Upcoming Performances
view allThank you for a successful 2020 season! We are looking forward to sharing our 2021 season with you soon!
For Teachers
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We rely on the generous support of people like you to sustain our tradition of artistic excellence, and secure a bright future for our Company.
The Center for Actor Training 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!
“The best thing about existence is that any moment in time can be a point of beginning to anything! In other words, every moment of our life holds a key for the unknown or the closed doors of new paths!” -- Mehmet Murat Ilda
EMBODYING SHAKESPEARE
A series of virtual mini-workshops that focus on exploration, practice, experience and presence on the stage.
All times listed are U.S. Eastern time, and workshops will be held via Zoom.
Discounts available for alumni, union members, students and to those enrolling in more than one workshop. Combining discounts and/or scholarships is not allowed.
MULTI-WORKSHOP DISCOUNT: $20 off total cost if taking 2 workshops, $35 off for 3 workshops, and $50 off for 4 workshops.
PLEASE NOTE: If you are signing up for more than one workshop, please only complete the application once. The application fee is non-refundable and does not apply towards the tuition.
*The Special Guest sessions are included as part of the tuition for the workshops. They are not open to anyone not enrolled in the workshops, as noted below.
WEEK ONE
SESSION 1
Movement for the Actor: Deepening Physical Awareness
This workshop will draw on a variety of movement approaches for actors that address deepening the relationship to your body and channeling physical and emotional energy into dramatic action.The focus of the first half of each session is on basic physical awareness and freedom of movement. The second half of each session will focus on image-based movement explorations with attention to energy dynamics and expressivity, and developing a more physicalized relationship between the spoken word and the speaking body.
Dates & Schedule: January 5-7, 6pm to 9pm EST
Faculty: Charls Hall, Sarah Hickler
Tuition: $300 USD
SESSION 2
Movement for the Actor: Embodying the Tripartite Soul - SOLD OUT
Participants will have an experiential encounter with the Embodied Tripartite Soul—work Merry has developed to experience the Elizabethan understanding of what motivates and moves human beings. Trish Arnold’s pure movement work will serve as a foundation for these explorations. And a simple Dibble Dance will be taught corresponding with Merry’s work.
Dates & Schedule: January 8-10, 1pm to 4pm EST
Faculty: Susan Dibble, Merry Conway
Tuition: $300 USD
SPECIAL GUEST SESSION (only open to participants of the Movement for the Actor and Embodying the Elizabethan World Picture workshops)
SPECIAL TOPIC: Exploring Heaven and Hell/Sins and Virtues inspired by The Elizabethan World Picture with Merry Conway and Susan Dibble
January 10, 6pm to 8pm EST
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WEEK TWO
Participants will learn how time and form ignite Shakespeare’s verse.
SESSION 1 - SOLD OUT (see added session info below)
Dates & Schedule: January 12-14, 6pm to 9pm EST
Faculty: Tina Packer, Gwendolyn Schwinke, Rory Hammond
Tuition: $300 USD
****We have added an another session of the this workshop on January 7-9 at 6pm to 9pm EST. The teachers will be Tina Packer, Gwendolyn Schwinke, and Rory Hammond.
SESSION 2: Heart & Breath & Feet & Bones
The rhythm of Shakespeare’s verse provides the life force ~ the heartbeat, breath and passion ~ of human experience. The structure of the verse ~ its feet and bones ~ provides a flexible, strong container to hold that passion and chaos, give it form and allow it to be spoken and heard. In this class, you will heighten your instinctive, visceral awareness of the rhythms in nature, your body and in your text. You will experience how the verse structure supports you and unleashes your thoughts, feelings, and ideas. Come play!
Dates & Schedule: January 15-17, 1pm to 4pm EST
Faculty: Kristin Wold, Corinna May
Tuition: $300 USD
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WEEK THREE
This workshop will include Michael Toomey's witty games and exercises that give the actor a taste of the joy of "play" while exploring the humor and rhythm that is alive in Shakespeare’s plays. Susan Dibble will teach simple and lively dances that are based on the Elizabethan Jig.
SESSION 1
Dates & Schedule: January 19-21, 6pm to 9pm EST
Faculty: Susan Dibble, Michael Toomey
Tuition: $300 USD
Discover creating Presence in the moments of Shakespeare’s language.
SESSION 1
Dates & Schedule: January 22-24, 1pm to 4pm EST
Faculty: Andrew Borthwick-Leslie, Tori Rhoades
Tuition: $300 USD
SPECIAL GUEST SESSION (only open to participants of any of the Embodying Shakespeare workshops)
Please join Interim Director Susan Dibble in a conversation with Natsuko Ohama. Natsuko is one of Shakespeare & Company's founding members and permanent faculty member for The Center for Actor Training. She will share her stories, wisdom, and discoveries from her experience as an actress and renowned Linklater voice teacher.
January 24, 6pm to 7:30pm EST
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This four part series offers an overview of the Classical Progression of Linklater Voice work. The series explores such topics as physical awareness, breath, touch of sound, gathering vibration, freeing the channel, capacity, range, resonators and articulation. The work will provide the foundation for an effortless integration of thought, sound, physicality and feeling, so that we hear YOU, through your voice.
The series will provide a refresher for those who are familiar with the work and an introduction for those who are not.
SCHEDULE: January 4, 11, 18, 25 at 1pm to 3pm EST
TUITION: $200 USD
FACULTY: Ariel Bock
Join Designated Linklater Voice teacher Dave Demke and Master Clown teacher Jane Nichols for some rigorous fun and transcendent language.
Three consecutive weekends and mid-week scene work. BREATHE, PLAY, DARE your way into the full size of your Body, Mind and Heart.
Shakespeare’s poetic wisdom meets the Clown’s poetic soul. It's a riot!
SCHEDULE: January 30 to February 14
Saturdays and Sundays, 12pm-7pm EST
Wednesdays and Fridays, individually scheduled scene work
TUITION: $525 USD
FACULTY: Jane Nichols, Dave Demke
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. more
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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.