(Lenox, MA) – Shakespeare & Company’s Education Program announces auditions and interviews for its 2020 Northeast Regional Tour of Shakespeare. Auditions will be held next month on October 5 – 7 on the Company’s Lenox campus on 70 Kemble Street. The 2020 Tour will bring two Shakespeare productions, Macbeth and The Comedy of Errors, to over 20,000 students at schools and community centers throughout the Northeast.
The Company seeks six Actor/Teaching Artists for our twenty-two-week non-Equity touring contract. The 2020 Tour will include Macbeth, directed by Kelly Galvin, and The Comedy of Errors directed by Michael Toomey. Each will be presented in a 90-minute format by the same cast of six actors, most of whom will play multiple roles in each production (doubling subject to final casting). In addition to the performances, the Actor/Teaching Artists will be responsible for leading 15-minute moderated talkbacks following each performance and 45-minute educational workshops in the schools before or after the show. All Actor/Teaching Artists will also be responsible for stage management duties, which will include but are not limited to assisting with lights, sound, sets, costumes, and props while on the road, driving to and from bookings, and some administrative tasks.
“I’m excited to be directing again for Shakespeare & Company’s Northeast Regional Tour—and to have the chance to reckon with the captivating and terrifying Macbeth,” said Director Kelly Galvin. “Shakespeare’s plays are subversive and funny, thoughtful and physical, expressive and confrontational—the opportunity to live within them for five months is invaluable to any artist longing for a deeper experience of Shakespeare in performance. Bringing these stories alive for students—who are some of the most honest, authentic audiences I’ve ever encountered—is the icing on the cake.”
“We’re looking for actors with a lot of wit, humor, and compassion,” added Comedy of Errors Director Michael Toomey. “The tour teaches the actor the craft of maintaining a performance over a long run.”
These fully produced performances emphasize Shakespeare’s language, dramatic action, the vital relationship between the actors and the audience, and always include a talk back with the audience. Interested Actor/Teaching Artists should prepare two contrasting monologues from any of Shakespeare’s plays (any character), each no longer than two minutes in length; in addition to providing a headshot, acting resume, and if available a teaching resume. Please sign up for an audition time here or for more information contact Brittney Holland, Tour Coordinator, at northeastregionaltour@gmail.com. Arrangements for video submissions can also be made for Artists who are unable make the Lenox auditions. Shakespeare & Company is an E.O.E. and encourages people of all backgrounds, identities, and ethnicities to audition. This is a non-Equity contract, and member of Actors’ Equity Association cannot be considered.
“The tour has taught me more about myself as a performer, a collaborator and simply as a human than I could have imagined,” said 2019 Tour Actor Kirsten Peacock. “When do we get the opportunity to work on a show, or two in this case, with one group of actors for 9 months? And the audiences we perform for, and their responses to the show, are so varied, it’s never the same show twice. On top of that, the educational component that is integrated into our work deepens and expands the work we do. It encourages us to really engage with the students we work with: to play, to explore, to enjoy Shakespeare’s language and stories, in essence, to learn with them. In short, the tour is the most challenging and rewarding work I’ve ever experienced. If you can, do it.”
To book the Tour in your community or for more general information click here. For more information about the Tour contract and the audition process click here.
Shakespeare & Company’s Education Programs are made possible, in part, with funding from Arts Midwest, the Dr. Robert C. and Tina Sohn Foundation, the Cornelia P. Bailey Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Council (a state agency) YouthReach, The Feigenbaum Foundation, The Charles H. Hall Foundation, Julia Querin and Sing Your Song, Inc., and the Local Cultural Councils—supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council—of Lee, Lenox, New Marlborough, Northern Berkshire, Pittsfield, Richmond, Sheffield, Springfield, Stockbridge, and Tyringham; as well as many other families, individuals, and local businesses.
Northeast Regional Tour Photos
About Shakespeare & Company’s Education Program
The Education Program at Shakespeare & Company is one of the most extensive theatre-in-education programs in the Northeast, and has reached over a million students since 1978 with innovative performances, workshops, and residencies. Guided by Founder and Education Director Kevin G. Coleman and Jennie M. Jadow, the Education Programs Manager, the artists, teachers, and directors of the Education Program continue to develop and refine programs for elementary, middle, and high school students and teachers across the country.
About Shakespeare & Company
Located in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, Shakespeare & Company is one of the largest Shakespeare Festivals in the country. Founded in 1978, the organization attracts over 40,000 patrons annually. The Company is also home to Shakespeare & Company’s internationally renowned Center for Actor Training and nationally renowned and award-winning Education Program. More information is available at www.shakespeare.org.
