“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” -Hamlet
(Lenox, MA) – Shakespeare & Company is currently accepting applications for two upcoming Actor Training Workshops in Los Angeles taught by Founding Artistic Director and Master Teacher Tina Packer. First up is the Company’s classic Shakespeare Weekend Intensive (March 29 – 31), followed by a specialized Dropping In Workshop (April 5 – 7). Participants can sign up for the workshops individually or take them together at a discounted rate.
“Teaching Weekend Intensives are exciting, with 12 people immersed in the truth of Shakespeare, seeking for the experience of telling personal truth while inhabiting the psychological insight of a Shakespeare character,” said Master Teacher and Founder Tina Packer. “It’s through his poetic language that we can merge these two levels of reality, and examine more deeply the effect that words have on us and on our audiences.”
Shakespeare & Company’s curriculum is internationally recognized as a deeply effective training experience for actors who aspire to bring their talent, intuition, and spirit to a higher level. The specialized workshops are designed to meet the needs of actors who seek an introduction to Shakespeare & Company’s training methods, pedagogy, and an opportunity to re-awaken and revitalize their relationship to Shakespeare’s text.
“The Weekend Intensives are for an actor what a weekend away at a spa is for a civilian,” said LA Weekend participant Harley Jane Kozak. “These specialized workshops are for actors passionate about Shakespeare, it’s a chance to go deep into the words of the Bard and find their resonance to our personal lives, our relationships, our world.”
During the Dropping In Workshop participants learn Shakespeare & Company’s signature dynamic and visceral rehearsal technique for connecting to the text. The Dropping In exercise was created by Shakespeare & Company’s Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer and is strongly influenced by her 14-year collaboration with Shakespeare & Company co-founder Kristin Linklater.
“Working with Tina Packer and Shakespeare & Company was nothing less than a life changing experience,” said recent training alum, Michael Zelniker. “As a long time actor, director and teacher of Shakespeare, working with Tina has enriched me in ways beyond measure. To the uninitiated, the weekend intensive provides a wonderful opportunity to explore Shakespeare & Company’s unique, deeply affecting approach. It was an experience I will never forget.”
In developing the Dropping In technique, 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.
Artists interested in applying for these upcoming specialized LA workshops, or in further exploring the other Actor Training opportunities at Shakespeare & Company can get more information online at https://shakespeare.org/actor-training or by calling 413-637-1199 x114. Discounts and scholarships are available.
About Tina Packer
Tina Packer is the founding artistic director of Shakespeare & Company. She has directed, acted, and taught both Shakespeare and theater performance at Shakespeare & Company as well as at over thirty colleges around the globe including Harvard, MIT, Columbia and NYU. She is a social entrepreneur, actor, playwright, author and a recipient of the state of Massachusetts’s highest honor, the Commonwealth Award.
About the Center For Actor Training
The very heart of Shakespeare & Company is its professional actor training. The aesthetic of the Company was created within the training devised by Tina Packer and the Master Teachers, and it is through these programs that the aesthetic is continually investigated, redefined, and reinvigorated. Actors, directors, writers, and teachers from all over the world come to work with the Company’s faculty to train not only their voices and their bodies with a daily regimen of demanding classes, but also to delve deeply into their own imaginations, intellects, and emotional lives. Shakespeare & Company’s curriculum is internationally recognized as a deeply effective training experience for actors who aspire to bring their talent, intuition, and spirit to a higher level.
About Shakespeare & Company
Located in the beautiful Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, Shakespeare & Company is one of the leading Shakespeare festivals of the world. Founded in 1978, the organization attracts over 40,000 patrons annually. The Company is also home to an internationally renowned Center for Actor Training and award-winning Education Program. More information is available at www.shakespeare.org.
