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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.
Specialized Workshops
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!
Shakespeare Scene Study Class
Dive into scene work, focusing on characters and scenes from Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet and Julius Caesar. Through Linklater Voice, monologue, and scene work, participants will explore ways to unlock the emotional and intellectual content inherent in Shakespeare's language, yielding a direct relationship between actor and text.
Don't miss this opportunity to PRACTICE your craft, STUDY Shakespeare's text, ENERGIZE your work, and get more CONNECTED to your breath and your body!
DATES: March 11 to April 29, 2019
SCHEDULE: Mondays, 5:30pm to 8:30pm
TUITION: $400 (alumni, student and union discounts available)
LOCATION: Shakespeare & Company campus in Lenox, MA
INSTRUCTORS: Tina Packer, Martin Jason Asprey, Jenna May Cass, Rory Hammond
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Shakespeare & Gender Workshop with Tina Packer (in NYC)
Does Gender Matter?
Through discussion and monologue work this workshop will explore:
- Gender stereotypes in the modern age
- What insights actors of different genders bring to the great roles
- The contribution theatre can make to gender conversations
- How playing another gender can deepen our understanding of our own identity and those of our fellow human beings
Every participant will arrive with two speeches, not of the same gender. We will work on them from many points of view and discuss how each manifests itself, both in the psyche and in the body. Come play a role you never knew you could!
DATES: March 15 to 17, 2019
TUITION: $425 USD (union and alumni discounts available)
SCHEDULE: Friday, 7pm-10pm; Saturday, 10am-6pm; Sunday, 10am-4pm
LOCATION: Mid-town Manhattan, NYC
INSTRUCTOR: Tina Packer and other faculty members TDB
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Shakespeare's Sonnets: An Actor's Workout
The best actor workout for engaging the soul, the body, and the intellect!
During this workshop, we will explore the exciting, elegant, messy, emotionally/rhetorically acrobatic genius of Shakespeare's Sonnets. Paying attention to both form and content, this workshop will require and attend to the full artist self. We will work on engaging personal connection to the text, and the vulnerability of revealing that, as well as rigorously investigating the structure of Shakespeare's complex and layered verse. If you haven't spoken Shakespeare text in awhile, this is a great way to get back in touch. It is also an excellent workout for those who work on Shakespeare often and wish to refine their toolkit.
DATES: March 29 to 31, 2019
TUITION: $350 USD (union and alumni discounts available)
SCHEDULE: Friday, 7pm-10pm; Saturday, 10am-6pm; Sunday, 10am-4pm
LOCATION: Shakespeare & Company campus in Lenox, MA
HOUSING: $35 per night
INSTRUCTOR: Jenna May Cass
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Dropping In Workshop (in Los Angeles)
Learn Shakespeare & Company's signature dynamic and visceral rehearsal technique for connecting to the text.
An exercise created by Shakespeare & Company's Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer and strongly influenced by her 14-year collaboration with Shakespeare & Company co-founder Kristin Linklater, Dropping In and its follow-up exercises of Standing Up and Feeding In allow the actor to connect to the depths of the text.
Packer's initial impetus was inspired by a desire to allow the spoken text to have a greater resonance and a deeper reverberation in the psyches of both performer and audience. It can also be used to create a dynamic and visceral alternative to traditional table work. The process reactivates the natural imaging processes of the brain and allows the craft of memorization to become an easier, more creative and regenerative task.
PARTICIPANTS WILL:
- Gain a working knowledge of Dropping In techniques
- Experience the techniques as both actor and facilitator
- Train to use Dropping In and to adapt it for their own rehearsal work
This workshop will be especially useful for actors or directors involved in the creation of High School, University, or Professional productions of Shakespeare’s plays.
DATES: April 5 to 7, 2019
TUITION: $375 USD (union and alumni discounts available)
SCHEDULE: Friday, 7pm-10pm; Saturday, 10am-7pm; Sunday, 10am-4pm
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
INSTRUCTORS: Tina Packer and other faculty members TDB
**SPECIAL DISCOUNT: Receive $50 off the total tuition if you sign up for this workshop and the LA Weekend Intensive on March 29-30. Please note: discounts cannot be combined.**
From the Alumni
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. 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.