Specialized Workshops

All of us, at some point in our childhood, played with the heart, mind, and imagination of a giant. We played with courage and vulnerability, knowing it was play yet believing it was real. We played simply, but with a laser focus; with joy and desperation, investing in desires and fears as big as our fantasies. Shakespeare gives you permission, and the vehicle, to play like that once again.

This workshop offers a unique immersion in Voice, Movement, Clown, and Scene work, that will engage you with Shakespeare in surprisingly meaningful ways. It will challenge you to play with the imagination and freedom necessary to create clear, courageous, and compelling Shakespearean performances. It will inspire and renew in you that gigantic sense of play, and give you the means to make your acting more spontaneous, surprising, and exciting.

Previous Shakespeare training or experience is not a prerequisite to apply.

Morning Sessions will focus on freeing your voice and body in order to build new habits of emotional courage, unlimited imagination, and spontaneity. Over the 6 days, a progression of Linklater Voice work will take you from breath impulse, through the pleasure of vibration, and into the joy of speaking Shakespeare text. Movement work will take you on a journey from poised stillness to ecstatic physical expression. The focus will be on freeing you from physical tensions that inhibit your creative impulses, and give you the means to act with both spontaneity and clarity.

Afternoon Sessions will focus on using a free voice and body to unleash the full size of your imagination and humanity. We’ll begin with Games, move into Comic Play, and end up face-to-face with the Clown, that absurd, funny, sometimes heart-breaking idiot inside you. Combined with the voice and movement work, the Clown work will make you as large as Shakespeare needs you to be, as well as simple, truthful, and unique.

Evening Sessions will focus on short scenes from Shakespeare’s canon, putting the skills and principles gained from voice, movement, and clown into practice. Emphasis will be placed both on using the structure of the verse to enlighten thought and intention, as well as on the qualities of Play necessary to handle the virtuosic shifts in thought and emotion which Shakespeare demands.

DATES: August 27 to September 1, 2019

SCHEDULE: Tuesday, August 27 – 6:30pm to 10pm

Wednesday, August 28 – 10am to 10pm

Thursday, August 29 – 10am to 10pm

Friday, August 30 – 10am to 10pm

Saturday, August 31 – 10am to 10pm

Sunday, September 1 – 10am to 1pm

TUITION: $1,450 USD (includes housing, meals, and one ticket to our production of MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR)

LOCATION: Shakespeare & Company campus in Lenox, MA

INSTRUCTORS: Jane Nichols and Dave Demke

**Union and alumni discounts available**

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Inspired by Tina Packer’s work in researching and performing Women of Will, this acting workshop explores Shakespeare’s relationship to gender by focusing on the language used by female characters. For the workshop, participants will come prepared with a monologue from one of the female characters discussed in Tina’s book, Women of Will.

DATES: September 6 to 8, 2019

SCHEDULE: Friday, 6pm-10pm; Saturday, 10am-6pm; Sunday, 10am-4pm

TUITION: $400 USD

LOCATION: Shakespeare & Company campus in Lenox, MA

HOUSING: Available on on-campus for $35 per night

INSTRUCTOR: Tina Packer

**Union and alumni discounts available**

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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: September 13 to 15, 2019

SCHEDULE: Friday, 7pm-10pm; Saturday, 10am-10pm; Sunday, 10am-4pm

TUITION: $350 USD

LOCATION: Shakespeare & Company campus in Lenox, MA

HOUSING: Available on on-campus for $35 per night

INSTRUCTOR: Michael F. Toomey

**Union and alumni discounts available**

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Shakespeare & Company is returning to NYC for a nine day acting intensive! Join us in our over 40 years of excellence in training actors to perform Shakespeare. We will inspire you to create a performance that is both compelling and accessible to today’s audience.

This workshop is designed to be either an introduction to or a refresher in the Shakespeare & Company approach to unlocking the vitality and power of the Shakespeare text for professional actors. Classes will include work in both Monologues and Scenes as well as Voice and Movement, Personal Connection, Dropping In, Feeding In and our other approaches to revealing the exuberant power of the Shakespeare text.

You know this is the training you’ve always wanted but have never been able to take a full month of rural immersion in Lenox. Do yourself a favor and treat yourself to the passionate connection you deserve!

DATES: TBD

TUITION: $850 USD (union and alumni discounts available)