several other TV plays and series. She came to the U.S. in 1974 when the Ford Foundation funded an eleven-month project for her to research the visceral roots of Elizabethan theater with five master teachers (Kristin Linklater, John Barton, B.H. Barry, John Broome, Trish Arnold), fifteen actors, and three managers. Out of these projects led by Tina throughout England and the US, her work has translated into the aesthetic and practical methods that Shakespeare & Company is based on, and still practices to this day. Tina then received two grants from the Ford Foundation to travel the world, looking at the relationship of mind, body, sacred texts, stand-up comedy, voice, and actor–audience relationship in her studies. The current company was founded in 1978 at Edith Wharton’s derelict mansion in Lenox, far from the cities of New York and London. Tina has returned to acting from time to time, most notably as Edith Wharton and a two-year stretch as Shirley Valentine, playing in Lenox, Boston and Louisville, and Lettice in Lettice and Lovage. For the Boston Shakespeare Company, she directed a season of twelve Irish plays, including the U.S. premiere of Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching towards the Somme. She has received the state of Massachusetts’s highest honor, The Commonwealth Award, and has six honorary degrees (which gives her great pleasure as she never went to regular college). During the mid-90’s, Tina conceived the idea for Women of Will, and subsequently received grants from the Guggenheim and Bunting fellowships to fund the project. This collaboration resulted in its first incarnation, at that time. In 2009, desperate to get back to WoW, Tina gave up the artistic directorship—though Shakespeare & Company remains her creative home and passion. She began work, first with Nigel Gore and then joined by Eric Tucker, to bring Women of Will to its present form of one Overview and five separate performances. This is Tina’s seventh creative collaboration with Nigel (including playing George and Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) and she would like to acknowledge the power of their work together over the past six years. Her book Women of Will: Following the Feminine in Shakespeare’s Plays was released in 2015.
Kevin G. Coleman

Kevin G. Coleman

Kevin is a founding member of Shakespeare & Company, a member of its Board and is involved in all three branches of the company: he acts, directs, teaches and choreographs in the Performance Program, he is one of the master teachers in the Training Program, (teaching Basics, Text, Stage Combat, Clown and Wit), and serves as the director of Shakespeare & Company’s Education Program. Since 1979 he directed most of the Northeast Regional Tour productions (reaching schools, colleges and moreKevin is a founding member of Shakespeare & Company, a member of its Board and is involved in all three branches of the company: he acts, directs, teaches and choreographs in the Performance Program, he is one of the master teachers in the Training Program, (teaching Basics, Text, Stage Combat, Clown and Wit), and serves as the director of Shakespeare & Company’s Education Program. Since 1979 he directed most of the Northeast Regional Tour productions (reaching schools, colleges and performance venues across New England, New Jersey and New York). Under Kevin’s leadership, the artists of Shakespeare & Company’s Education Program have developed such programs as: Shakespeare & Young Company, (an intensive summer training program for 17-20 year olds); Riotous Youth, (a recurring 2-week-long summer program for 7-9, 10-12 and 13-15 year olds); Shakespeare in the Courts, (a collaboration with Berkshire County Juvenile Court, as well as the Probation Department where juvenile offenders and those in need of special services work with Shakespeare & Company artists to rehearse and perform Shakespeare as an obligation to the Court); Professional Development Workshops (for directors, teaching artists and teachers) and most notably, the Fall Festival of Shakespeare, now in its 28th year (over 250 Shakespeare productions) where students from 10 Massachusetts and eastern New York high schools annually present full productions of Shakespeare in their own schools, and then collectively during a week-long celebration in the Tina Packer Playhouse. In the Performance season, Kevin has acted in numerous productions (most recently the Fool in King Lear), directed several Shakespeare plays (most recently Winter’s Tale), as well as readings, adaptations, (several of Dennis Krausnick’s Edith Wharton adaptations), many modern and contemporary plays, and developed the 7 actor performance piece, Shakespeare and the Language that Shaped a World. He has choreographed numerous mainstage fights, and works with the clowns. Outside of Shakespeare & Company, Kevin serves as the Theatre Director at the Austen Riggs Center where he teaches and has directed over 30 productions. He has taught, directed or been a guest artist at the American Stage Company, Shenandoah Shakespeare, the Shakespeare Theatre Association (STA), MIT, Harvard, UMass/Boston, UW/Madison, Columbia, Tulane, LSU, UCDavis, DePauw, U. of Akron, SUNY/Albany, Stanford, Queensland University of Technology-Brisbane, Lincoln Center, the Folger, both Stratfords (UK and Ontario), and the Mercury Theatre in Colchester, UK. Kevin has served as a Project Director for both the NEH and NEA. Shakespeare & Company’s Education Program has been recognized by the President’s Council on the Arts and Humanities, the MacArthur Foundation and the GE Foundation as a “Champion of Change” in Arts in Learning. Shakespeare & Company’s Education Program received the Commonwealth Award, the highest honor awarded for the Arts by the state of Massachusetts. In 2009, Kevin received the Distinguished Theatre Artist award from the Massachusetts Alliance for Arts Education, and in 2006,Shakespeare in the Courts; a program he created in collaboration with Judge Paul E. Perachi received the “Coming Up Taller” award at the White House. In 2016, he was the runner-up for the Tony Award for Education. Kevin holds degrees from St. Louis University and NYU.
Sarah Kate Anderson

Sarah Kate Anderson

Sarah Kate is an actor, director, and theatre educator who teaches in the Film and Theatre Department at San José State University. She has taught a variety of classes, ranging from Classical Acting and Acting for Animation Majors, to Theatre Appreciation and Voice and Movement for the Actor at various institutions including De Anza Community College and The Art Institute in Sunnyvale. She is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, completed her Bachelor's in Theatre Arts from moreSarah Kate is an actor, director, and theatre educator who teaches in the Film and Theatre Department at San José State University. She has taught a variety of classes, ranging from Classical Acting and Acting for Animation Majors, to Theatre Appreciation and Voice and Movement for the Actor at various institutions including De Anza Community College and The Art Institute in Sunnyvale. She is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, completed her Bachelor's in Theatre Arts from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and received a Master's in Theatre from San José State University. She is currently pursuing an MFA from Goddard College in Interdisciplinary Arts with a concentration in Performance Creation where she is engaged in writing curriculum for higher education based on Tina Packer's masterwork Women of Will. Sarah Kate is happy to be joining the teaching staff of the January Intensive for the first time as a Junior Faculty member, as she has not been a Junior anything in quite some time.
Ariel Bock

Ariel Bock

Ariel is the Producing Associate at Shakespeare & Company. Roles include: Rose in The Children, Mom in Ugly Lies the Bone, Mistress Quickly in Henry IV pts 1&2, Goneril in King Lear, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Elizabeth in Richard III, Audrey in As You Like it, Hippolyta in Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, Mistress Quickly in Merry Wives of Windsor, Paulina in The Winters Tale, Ruth in Private Eyes, the Woman in Laughing Wild, moreAriel is the Producing Associate at Shakespeare & Company. Roles include: Rose in The Children, Mom in Ugly Lies the Bone, Mistress Quickly in Henry IV pts 1&2, Goneril in King Lear, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Elizabeth in Richard III, Audrey in As You Like it, Hippolyta in Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, Mistress Quickly in Merry Wives of Windsor, Paulina in The Winters Tale, Ruth in Private Eyes, the Woman in Laughing Wild, Arlene in Off the Map. At Mixed Company: Ramona in Zara Spook and Other Lures and Eileen in The Cripple of Inishmaan. With the Ensemble for the Romantic Century in NYC: Nadezhda VonMeck in None But the Lonely Heart, as well as Fanny Mendelsohn, Emily Dickinson, Sonia Tolstoy and Anna Akhmatova. A Designated Linklater Voice Teacher, she has been on the faculty of Dartmouth College and MIT.
Sheila Bandyopadhyay

Sheila Bandyopadhyay

Sheila Bandyopadhyay is a Brooklyn based director, deviser, movement specialist, and Alexander Technique and yoga teacher. Sheila began teaching with Shakespeare & Company over twenty years ago and currently serves as Head of the Professional Training Program at Dell’Arte International in Blue Lake, CA. Additional teaching and coaching with: The American Academy of Dramatic Arts NY, the Balance Arts Center (Freedom to Act), FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training, NYU Gallatin, the Linklater Center, the Upright Citizen’s Brigade, and Emerson College. moreSheila Bandyopadhyay is a Brooklyn based director, deviser, movement specialist, and Alexander Technique and yoga teacher. Sheila began teaching with Shakespeare & Company over twenty years ago and currently serves as Head of the Professional Training Program at Dell’Arte International in Blue Lake, CA. Additional teaching and coaching with: The American Academy of Dramatic Arts NY, the Balance Arts Center (Freedom to Act), FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training, NYU Gallatin, the Linklater Center, the Upright Citizen’s Brigade, and Emerson College. In New York, Sheila has directed shows at the Brick, the United Solo Festival (Theater Row), the Tank, the Women in Theater Festival (the Gural), the West End Theater, the 72nd St Theater Lab. Regional credits include the Boston Center for the Arts, and the Minneapolis and Montreal Fringe Festivals. Sheila is a proud member of the Humanist Project and a sponsored artist with Leviathan Lab. Sheila is a graduate of Brandeis University, ATNYC’s Alexander certification program, Dell’Arte International, and NYU Gallatin (MA). www.sheilabnyc.com IG: @sheilabnyc
Andrew Borthwick-Leslie

Andrew Borthwick-Leslie

Andrew Borthwick-Leslie is a member of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA, where he has taught, directed, and acted for twenty years. He is also the co-Artistic Director of The Humanist Project in NYC. He has taught acting and voice at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, Emerson College, DeSales University and the University of Maryland among others. Andrew has run workshops for the Center for Renaissance Studies, the American Bar Association, the New England Homeless Veterans shelter and many moreAndrew Borthwick-Leslie is a member of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA, where he has taught, directed, and acted for twenty years. He is also the co-Artistic Director of The Humanist Project in NYC. He has taught acting and voice at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, Emerson College, DeSales University and the University of Maryland among others. Andrew has run workshops for the Center for Renaissance Studies, the American Bar Association, the New England Homeless Veterans shelter and many more. He has directed, devised, or assisted on over fifty productions—from Cymbeline to Perestroika. Most recently he directed Love’s Labour’s Lost and Merchant of Venice for the Shakespeare Forum at the Gym at Judson in Washington Square, Macbeth and Frances Goes to War for The Humanist Project, and Double Falsehood for the Letter of Marque Theater Company. He lives happily in Brooklyn.
Jenna May Cass

Jenna May Cass

Jenna May found her way to Shakespeare & Company while training in Linklater Voice. After taking both the Month-Long Intensive and the Conservatory in 2012, she immediately returned to begin teacher training, ultimately falling in love with the sonnet progression, which she now teaches, along with text. Originally from Washington State, Jenna May earned a degree in dramatic arts from Western Washington University, trained further with RADA, Theatricum Botanicum, Louis Colaianni, and Natsuko Ohama. Now based in the Berkshires, Jenna moreJenna May found her way to Shakespeare & Company while training in Linklater Voice. After taking both the Month-Long Intensive and the Conservatory in 2012, she immediately returned to begin teacher training, ultimately falling in love with the sonnet progression, which she now teaches, along with text. Originally from Washington State, Jenna May earned a degree in dramatic arts from Western Washington University, trained further with RADA, Theatricum Botanicum, Louis Colaianni, and Natsuko Ohama. Now based in the Berkshires, Jenna May previously worked as a voice teacher, dialect, movement, and text coach in San Francisco, New York, and the greater Seattle area. She is also an actor and director, and had the privilege of developing new work, in addition to playing with plenty of Shakespeare.
Merry Conway

Merry Conway

Merry Conway is a teacher, and performer. She teaches workshops in a range of subjects: Movement for Actors, Clown, and has developed original pedagogy on The Embodied Humors, Wit and Wordplay and The Fool. Merry trained with Trish Arnold in London and her work has continued to provide a strong foundation for Merry’s thought. Merry is a Founding Teacher at Shakespeare & Company, having taught at the first January workshop, bringing movement as well as Clown into the Company pedagogy, moreMerry Conway is a teacher, and performer. She teaches workshops in a range of subjects: Movement for Actors, Clown, and has developed original pedagogy on The Embodied Humors, Wit and Wordplay and The Fool. Merry trained with Trish Arnold in London and her work has continued to provide a strong foundation for Merry’s thought. Merry is a Founding Teacher at Shakespeare & Company, having taught at the first January workshop, bringing movement as well as Clown into the Company pedagogy, for several years thereafter. She became the Clownmaster there in 1983, and through the company, received and NEA grant to study Clown and Fool in Shakespeare. She has also taught at LA Women’s Shakespeare Company, Actor’s Shakespeare Project, Carnegie Mellon University, New York University, Emerson University, and Brandeis University. She is a regular teacher at the Linklater Center in New York, and co-teaches with Kristin Linklater at the Kristin Linklater Center in Orkney. In the past five years, she has taught many workshops in Italy as well as her own workshops in New York City. For 20 years Merry was a performer and co-producer of Conway & Pratt Projects which created large-scale, installations with performance along with her collaborator, Noni Pratt. She has danced with Susan Dibble for many, many years and valued the creative exchange. Merry is delighted to mark the circle completing on 40 years, returning to Shakespeare & Company for this workshop.
Paul D'Agostino

Paul D'Agostino

Paul D’Agostino is an assistant professor of theater at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where he’s been on faculty since 2014. Additionally, he serves as the resident voice teacher for Commonwealth Shakespeare Company and Boston University Summer Theater Institute (both since 2013). A Designated Linklater Teacher and a certified teacher of The Alexander Technique, he holds a Master of Music in Musical Theater from The Boston Conservatory and an M.F.A. in Theatre Education with a concentration in voice and morePaul D’Agostino is an assistant professor of theater at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where he’s been on faculty since 2014. Additionally, he serves as the resident voice teacher for Commonwealth Shakespeare Company and Boston University Summer Theater Institute (both since 2013). A Designated Linklater Teacher and a certified teacher of The Alexander Technique, he holds a Master of Music in Musical Theater from The Boston Conservatory and an M.F.A. in Theatre Education with a concentration in voice and speech from Boston University.
Dave Demke

Dave Demke

Dave Demke is a Shakespeare & Company Senior Faculty member and a
Designated Linklater Voice teacher. He received his BA in Theatre Arts
from Minnesota State University, and MFA in Performance from the
University of Maryland. He was the Artistic Director of Stark Raving Theatre
in Portland, OR; the Associate Director of Training for Shakespeare &
Company; and principle dancer/choreographer for the Red River Dance
Company in Fargo, ND. As an actor he has appeared in productions in New
York moreDave Demke is a Shakespeare & Company Senior Faculty member and a
Designated Linklater Voice teacher. He received his BA in Theatre Arts
from Minnesota State University, and MFA in Performance from the
University of Maryland. He was the Artistic Director of Stark Raving Theatre
in Portland, OR; the Associate Director of Training for Shakespeare &
Company; and principle dancer/choreographer for the Red River Dance
Company in Fargo, ND. As an actor he has appeared in productions in New
York and regionally, as well as performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival
and in Beijing, China. Directing credits include theaters in Portland, OR,
Shakespeare & Company, Tennessee Shakespeare Company, and guest
directing credits at Purdue University, Skidmore College, and Northeastern
University. He has guest taught at various universities, at the Linklater
Center in New York, at the National Theatre of Ghana, and continues to
teach Shakespeare & Company workshops in cities around the country.
Tom Giordano

Tom Giordano

Tom Giordano is an actor, teacher and director based in New York City. His training as an actor at the Shakespeare & Company January Intensive was the springboard to receiving his MFA from Columbia University. While at Columbia, he trained extensively in voice and Shakespeare with Kristin Linklater and Andrea Haring, inspiring him to pursue and complete his designation as a teacher of Linklater Voice. He has worked in the Education and Training programs at Shakespeare moreTom Giordano is an actor, teacher and director based in New York City. His training as an actor at the Shakespeare & Company January Intensive was the springboard to receiving his MFA from Columbia University. While at Columbia, he trained extensively in voice and Shakespeare with Kristin Linklater and Andrea Haring, inspiring him to pursue and complete his designation as a teacher of Linklater Voice. He has worked in the Education and Training programs at Shakespeare & Company since 2014, as well as with Classic Stage Company, Letter of Marque Theater, the MIT Shakespeare Ensemble, and Columbia Business School. In his spare time, he works as a software engineer in Cambridge.
Rebecca Goodheart

Rebecca Goodheart

Rebecca Goodheart has been a director, actor, and teacher specializing in Shakespeare and Voice for over 25 years. She is a Designated Linklater Voice teacher who has directed over 30 professional and 50 educational productions. Currently serving as the Producing Director of Elm Shakespeare Company in New Haven, CT, she has worked with a dozen Shakespeare theaters around the world, and is a proud lifetime member of the Shakespeare Theatre Association. Other leadership positions have included Director of Training at moreRebecca Goodheart has been a director, actor, and teacher specializing in Shakespeare and Voice for over 25 years. She is a Designated Linklater Voice teacher who has directed over 30 professional and 50 educational productions. Currently serving as the Producing Director of Elm Shakespeare Company in New Haven, CT, she has worked with a dozen Shakespeare theaters around the world, and is a proud lifetime member of the Shakespeare Theatre Association. Other leadership positions have included Director of Training at San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Producing Artistic Director for Maryland Shakespeare Festival (an equity theater she founded in 1999), Artistic Director of the Metawhateverphor Theater in NYC, and Director of Education for Baltimore Shakespeare Festival. She is a classical text and voice teacher at Shakespeare & Company in Massachusetts and adjunct faculty at Southern Connecticut State University. She holds a BFA from NYU/Stella Adler Conservatory, a Master of Letters in Shakespeare & Renaissance Literature, and an MFA in Directing (both from the American Shakespeare Center). She has presented her research into Shakespeare’s dramatic use of rhetoric at numerous national conferences, and theatrical workshops across the country, as well as having her scholarship published in the Wooden O Journal and Shakespeare Criticism, online.
Charls Sedgwick Hall

Charls Sedgwick Hall

Charls Sedgwick Hall (Actor, Movement Teacher, Director) ) Charls’s acting credits include performances in Love’s Labour’s Lost, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged, Revised), Romeo and Juliet, A Comedy of Errors, A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Shakespeare & Company; The Color Purple (The Musical) Los Angeles Ovations Award winning production, The Next Fairytale, The Escape Artist’s Children, and Follow with Celebration Theatre; Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing with Southern California Shakespeare Festival; moreCharls Sedgwick Hall (Actor, Movement Teacher, Director) ) Charls’s acting credits include performances in Love’s Labour’s Lost, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged, Revised), Romeo and Juliet, A Comedy of Errors, A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Shakespeare & Company; The Color Purple (The Musical) Los Angeles Ovations Award winning production, The Next Fairytale, The Escape Artist’s Children, and Follow with Celebration Theatre; Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing with Southern California Shakespeare Festival; Uncle Vanya, As You Like It, The Vigil with RAAP Theater Company; A Christmas Carol, The Little Foxes, Cymbeline, Cyrano, with A Noise Within; Angels of Lemnos, David and Goliath in America, Hitler’s Head, The Lady’s Not For Burning with The Road Theatre Company; Tartuffe and Arms and The Man with The Classical Theatre Company; Twelfth Night and Saint Joan with The Royston Theater Company; as well as productions of Faith and The Good Thing, Our Country’s Good, Three Sisters, Death Unit, Measure For Measure, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Firebugs. The Tempest, The Taming of the Shrew and Exit The King. Directing credits include Other World Lover and Afrocentricities with MPAACT, OUTStories and The Red Train Café with Celebration Theatre. During his many years of performing and studying with Shakespeare & Company, Charls toured with the School’s Program and trained as a Movement teacher in the discipline of Trish Arnold. He has taught as a Guest Professor in Movement at the National Institute of Performing Arts in Sydney, Australia; a Guest Professor in Movement and a Guest Artist performing in Angels of Lemnos at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, and held the position of Director of Training/Movement Instructor with Two Pence Theatre Company. Charls, a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association, holds an MFA from the NYU-School of the Performing Arts Graduate Acting Program, teaches and continues to study other Movement disciplines, as well as Shakespeare’s Text, Rhetoric and Sonnets.
Rory Hammond

Rory Hammond

Rory has studied Shakespeare her entire life and has also worked as an Education Artist at Shakespeare & Company since 2015. She has spent the last three years focusing on directing and teaching Shakespeare to kids from ages 7-18. Directing Credits: Twelfth Night, Much Ado about Nothing, and Macbeth for the Fall Festival of Shakespeare. New York acting credits include: Pericles, directed by Edward Berkeley at SoHo Rep, Measure for Measure at Circle in the Square also moreRory has studied Shakespeare her entire life and has also worked as an Education Artist at Shakespeare & Company since 2015. She has spent the last three years focusing on directing and teaching Shakespeare to kids from ages 7-18. Directing Credits: Twelfth Night, Much Ado about Nothing, and Macbeth for the Fall Festival of Shakespeare. New York acting credits include: Pericles, directed by Edward Berkeley at SoHo Rep, Measure for Measure at Circle in the Square also directed by Edward Berkeley, Bachelorette by Lesley Headland at Circle in the Square, John Patrick Shanley's Where's My Money at the Cherry Lane Theatre, and The Scarlet Letter starring Marisa Tomei. Berkshire credits include: Christmas at Pemberley directed by Ariel Bock; Ugly Lies the Bone and The Taming of the Shrew, both directed by Daniela Varone; King John and Richard III, both directed by Tina Packer; as well as Merry Wives of Windsor, Off the Map, Much Ado About Nothing, Merchant of Venice, Dibble Dance and The Wharton Salon at the Mount (Autres Temp, Xingu, and Summer, directed by Catherine Taylor Williams). TV credits include: Dr. Pepper commercials circa 1998. Training has been at Shakespeare & Company her entire life starting with Young Company and ending with a summer as a member of the Summer Performing Institute (SPI). Rory Hammond is a graduate of Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York City. She is a founding member of Animus Theatre Company in New York City. www.animustheatre.org
Sarah Hickler

Sarah Hickler

Sarah Hickler is an actor, deviser, director and theater educator. She has directed, choreographed and taught with the Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Co., Sedona Shakespeare, Sun Valley Shakespeare, and Actor’s Shakespeare Project. She is an Associate Professor and Head of Acting at Emerson College in Boston, where she teaches Movement, Action Theater and Shakespeare. Sarah has an MFA from Boston University and is a Certified in Authentic Movement facilitation and Action Theater™. Sarah has a long association with Shakespeare & Co., moreSarah Hickler is an actor, deviser, director and theater educator. She has directed, choreographed and taught with the Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Co., Sedona Shakespeare, Sun Valley Shakespeare, and Actor’s Shakespeare Project. She is an Associate Professor and Head of Acting at Emerson College in Boston, where she teaches Movement, Action Theater and Shakespeare. Sarah has an MFA from Boston University and is a Certified in Authentic Movement facilitation and Action Theater™. Sarah has a long association with Shakespeare & Co., dancing with Susan Dibble in Shakespeare & Company’s summer seasons since 1989, and teaching in Shakespeare & Company’s month-long intensives. She is thrilled to be returning to teach in the 2020 winter intensive.
Tom Jaeger

Tom Jaeger

Tom Jaeger has been teaching, acting, training, managing and directing at Shakespeare & Company since 1991. Before coming here he trained at Washington University in St. Louis with Hollis Huston, a Lecoq trained theatre maker and performance theorist. While in St. Louis he was also the managing director of the Holy Roman Repertory Company, a live radio theatre. He has also done stints at MIT and Harvard, including the first Shakespeare production done in the Sanders Theatre at Harvard in moreTom Jaeger has been teaching, acting, training, managing and directing at Shakespeare & Company since 1991. Before coming here he trained at Washington University in St. Louis with Hollis Huston, a Lecoq trained theatre maker and performance theorist. While in St. Louis he was also the managing director of the Holy Roman Repertory Company, a live radio theatre. He has also done stints at MIT and Harvard, including the first Shakespeare production done in the Sanders Theatre at Harvard in 50 years.
Edgar Landa

Edgar Landa

Edgar Landa is an actor/director from Los Angeles. He also creates fights & violence for theatres large and small. He has been a guest director at Off Square Theatre/Thin Air Shakespeare for the past five summers. He has directed at theatres in L.A. and beyond and has also been a guest director at USC, Long Beach State University and Loyola Marymount University. As a fight director Edgar has created mayhem at numerous theatres across Southern California and elsewhere including: moreEdgar Landa is an actor/director from Los Angeles. He also creates fights & violence for theatres large and small. He has been a guest director at Off Square Theatre/Thin Air Shakespeare for the past five summers. He has directed at theatres in L.A. and beyond and has also been a guest director at USC, Long Beach State University and Loyola Marymount University. As a fight director Edgar has created mayhem at numerous theatres across Southern California and elsewhere including: Center Theatre Group, San Diego Rep, Geffen Playhouse, South Coast Rep, The Getty Villa, The Wallis, Cornerstone Theatre, Tennessee Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare & Company, Boston Court Theatre and many others. Edgar is an alumnus of the Directors Lab West and the Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab. He received his undergraduate degree in theatre from the USC School of Theatre. Currently, he sits on the faculty of the USC School of Dramatic Arts as the resident fight/violence instructor and fight director. He is a long-standing member of Son of Semele Ensemble in Los Angeles. Edgar is a proud member of Actors Equity Association and a supporter of intimate theatres in Los Angeles.
Paula Langton

Paula Langton

Paula Langton - Actor and Designated Linklater Voice Teacher - is honored to return to teach at Shakespeare & Company where she encountered powerful teaching mentors, including Master Voice Teacher, Kristin Linklater, who was in residence when she participated in her first "intensive" in 1986. It was here that Paula received some of the most transformational training of her career. She is currently an Associate Professor on The School of Theatre faculty at Boston University where she has taught since morePaula Langton - Actor and Designated Linklater Voice Teacher - is honored to return to teach at Shakespeare & Company where she encountered powerful teaching mentors, including Master Voice Teacher, Kristin Linklater, who was in residence when she participated in her first "intensive" in 1986. It was here that Paula received some of the most transformational training of her career. She is currently an Associate Professor on The School of Theatre faculty at Boston University where she has taught since 1996 and served as Head of Acting for the past 20 years. Paula met Shakespeare & Company in the early 80s as an actor in training and was a member of the company's elementary schools program. In the late 80s, she became part of a motley crew of clowns, then called "Shakessquad & Clown Company" where she spent countless summer hours fooling about, devising and performing original, comedic material with and for the company. Paula apprenticed directly with Kristin Linklater for over three years and served as her assistant, and then, successor, for Shakespeare & Company's NEH funded Shakespeare Institute - (actor/ teacher training for high school teachers.) She was officially designated by Linklater to teach voice in 1991 and last taught voice at Shakespeare & Company's month long intensive in January of 2003. She joined Kristin Linklater at Emerson College in 1991 as a full time Artist in Residence for five years, where she assisted in the development of the acting program under Linklater's direction. She occasionally co-teaches with Linklater at The Kristin Linklater Voice Centre in Orkney, Scotland. Other teaching credits include: Trinity Rep Conservatory, University of Massachusetts, Wheaton College, Actors' Shakespeare Project, and Festa Di Teatro Ecologico, in Stromboli Italy. Paula's acting credits include: Shakespeare & Company's mainstage at The Mount where she played in The Tempest, at The Tina Packer Playhouse in Much Ado About Nothing, Love's Labour's Lost, & Mother Courage, and she has twice had the joy of being invited to be a part of DibbleDance. She was a member of Kristin Linklater and Carol Gilligan's all female Shakespeare company- Company of Women, and was director of the Company of Girls..Other acting credits include productions with American Repertory Theatre, La Mama etc, Actors Shakespeare Project, Potomac Theatre Co. NYC, LA Women's Shakespeare, The Olney Theatre, New Rep, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, The Charles Playhouse, Boston Theatre Works, Boston Playwrights Theatre, and Festa Di Teatro Eco Logico, to name a few. Paula has a band called The Crazy Neighbors, and is a member of Actor's Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild and Voice and Speech Trainers Association, Inc.
Cecil MacKinnon

Cecil MacKinnon

Cecil MacKinnon is delighted to be back at Shakespeare & Company where she has taught in many workshops. For Shakespeare & Company, she directed productions including, on the Mainstage: Love's Labour's Lost, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, and The Comedy of Errors. Elsewhere, a sampling includes: in Madison, Wisconsin: On the Razzle, for the Naples Opera Company Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night's Dream, At the Portland Stage Co. Much Ado About Nothing and Later Life (Gurney).While an Arts Professor at moreCecil MacKinnon is delighted to be back at Shakespeare & Company where she has taught in many workshops. For Shakespeare & Company, she directed productions including, on the Mainstage: Love's Labour's Lost, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, and The Comedy of Errors. Elsewhere, a sampling includes: in Madison, Wisconsin: On the Razzle, for the Naples Opera Company Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night's Dream, At the Portland Stage Co. Much Ado About Nothing and Later Life (Gurney).While an Arts Professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts she directed numerous productions, most recently an adaptation of The Madwoman of Chaillot called Who’s Crazy Now? She is theater director of Circus Flora, based in St. Louis, where she has co-created shows in the twelve hundred seat circus tent and in collaboration with the St. Louis Symphony at Powell Hall. She also directed the 2019-2020 season of the Big Apple Circus in New York.
Corinna May

Corinna May

Corinna is a 30-year member of Shakespeare & Company, took her first Intensive in 1990, went on the education tour right afterwards, and has been working here ever since both as an actor (33+ roles and counting), and faculty member in and Education. Corinna has acted in NY and regional theatre in classical, modern, and new plays, appeared in film, on television, in radio plays and audio books. She stars in the indie feature Split Ends, directed by Dorothy moreCorinna is a 30-year member of Shakespeare & Company, took her first Intensive in 1990, went on the education tour right afterwards, and has been working here ever since both as an actor (33+ roles and counting), and faculty member in and Education. Corinna has acted in NY and regional theatre in classical, modern, and new plays, appeared in film, on television, in radio plays and audio books. She stars in the indie feature Split Ends, directed by Dorothy Lyman, & spent two years on the Broadway tour of The Graduate, with Jerry Hall, Linda Gray, Lorraine Bracco, Kelly McGillis and Morgan Fairchild as the various Missus Robinsons. TV includes “House of Cards” and “Law & Order”. Her one-woman play Dancing With The Czar was produced at Ventfort Hall in Lenox, MA. As a fight director, Corinna has staged fights for both classical and contemporary plays. She studied stage fighting with S&Co’s Founding Master Fight Teacher, BH Barry while training at Circle in the Square Theatre School, and then with her mentor, Shakespeare & Company’s Master Fight Teacher Tony Simotes. She has also trained with the Society of American Fight Directors and with Fight Directors Canada. Corinna is a Designated Linklater Method voice teacher and a Feldenkrais Method practitioner, one of only a handful of people in the world to hold both certifications. Currently serving as an adjunct assistant professor of Voice & Speech at the Actors Studio Drama School MFA program at Pace University, she has also taught at Smith, MIT, Syracuse University, a couple of SUNYs, Fordham, the National Theatre Institute and Circle-in-the-Square Theatre School. Corinna is a lead trainer with the international consulting company, The Cornell Voice Advisory/Australia. Her own private coaching practice serves actors, teachers, lawyers, executives, politicians, academics and clergy. She is a proud Union member: AEA, SAG-AFTRA, UAFP, Dramatists Guild; she’s a graduate of Barnard College, and Circle-in-the-Square Theatre School. She has recently begun taking workshops in staging theatrical intimacy with Intimacy Directors International, and is passionate about helping to integrate this excellent and thrilling work into every aspect of the performing arts.
Mary Mayo

Mary Mayo

Mary is a Designated Linklater teacher with many years experience acting and teaching voice, acting and improvisation in universities and professional theatre training programs all over the United States including Shakespeare & Company, University of Maryland, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, University of Mississippi, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Syracuse University. She has an M.Litt/MFA in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature in Performance from Mary Baldwin College and the American Shakespeare Center. Mary has coached voice and dialects at Arena Stage, moreMary is a Designated Linklater teacher with many years experience acting and teaching voice, acting and improvisation in universities and professional theatre training programs all over the United States including Shakespeare & Company, University of Maryland, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, University of Mississippi, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Syracuse University. She has an M.Litt/MFA in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature in Performance from Mary Baldwin College and the American Shakespeare Center. Mary has coached voice and dialects at Arena Stage, Roundhouse Theater, Ford’s Theater, Signature Theatre, and Chesapeake Bay Shakespeare. She has performed with Nelson County Shakespeare Festival, Hamner Theater, Kristin Linklater’s Company of Women, Ensemble Studio Theater, the Open Eye and Shakespeare & Company. Directing credits include The Waiting Room (at UMD), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard II, As You Like It, and Taming of the Shrew. Mary is Shakespeare consultant to the Nelson County Public Schools and, with Betty Tabony, has written a manual for teaching Shakespeare to middle school students and edited a young people’s edition of King Lear for Swan Books. She currently lives in Washington, DC.
Julie Nelson

Julie Nelson

Julie Nelson is an actor, teacher, and professor emeritus (sic) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Recently she was in George Brant’s Dark Room at Bridge Rep Theater, Boston and played Marie Antoinette in The Revolutionists at Silverthorne Theater. Other roles include Mrs. Gardiner and Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride and Prejudice at Playmakers Repertory Company in Chapel Hill, NC, and Grace in Vigil at Portland Stage Company, Portland, Maine. In New York she played Childie in The Killing moreJulie Nelson is an actor, teacher, and professor emeritus (sic) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Recently she was in George Brant’s Dark Room at Bridge Rep Theater, Boston and played Marie Antoinette in The Revolutionists at Silverthorne Theater. Other roles include Mrs. Gardiner and Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride and Prejudice at Playmakers Repertory Company in Chapel Hill, NC, and Grace in Vigil at Portland Stage Company, Portland, Maine. In New York she played Childie in The Killing of Sister George Off Broadway, and Myrna-the-Docent for Conway and Pratt. She is a founding member of Shakespeare & Company, where she played Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream on the main stage and national tour, Celia in As You Like It, Fabian in Twelfth Night, Cory in Private Eyes and Edith Wharton in Wharton-land. Her training in theatrical clown with Merry Conway is the springboard for her work and incited her to further study with Philippe Gaulier and Jacques Lecoq, among others. Julie navigated academia’s Byzantine path from Visiting Lecturer to Full Professor at UMass, where she taught acting, voice, movement, and clown. In collaboration with the UMass Center for Women and Community, she directed and produced a play for New Student Orientation about sexual assault on college campuses. It was seen by thousands of incoming students and was subsequently adopted for orientations at Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith Colleges. She has taught in the actor-training program in El Salvador’s National Arts Center, San Salvador, The School of Drama at the New School, The Berkshire Theatre Festival; Actors Theatre of Louisville, and St. Stephen’s School in Austin, Texas. She is an alum of artEquity’s National Facilitator Training, 2016, and a theater consultant for the Wellesley Racial Justice Initiative. Member, AEA, SAG-AFTRA
Jane Nichols

Jane Nichols

Jane Nichols is an actress, director, and teacher. She first studied with Shakespeare & Company in 1983, and has taught and acted with the Company off and on since then. Inspired by the work of Merry Conway at the 1983 workshop, Jane developed a passion for Clowning. Her teaching today brings together skills and techniques of Le Jeu, Physical Comedy, Clown, Bouffon, Improvisation, and Mask.

In addition to Merry Conway, she has studied with Philippe Gaulier (Ecole Gaulier), Clive

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Jane Nichols is an actress, director, and teacher. She first studied with Shakespeare & Company in 1983, and has taught and acted with the Company off and on since then. Inspired by the work of Merry Conway at the 1983 workshop, Jane developed a passion for Clowning. Her teaching today brings together skills and techniques of Le Jeu, Physical Comedy, Clown, Bouffon, Improvisation, and Mask.

In addition to Merry Conway, she has studied with Philippe Gaulier (Ecole Gaulier), Clive Mendes (Theatre Complicite), Ronlin Foreman (DellArte School of Physical Theatre), Michael Kennard (co-founder of Canada’s Mump & Smoot, and Master teacher of the Richard Pochinko native American mask/clown technique), Avner Eisenberg (Avner the Eccentric), Davis Robinson (author of Physical Comedy Handbook), Keith Johnstone (Impro and Impro for Storytellers), and world-renowned Czech clown, Bolek Polivka.

Before S&Co, Jane worked as an actress in Boston, and was the Founder/Artistic Director of Crosswalk Theatre for Children. In 1985, applying her knowledge of children’s theatre to Shakespeare, Jane created and implemented the curriculum for the S&Co Elementary and Jr High School program which continues to this day.

In addition to S&Co, Jane has held teaching positions at the Yale School of Drama; Juilliard; Harvard University; ART; ACT; Brown University; the Actors Center in NYC; Stella Adler Conservatory; Emerson College; Simon’s Rock College of Bard, and University of Washington.

She has directed shows at Harvard University, Brown University, Washington Ensemble Theatre (WET), Intiman Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Co, Seattle University, Cornish College of the Arts, and Room Circus Medical Clowning. With her company of former clown students, Logic Limited, Ltd., she devised: Desdemona’s Dream; Schaden, Freude, and You: A 3 Clown Seminar; TiVO la Resistance; New Shorts; and A Night at the Trojan Wall: a Clown version of the Iliad. For Cirque du Soleil she worked with John Gilkey, Daniel Passer, and Wayne Wilson to develop and devise the cabaret Your New Best Friends.

Acting credits include roles at Dallas Theatre Center, Portland Stage Co, En Garde Arts, Synapse Productions, New Georges, Shakespeare & Company, Gloucester Stage Co, Nora Theatre, Lyric Stage, Berkshire Public, Counterpoint Theatre, Cambridge Theatre Co. Film and TV credits include: School Ties; Heights; The Living Room Waltz; Ed; Law & Order SVU; America’s Most Wanted; Connect With English; and Rachel’s Dinner with Olympia Dukakis. She has done numerous voice overs and commercials.

Natsuko Ohama

Natsuko Ohama

One of the premier voice teachers in the world, Natsuko trained under legendary Master Kristin Linklater at the Working Theatre in New York. She is a founding member and permanent faculty of Shakespeare & Company (Lenox, MA), a senior artist at Pan Asian Rep NewYork, a certified Joy of Phonetics teacher trained by Louis Colaianni and was the Director of Training at the National Arts Center of Canada. She has taught at numerous institutions all over North America, including NYU, moreOne of the premier voice teachers in the world, Natsuko trained under legendary Master Kristin Linklater at the Working Theatre in New York. She is a founding member and permanent faculty of Shakespeare & Company (Lenox, MA), a senior artist at Pan Asian Rep NewYork, a certified Joy of Phonetics teacher trained by Louis Colaianni and was the Director of Training at the National Arts Center of Canada. She has taught at numerous institutions all over North America, including NYU, Cal Arts, Columbia University, the Sundance Institute. Internationally has taught in Stromboli Italy, Istanbul Turkey, Zurich Switzerland, Shanghai China as well as in Orkney Scotland at the KVLC. She has an extensive workshop and private teaching practice in Los Angeles and has coached numerous productions at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, and the Wallis Annenberg theatre. A Drama Desk nominated actress, she has portrayed roles ranging from Juliet to Lady Macbeth from Hamlet to Prospero (Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company) Film and TV appearances include the action film Speed, the cult series Forever Knight, and Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Favorite stage roles, Imelda Marcos in Dogeaters, Winnie in Beckett’s Happy Days, and she was in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Company 2018. Ms. Ohama's play Geisha of the Gilded Age was performed by her at Summer Arts 2019. She heads the voice progression for the MFA Acting Program at USC. Home page: http://www.natsukoohama.com
Marie Ramirez Downing

Marie Ramirez Downing

Marie is currently an Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts, Performance and Director of The Acting Program at Sonoma State University in the North Bay of California. She has an M.F.A. in Acting from The Theatre School at DePaul University, and a B.A. in Theatre Arts, Acting from California State University, Fresno. She is a Designated Linklater Voice Teacher (Shakespeare & Company 2012). Marie is also a Bronze Founding Member of the Linklater Centre in Orkney, Scotland where she has continued moreMarie is currently an Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts, Performance and Director of The Acting Program at Sonoma State University in the North Bay of California. She has an M.F.A. in Acting from The Theatre School at DePaul University, and a B.A. in Theatre Arts, Acting from California State University, Fresno. She is a Designated Linklater Voice Teacher (Shakespeare & Company 2012). Marie is also a Bronze Founding Member of the Linklater Centre in Orkney, Scotland where she has continued her training as a voice teacher and actor with Kristin Linklater and Louis Colaianni in 2018 and Paula Langton and Ken Cheeseman in 2021. Marie also led Linklater Teachers in a Collaborative Continuing Professional Development workshop for the Centre on Identity and the Voice in the Fall of 2021. Most recently, she received a grant through the Koret Scholars Program at SSU that provided scholarships to four BIPOC Theatre arts students to participate in professional voice workshops and write about their experiences and present on them. Next March 2022, she will present a workshop called, “Voice and Presence: Behind the Mask, On Zoom, and In the Classroom at the Western Academy of Management on the Big Island in Hawaii. Marie is making her Bay Area directing debut next May and ending the 6th Street Playhouse season with Real Women Have Curves by Josefina Lopez. She is an elected Board Member for the Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA).
Victoria Rhoades

Victoria Rhoades

Victoria Rhoades, PhD is an educator, actor and director, specializing in Shakespeare and girls’ and boys’ development. Tori is a senior faculty of Movement and Text in the Training Program and has worked for years in various areas of the Education Program. She currently serves as founder and Executive Director of the newly developing, SAGE Center, (Shakespeare, the Arts, Gender and Education). Tori strives to create spaces where young women and men can respectfully and playfully learn from, and alongside moreVictoria Rhoades, PhD is an educator, actor and director, specializing in Shakespeare and girls’ and boys’ development. Tori is a senior faculty of Movement and Text in the Training Program and has worked for years in various areas of the Education Program. She currently serves as founder and Executive Director of the newly developing, SAGE Center, (Shakespeare, the Arts, Gender and Education). Tori strives to create spaces where young women and men can respectfully and playfully learn from, and alongside one another. Favorite regional theatre roles include Rosalind (As You Like It), The Governess (The Turn of the Screw), Carol (Oleanna), Charity (Summer), among others. Tori holds a Masters’ and PhD from NYU integrating the teaching pedagogy of Shakespeare & Company with the Relational Psychology work of Carol Gilligan. She holds a BS in theatre from Northwestern University. She has worked as a guest director at high schools and universities in the Northeast, and as founding Performing Arts Director at an innovative high school in Sonoma County, CA. She was a two-time recipient of artist grants from the Lotta M Crabtree Foundation, as well as a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. She is a member of both Actors’ Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA. Her production of A Midsummer Nights’ Dream was awarded “Best Production” by the University of Pittsburgh Department of Theatre Arts. Tori is currently writing a piece for publication on creating “safe” learning spaces for young men and women to create, work and learn together.
Rebecca Schneebaum

Rebecca Schneebaum

Rebecca Schneebaum (she/her) is currently based in Brooklyn NYC, here on the ancestral lands of the Lenape people. Rebecca is an actor, Designated Linklater Voice Teacher, theatre maker, and loving dog mom. As an actor she has performed with LAByrinth Theatre Company, American Repertory Theatre, The Huntington Theatre, Boston Playwright’s Theatre, Actors' Shakespeare Project, Seacoast Repertory Theatre, Brown Box Theatre Project, and many others. She was on the acting faculty at Emerson College for the last five years as

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Rebecca Schneebaum (she/her) is currently based in Brooklyn NYC, here on the ancestral lands of the Lenape people. Rebecca is an actor, Designated Linklater Voice Teacher, theatre maker, and loving dog mom. As an actor she has performed with LAByrinth Theatre Company, American Repertory Theatre, The Huntington Theatre, Boston Playwright’s Theatre, Actors' Shakespeare Project, Seacoast Repertory Theatre, Brown Box Theatre Project, and many others. She was on the acting faculty at Emerson College for the last five years as well as a guest lecturer at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts. Now, she teaches acting and voice in the theatre department at Brooklyn College while completing her MFA in Acting. As an actor, as a teacher, as a human being in this world, Rebecca strives to question and remove old barriers in order to help foster spaces where the full scope of the human experience can be expressed; opening up the possibility to move and be moved by the vibrations of another's voice; to be heard in spite of messages to stay quiet; to break down internal and external systems of oppression. She received her BFA in Acting from Emerson College and completed her certification with Kristin Linklater at the Linklater Voice Centre in Orkney, Scotland. www.RebeccaSchneebaum.com

Gwendolyn Schwinke

Gwendolyn Schwinke

Gwendolyn Schwinke has served as voice and text coach at Shakespeare & Company for The Merry Wives of Windsor, Taming of the Shrew, The Merchant of Venice, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Or, Ugly Lies the Bone, The Comedy of Errors, Hamlet, The Unexpected Man and Shakespeare and the Language that Shaped a World, and created and directed Worse than Wolves for Henry VI.6. She is Resident Vocal Coach for PlayMakers Repertory Company and teaches voice in the MFA program at moreGwendolyn Schwinke has served as voice and text coach at Shakespeare & Company for The Merry Wives of Windsor, Taming of the Shrew, The Merchant of Venice, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Or, Ugly Lies the Bone, The Comedy of Errors, Hamlet, The Unexpected Man and Shakespeare and the Language that Shaped a World, and created and directed Worse than Wolves for Henry VI.6. She is Resident Vocal Coach for PlayMakers Repertory Company and teaches voice in the MFA program at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Gwendolyn has worked as vocal coach for other professional companies including Oxford Shakespeare Company (MS), Atlantic Stage (SC), Cheap Theatre and Frank Theatre in Minneapolis, and for multiple university productions. Professional acting credits include Gertrude in Hamlet, Mistress Quickly in The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, Adam in As You Like It, Desdemona in Carlyle Brown’s The Masks of Othello, Margie in Good People, Amanda in The Glass Menagerie, Jesse in ‘night Mother, and numerous other roles. She holds an MFA from Illinois State University, is a Designated Linklater Voice Teacher, a Certified Feldenkrais Movement Teacher, a Certified Teacher of the Colaianni Approach to Speech and Accents, and a proud member of Actor’s Equity.
Michael F. Toomey

Michael F. Toomey

Michael has been company member at Shakespeare & Company for nearly twenty years where he is an actor, director and faculty member. He is the Co-Artistic Director of the NYC based theatre company The Humanist Project. He also a founding member and trustee of Split Knuckle Theatre, which devises new works of theatre and is currently touring throughout the world with recent performances in Bangkok, Athens and Paris. Michael has been a Visiting Assistant Professor at Binghamton University teaching Clown, moreMichael has been company member at Shakespeare & Company for nearly twenty years where he is an actor, director and faculty member. He is the Co-Artistic Director of the NYC based theatre company The Humanist Project. He also a founding member and trustee of Split Knuckle Theatre, which devises new works of theatre and is currently touring throughout the world with recent performances in Bangkok, Athens and Paris. Michael has been a Visiting Assistant Professor at Binghamton University teaching Clown, Shakespeare and Fight. Michael teaches workshops for professional actors in Fight, Clown and Shakespeare around the country and abroad. He has directed, devised and choreographed numerous shows including Titus Andronicus, Julius Caesar and Alice In Wonderland. Michael has performed throughout the East Coast and internationally including roles such as Macbeth, Scapin, and Polonius. He has studied clown with Giovanni Fusetti and Philippe Gaulier, is a graduate from LISPA (London International School of Performing Arts), and holds an MFA in Lecoq-based actor created theatre from Naropa University. www.michaelftoomey.com
Kevin Vavasseur

Kevin Vavasseur

Kevin Vavasseur is a theater artist whose credits include work at Highways Performance Space, Theater @ Boston Court, Odyssey Theater, Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company, H.E.R.E, Company of Angels, Los Angeles Theater Center, Sacred Fools, Edinburgh International Arts Festival, New York International Fringe Festival, London Shakespeare Studio and Lincoln Center. An NAACP Image, GLAAD Media and Los Angeles Drama Critics’ Circle Award nominee for acting, he is a Lincoln Center Directors' Lab alum and a Stage Directors and Choreographers Union moreKevin Vavasseur is a theater artist whose credits include work at Highways Performance Space, Theater @ Boston Court, Odyssey Theater, Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company, H.E.R.E, Company of Angels, Los Angeles Theater Center, Sacred Fools, Edinburgh International Arts Festival, New York International Fringe Festival, London Shakespeare Studio and Lincoln Center. An NAACP Image, GLAAD Media and Los Angeles Drama Critics’ Circle Award nominee for acting, he is a Lincoln Center Directors' Lab alum and a Stage Directors and Choreographers Union associate member. He has done the Shakespeare & Company Winter Intensive as both a participant and teacher trainee and was a participant in the 2014 Shakespeare & Company 13-week Conservatory, where he played “Friar Laurence” in the Conservatory production of “Romeo and Juliet”. He once had a recurring role on the NBC sitcom “A Different World” and played a pirate in Steven Spielberg’s children’s classic, “Hook”. He has also worked in film and television production having been a First Assistant Director in music videos, shooting top musical acts including, Dionne Warwick, Burt Bacharach, The Whispers, Troop and Stevie Wonder. He’s also worked as Creative Assistant to the President Worldwide Production, as well as Executive Assistant to the Vice Chairman, at Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Entertainment, where he worked on many feature films including, Men in Black, Air Force One, Bad Boys, Memoirs of a Geisha and The Cable Guy. In September 2016, Kevin completed a Master of Arts degree at the NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study where he self-designed his curriculum which combined theater, gender studies and sociology. His research examines how live theater can provide an experience of empathy for audience members, which may be taken outside of the performing space to contribute to a more inclusive society. www.KevinVavasseur.com, www.KevinNotes.org
Claire Warden

Claire Warden

Claire Warden first came to Shakespeare & Company in 2008, having relocated from the UK, taking the Rhetoric and Month-Long Intensive workshops. After a few years establishing herself in New York City and building her acting and teaching career across America, she returned in 2013 to begin teacher training in the company’s fight work. In 2016 she joined the faculty as a Fight and Text teacher. Along with teaching for Shakespeare & Company, she also teaches Acting, Fight and Verse moreClaire Warden first came to Shakespeare & Company in 2008, having relocated from the UK, taking the Rhetoric and Month-Long Intensive workshops. After a few years establishing herself in New York City and building her acting and teaching career across America, she returned in 2013 to begin teacher training in the company’s fight work. In 2016 she joined the faculty as a Fight and Text teacher. Along with teaching for Shakespeare & Company, she also teaches Acting, Fight and Verse & Text with the Shakespeare Forum in New York City, of which she is the Director of Engagement. She is a freelance fight choreographer and acting coach, and her numerous acting roles include Off-Broadway credits Engaging Shaw (Abingdon Theatre), The Libertine (Kirk Theatre), A Persistent Memory (Becket Theatre). Other New York and Regional credits include One Man, Two Guvnors (Berkeley Rep/South Coast Rep), Edward IV (American Shakespeare Center), Outside Mullingar (FST), Henry V (as Henry V) (Accidental Shakespeare), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet & Henry V (The Shakespeare Forum), Romeo and Juliet (Stoneham Theatre), Other Desert Cities (Lake Dillon Theatre), Moon for the Misbegotten (Luna Stage), Mary Stuart (Theatreworks), Lost In Yonkers (New Harmony Theatre) & Humble Boy (Publick Theatre). TV and film work includes Quantico (ABC network), I Can, I Will, I Did, Freedom Fighter, The Factory & Departure & the TV documentary Jack the Ripper – An Ongoing Mystery for the Discovery Channel.
Sarah Weatherwax

Sarah Weatherwax

Sarah Weatherwax, originally from the US, has an honours BFA in Acting from Emerson College. She now lives with her family in Toronto. Along with private voice/audition coaching, she's worked as an on-set acting coach and taught at various places: Humber College Comedy Program; Workman Arts, a company devoted to fine arts training for people struggling with addiction and/or mental illness; Shakespeare & Company in Massachusetts; and Straeon Acting Studios in Toronto, Montreal and Boston. She's done voice work on moreSarah Weatherwax, originally from the US, has an honours BFA in Acting from Emerson College. She now lives with her family in Toronto. Along with private voice/audition coaching, she's worked as an on-set acting coach and taught at various places: Humber College Comedy Program; Workman Arts, a company devoted to fine arts training for people struggling with addiction and/or mental illness; Shakespeare & Company in Massachusetts; and Straeon Acting Studios in Toronto, Montreal and Boston. She's done voice work on numerous shows including Young Drunk Punk, Haven, Heartland, Saving Hope, Rookie Blue, and movies such as The Book of Negroes (mini-series), Beeba Boys, Hobo With A Shotgun and The Big Hit. Her production of MUD by Maria Irene Fornes, received four (out of five) Ns from NOW Magazine, Toronto’s primary arts paper. Other stage credits include Marlene in Bordertown Cafe at the Port Stanley Festival Theatre and Violet in Farther Westdirected by Jackie Maxwell. She was the recipient of a generous grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to complete her training with the renowned Kristin Linklater in 2003. One of Sarah's numerous short stories was a finalist (one of ten selected from 500) in an international competition. Member: Canadian Actors’ Equity Assoc. (CAEA) and the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television & Radio Artists (ACTRA). www.sarahweatherwax.com
Ryan Winkles

Ryan Winkles

Ryan Winkles has been a company member at Shakespeare & Company since 2006 as an actor, fight choreographer, and teacher. He has acted in, or choreographed stage fight for, over 30 productions with S&Co, the majority of which were productions of Shakespeare plays. He has taught in the Summer Training Institute, the January Intensive, and nearly every S&Co Education program.

Apart from S&Co he has acted in productions from one side of Massachusetts to the other with companies moreRyan Winkles has been a company member at Shakespeare & Company since 2006 as an actor, fight choreographer, and teacher. He has acted in, or choreographed stage fight for, over 30 productions with S&Co, the majority of which were productions of Shakespeare plays. He has taught in the Summer Training Institute, the January Intensive, and nearly every S&Co Education program.

Apart from S&Co he has acted in productions from one side of Massachusetts to the other with companies that include WAM Theatre, Bridge Repertory Theatre, and Commonwealth Shakespeare Company. Additionally, he trained as a circus artist and performed on various apparatuses with the Florida State University Flying High Circus. Ryan has held teaching positions at Circus Juventas, Flipside Circus, Trapeze School New York, Brown University, UMass-Amherst, and currently teaches at Boston University.
Kristin Wold

Kristin Wold

Kristin Wold first trained and acted with Shakespeare & Company in 1987, playing Cobweb in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Abhorson in Measure for Measure. Acting roles with the company since then include Shakespeare’s Will (Anne Hathaway), Julius Caesar (Portia, Calpurnia, Lucius), King Lear (Regan), Dibbledance (Dancer), The Tempest (Ariel), The Memory of Water (Teresa), Sea Marks (Timothea), Othello (Emilia), Ice Glen (Sarah), King Lear (Cordelia), Twelfth Night (Viola), Measure For Measure (Isabella), Berkeley Square (Helen), Macbeth (Witch, Lady Macduff), moreKristin Wold first trained and acted with Shakespeare & Company in 1987, playing Cobweb in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Abhorson in Measure for Measure. Acting roles with the company since then include Shakespeare’s Will (Anne Hathaway), Julius Caesar (Portia, Calpurnia, Lucius), King Lear (Regan), Dibbledance (Dancer), The Tempest (Ariel), The Memory of Water (Teresa), Sea Marks (Timothea), Othello (Emilia), Ice Glen (Sarah), King Lear (Cordelia), Twelfth Night (Viola), Measure For Measure (Isabella), Berkeley Square (Helen), Macbeth (Witch, Lady Macduff), Romeo and Juliet (Juliet). She has worked extensively in our Education programs. Kristin has been the choreographer and movement director for many of our productions. She has been teaching Movement and Text in our Training programs since 1997. Elsewhere, Kristin teaches acting and movement in the BFA and MFA Acting programs at the University of Connecticut and has directed extensively for Connecticut Repertory Theatre. Recently she collaborated with artists from both Shakespeare & Company and the University of Connecticut to create an original dance theatre piece, Thetis: Immortal Fire. In addition to her lifelong study and immersion in Shakespeare at Shakespeare & Company, Kristin has studied at Burt Reynold’s Jupiter Theatre, Florida State University and with Tadashi Suzuki in Japan. www.kristinwold.com
Dennis Krausnick (1942-2018)

Dennis Krausnick (1942-2018)

Dennis Krausnick was a founder of Shakespeare & Company and served as its Director of Training from 1993 to 2018. Krausnick was central to the creation and development of the Company’s internationally acclaimed actor training programs. He also developed a number of training programs utilizing theater training methods for corporate and other non-theater clientele. Krausnick held an MA from St. Louis University and an MFA in Acting from NYU. As a Master Teacher of text and rhetoric, Krausnick provided residencies and moreDennis Krausnick was a founder of Shakespeare & Company and served as its Director of Training from 1993 to 2018. Krausnick was central to the creation and development of the Company’s internationally acclaimed actor training programs. He also developed a number of training programs utilizing theater training methods for corporate and other non-theater clientele. Krausnick held an MA from St. Louis University and an MFA in Acting from NYU. As a Master Teacher of text and rhetoric, Krausnick provided residencies and workshops for theater companies and university theater departments across the country. As a teacher, director or guest-artist, he worked in theatre training programs across the country including NYU, ACT, Boston University, Emerson College, Wake Forest University, Southern Methodist University, University of Washington, MIT, University of Pittsburgh, University of Tennessee, Chapman University, Bradley University, University of South Carolina and Western Carolina University. As a director, his Shakespeare credits include most of the Shakespeare canon. He also directed the award-winning television special about Edith Wharton, Songs from the Heart. Krausnick adapted the fiction of Edith Wharton and Henry James for the stage creating numerous one-act and full-length plays all of which have been produced one or more times at Shakespeare & Company as well as by other theaters. Krausnick was awarded the 2006 Bingham Chair of Humanities by the University of Louisville in recognition of his accomplishments as a Master Teacher of Shakespeare Performance.

From the Alumni

Teresa Spencer

Teresa Spencer

The most important thing I’ve taken from the Conservatory has been a sense of professionalism. I used to consistently walk into auditions feeling the terror of unpreparedness: even if I’d rehearsed my monologue or sides forwards and backwards, I would arrive at an audition and suddenly feel overtaken with a sense of not knowing what the hell I was doing, moreThe most important thing I’ve taken from the Conservatory has been a sense of professionalism. I used to consistently walk into auditions feeling the terror of unpreparedness: even if I’d rehearsed my monologue or sides forwards and backwards, I would arrive at an audition and suddenly feel overtaken with a sense of not knowing what the hell I was doing, and I’m sure that this came through in my demeanor and performance. Since doing the Conservatory, I’ve noticed a marked difference in my confidence. I know my way around my craft, and this changes everything about an audition situation. My pieces are well chosen and well prepared; I know how to center my breath and body; I walk in feeling relaxed and happy to be there. I feel like I belong in the room, and this significant shift in perspective has made an enormous difference for me professionally. I’m getting twice as many callbacks and jobs (yes, jobs!) as I used to. Since returning from the Conservatory, some of the accomplishments I’ve been most proud of have been a callback for Viola in Twelfth Night at an Equity theatre in Baltimore, the title role in a children’s show with Classika Theater (which I’m rehearsing right now), and an invitation to train for a month with a dance theatre company in Virginia. I’ll also be going back to Massachusetts in July to rehearse and perform two one-acts in the KO Festival. I think the best way to summarize what I learned at the Conservatory is that I went from thinking, ‘I want to be an actor,’ to knowing, ‘I am an actor.’ I feel confident in my abilities, and this changes everything about the way that I pursue work. I have a physical and vocal warm-up that works well for me and that I use to prepare for auditions, rehearsals, and performances. I know now how to prepare and how to keep text fresh and alive once I’ve “nailed it” once. All of this has made the process of auditioning so much less of a mystery… I’d recommend the Conservatory to any young actor who’s serious and passionate.

Maura Matarese

Maura Matarese

I attend at least one workshop at Shakespeare & Company each year as it always allows me an opportunity to grow as actor, to continue to free my actor’s instrument, to meet exciting new artists from around the world, and to spend time in an environment I love, with a faculty whom I deeply respect. moreI attend at least one workshop at Shakespeare & Company each year as it always allows me an opportunity to grow as actor, to continue to free my actor’s instrument, to meet exciting new artists from around the world, and to spend time in an environment I love, with a faculty whom I deeply respect.

Lulu Fogarty

Lulu Fogarty

My experience at the 2007 Summer Training Institute was absolutely priceless….I learned to bring a sense of play to everything I do. Play might be the most important tool for an actor but it’s surprising how quickly we forget to play because we try to be ‘right.’ There is no such thing as ‘right.’ To me, this is what the moreMy experience at the 2007 Summer Training Institute was absolutely priceless….I learned to bring a sense of play to everything I do. Play might be the most important tool for an actor but it’s surprising how quickly we forget to play because we try to be ‘right.’ There is no such thing as ‘right.’ To me, this is what the training at STI is all about. These lessons??"play, trust, and be ‘wrong’??"are the most important tools an actor can ever have….Words cannot express how lucky I feel to have gotten the opportunity to train at S&Co and become part of this community.

Halima Henderson

Halima Henderson

I’ve kept busy over the past year, and I have to say that weekend intensive has proven to be very effective! Everyone always asks about it when they see it on my resume and I love waxing poetically about it! Not only that, friendships that I made during my weekend have been long-lasting, I love running into folks at auditions moreI’ve kept busy over the past year, and I have to say that weekend intensive has proven to be very effective! Everyone always asks about it when they see it on my resume and I love waxing poetically about it! Not only that, friendships that I made during my weekend have been long-lasting, I love running into folks at auditions and have coffee with folks in the city and one friend even helped to book me in my first fully compensated theater job! Those three days were successful in so many ways I hadn’t even planned on!

Jenna Hoff

Jenna Hoff

All of the vocal and physical training we did enabled me to see how much freedom and availability are possible, which raised my expectations of myself. But for the first time I felt that I had the tools to move forward with those expectations. I can hone, clarify and broaden my Shakespeare monologues (and other pieces, too!), and I gained moreAll of the vocal and physical training we did enabled me to see how much freedom and availability are possible, which raised my expectations of myself. But for the first time I felt that I had the tools to move forward with those expectations. I can hone, clarify and broaden my Shakespeare monologues (and other pieces, too!), and I gained so much confidence, which is perhaps the most important thing. People have asked me where I ‘got so good at Shakespeare’ and I happily recommend the training programs at S&Co because I honestly think that they are some of the best training available in this country

Crown

Shakespeare & Company is a professional live theatre company in the heart of the Berkshires, presenting a vibrant summer performance season featuring the works of Shakespeare in repertory with classic and contemporary plays. The Company offers one of the most extensive actor training programs by a regional theatre in the country, and is also home to an award-winning and nationally recognized theatre-in-education program.

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