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Upcoming Performances
September 15 – October 22, 2023
November 1 – 4, 2023Menu
In-person Specialized Workshops
programme Dates
January 3 to 29, 2023
Arrival: Monday, January 2 Departure: Monday, January 30
Tuition Fees
$4,875 USD
Early payment discount: Pay the full tuition by October 15 and save $600.
The Center for Actor Training typically offers a variety of specialized workshops throughout the year exploring a full range of disciplines including rhetoric, wit, clown, fight, voice, movement, public speaking, and more. Go here details on our online programming.
PLEASE NOTE: For all in-person workshops, all participants and workshop staff are required to have completed a COVID-19 vaccine regimen (including a booster shot) and will be tested on-site for COVID-19.
The Game of Shakespeare
Explore Scene Work Through Play
Actors often get notes to “have fun” or be more playful, but how exactly can those goals be met? What does it mean to be playful in a Shakespeare role? How can we increase our ability to have a playful relationship to ourselves and our acting partners? This course is an opportunity to enhance your personal connection to Shakespeare’s text through play while exploring a Shakespeare scene. Drawing on the instructors’ collective experience in physical theater, movement studies and clown as well as Shakespeare, this six-week class will focus on process and “finding the game” of the scene. Participants will be introduced to exercises that support embodied language and physical impulse and provoke their unique connection to Play.
DATES: October 2 to November 6, 2023
SCHEDULE: Mondays, 7 pm to 10 pm
TUITION: $425 USD
LOCATION: New York City, Midtown
FACULTY: Sheila Bandyopadhyay (she/her) and Michael F. Toomey (he/him)
Click here to apply.
Scholarships available for People of the Global Majority/BIPOC artists. Alumni and union discounts also available.
DISCOUNT AVAILABLE: If you also sign up for the NYC Weekend Intensive on September 29 to October 1, save $60 off this workshop’s tuition. Register for Weekend Intensive here.
9-Day Intensive
Inspired by the content of our signature Month-long Intensive, this workshop is a deep dive into acting Shakespeare for mid-career professionals during the height of our summer season. Immerse yourself in Shakespeare’s language and aesthetics with daily classes in Linklater Voice, Movement, Text, Structure of the Verse, Sonnet and Play – all on our beautiful Berkshires campus. Suitable for actors, teachers, directors, and professors, this intensive is an opportunity for professional and artistic development. Schedule and tuition includes admission to all three current shows and an evening off to enjoy some of the cultural offerings of the larger Berkshires community.
DATES: August 24 to September 2, 2023
SCHEDULE: 10 am to 10 pm each day
TUITION: $1,495 USD**
LOCATION: Shakespeare & Company, Lenox Mass.
HOUSING: Double occupancy dorm rooms available for $300, single occupancy dorm rooms available for $450
FACULTY: Sheila Bandyopadhyay (she/her), Andrew Borthwick-Leslie (he/him), Ariel Bock (she/her), Kristen Moriarty (she/her), Michael Hammond (he/him), Michael F. Toomey (he/him), Ted Hewlett (he/him).
Partial scholarships available as well as alumni and union discounts.
**Early payment discount: Pay by July 1st and save $200.
Click here to apply.
The Art of the Audition
Have a Shakespeare audition coming up and want to feel more prepared? Actors know that auditions are a specific skill in themselves, and that having a strong audition is half the battle to getting that job. Whether you want to dust off an old piece, have a new Shakespeare audition speech you’d like to hone, or even if you have never auditioned with a Shakespeare text before, this workshop is for you. Come spend two days with Shakespeare & Company Artistic Director Allyn Burrows and a group of fellow actors to craft your next Shakespeare audition. This workshop will include practical feedback on your own work and valuable insight into the business of casting.
DATES: October 7 & 8, 2023
SCHEDULE: 10am to 6pm each day
TUITION: $385 USD**
LOCATION: Shakespeare & Company, Lenox MA
HOUSING: Single occupancy dorm rooms available for $50 per night
INSTRUCTOR: Allyn Burrows (he/him)
Scholarships available for People of the Global Majority/BIPOC artists. Alumni and union discounts also available.
Click here to apply.
Tuning Your Instrument
Just as a musician needs to tune their instrument, an actor must tune their body and voice. This two-day special workshop is a deep dive into Linklater Voice and Pure Movement practices to help you strengthen the connection to your instrument, and to develop an open channel for breath, sound and physical expression. This workshop is a great addition for those taking our Lenox weekend Intensive and a way for those familiar with the voice and body work to revisit the practices. All levels welcome.
DATES: October 19 & 20, 2023
SCHEDULE: 10:30 am to 4:30 pm each day
TUITION: $200 USD**
LOCATION: Shakespeare & Company, Lenox Mass.
HOUSING: Single occupancy dorm rooms available for $50 per night
FACULTY: Sheila Bandyopadhyay (she/her) and Ariel Bock (she/her)
**Discounted tuition of $150 available for those also registered for the Lenox Weekend Intensive on October 20-22.
Scholarships available for People of the Global Majority/BIPOC artists.
Click here to apply.
Cultivating Your Instrument: Butoh for Actors
All the World's a Playground
During this weekend workshop you will experience and explore the avant-garde Japanese art form Butoh as a way of re-imagining Shakespeare texts. You will experience a new, deeply emotional, psycho-physical response to your own life and the texts, as you explore the infinite possibilities of your own instruments: body, mind, emotions, energy, and spirit. Our goal is to give those instruments free expression within a playful, creative space. This training will serve you as an actor or non-actor to live fully, not only on stage, but also in daily life.
No previous experience with Butoh is needed, just curiosity and an open mind!
DATES: November 4 & 5, 2023
SCHEDULE: 10am to 6pm each day
TUITION: $385 USD
LOCATION: Shakespeare & Company, Lenox MA
HOUSING: Single occupancy dorm rooms available for $50 per night
TEACHER: Yokko (she/he/they)
Click here to apply.
Scholarships available for People of the Global Majority/BIPOC artists. Alumni and union discounts also available.
Clowning for Actors
An exploration of Glorious Failures and Epic Imbalances. Being funny is not a requirement.
Throughout history, the Clown has played a vital role in our communities. Cross-culturally, the Clown has been looked to in order to reveal what is most human about us all and asks us to laugh about it. In these three days, actors will explore what is most human about themselves–revealing it and celebrating it publicly. This is a workshop in Clowning, an exploration of the Red Nose, Play, Complicity and how each of these are vital to the actor’s training.
DATES: December 1 – 3, 2023
SCHEDULE: Friday, 7 pm to 10 pm; Saturday, 10 am to 7 pm; Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm
TUITION: $385 USD
LOCATION: Shakespeare & Company, Lenox Mass.
HOUSING: Single occupancy dorm rooms available for $50 per night
TEACHER: Michael F. Toomey (he/him)
Click here to apply.
Scholarships available for People of the Global Majority/BIPOC artists. Alumni and union discounts also available.
Course Gallery
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You will study...
.01 Linklater Voice
The full progression of Kristin Linklater’s approach to voice training for actors is taught during the four weeks by Designated Linklater voice teachers. In addition to daily classes in Linklater, voice teachers regularly join in text classes and offer specialized classes to help participants integrate the voice work into their scenes.
.02 Movement
The movement progression includes Pure Movement (Swings), Alexander Technique, physical expressivity, and dance. Participants will be guided through exercises to promote awareness of (and release from) habitual body tension, sensitivity to impulse, dynamic physical presence and stamina, delight in moving with passion and precision, and ensemble.
.03 Text Work
Basics introduces the actor to a text approach which demands an open and personal commitment to thought, word, and gesture. Basics evolves into scene work, first through Dropping In (an approach to experiencing the text on a word-by-word basis) and into text analysis and detailed scene work. Classes in Sonnet and Structure of the Verse round out the text progression, allowing actors to merge their personal connection with the form of Shakespeare’s language.
.04 Actor/Audience Relationship
The participant is invited to explore the Elizabethan world of Actor/Audience Relationship—a theatrical reality without a fourth wall, in which the immediate energy of the audience fuels the actor to reveal a deeper level of truth and experience, which in turns enkindles the audience’s ability to receive Shakespeare’s language.
.05 Clown & Stage Fight
The participant is invited to explore the Elizabethan world of Actor/Audience Relationship—a theatrical reality without a fourth wall, in which the immediate energy of the audience fuels the actor to reveal a deeper level of truth and experience, which in turns enkindles the audience’s ability to receive Shakespeare’s language.
Tuition
A limited number of scholarships are available for People of the Global Majority/BIPOC artists from the Dennis Krausnick Fellowship Fund. Contact us for more information.
You will learn:
- A deeper connection of the body and voice when acting on stage
- Confidence to be fully present on stage when speaking Shakespeare's language
- An understanding of the forms and structures that support the actor’s emotional, visceral and cognitive imagination
- The skills necessary to authentically deliver Shakespeare’s language with accuracy, specificity, and clarity of thought
- A renewed trust in yourself as a theatre artist
