“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” -Hamlet
(Lenox, MA) – Shakespeare & Company is currently accepting applications for a nine day Actor Training Workshop in New York City led by four of the Company’s senior faculty, including Andrew Borthwick-Leslie, Dave Demke, Corinna May, and Bob Wicks with a special masterclass event by Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer. Shakespeare & Company invites actors to join the Company’s 40 years of excellence in training actors to perform Shakespeare. The workshop will inspire theatre artists to create a performance that is both compelling and accessible to today’s audience. The workshop will be held in Mid-town Manhattan from May 3 to 12, 2019.
“For over forty years Shakespeare & Company faculty have been inspiring actors to bring a deeper connection and a nuanced clarity to their classical acting,” said Andrew Borthwick-Leslie. “Up until recently, the only way to experience more than a few days of this training has been to travel to New England. We are now offering our third nine-day acting intensive in New York, allowing busy urban artists to dive into our unique methods. This workshop will focus on bringing authenticity, clarity, and intensity to text and scenes from Julius Caesar and As You Like It. We are excited to employ the unique rhythms and energies of the city to the worlds of these plays.”
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. 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.
“This Intensive is one hell of a ride,” said Actress and recent Alumna Jennifer Marinelli. “It made me fall in love with Shakespeare all over again and allowed me to discover layers of myself that I didn’t even know existed. The Intensive dipped my toes into techniques that allow me to be a more open, honest, feeling actor.”
During the workshop participants are exposed to Shakespeare & Company’s signature dynamic and visceral rehearsal techniques for connecting to the text. In developing these techniques, Founding Artistic Director Tina 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.
Artists interested in applying for the upcoming NYC workshop, or in exploring 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 Andrew Borthwick-Leslie
Andrew Borthwick-Leslie is a member of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA, where he has taught, directed, and acted for twenty years. He is also the co-Artistic Director of The Humanist Project in NYC. He has taught acting and voice at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, Emerson College, DeSales University and the University of Maryland among others. Andrew has run workshops for the Center for Renaissance Studies, the American Bar Association, the New England Homeless Veterans shelter and many more. He has directed, devised, or assisted on over fifty productions—from Cymbeline to Perestroika. Most recently he directed Love’s Labour’s Lost and Merchant of Venice for the Shakespeare Forum at the Gym at Judson in Washington Square, Macbeth and Frances Goes to War for The Humanist Project, and Double Falsehood for the Letter of Marque Theater Company. He lives happily in Brooklyn.
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.
