FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Rohnert Park, Calif. – Shakespeare & Company’s Center for Actor Training will bring Voice, Body, Being: Making Contemporary Connections to Shakespeare to Sonoma State University Friday, Jan. 28 through Sunday, Jan. 30.
This workshop will focus on the characters and circumstances of The Tempest, a play that deals with power and authority, colonialism, family loyalty, and forgiveness. Students will learn to free their breath to connect to the heightened emotional and psychic state of Shakespeare’s characters, address physical habits that inhibit voice and physical expressivity, strengthen physical presence, vary resonance to find new meaning in the text, and embody imagery through freedom of movement.
The workshop is designed to help students discover new ways to connect with Shakespeare’s text by finding and fostering personal connections and will include monologue work and Linklater voice work.
To prepare, students are asked to read The Tempest and to memorize any monologue of 10-20 verse lines to work with from the play. Students may work with any monologue they feel connected to, regardless of the character’s age or gender identity. Faculty will be Sheila Bandyopadhyay and Marie Ramirez Downing, and sessions will meet Friday, 6 p.m. – 10 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., and Sunday, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Tuition is $400; actors who have completed the Center for Actor Training’s Month-Long Intensive, Summer Shakespeare Intensive (formerly the Summer Training Institute), or Conservatory programs are eligible for a 15% tuition discount. Members of acting unions and the Shakespeare Theatre Association receive a 10% discount. Scholarships are also available for BIPOC participants. All participants are required to have completed a COVID-19 vaccine regimen and will be tested on the first day for COVID-19. Masks will also be required during the workshop. To apply, visit shakespeare.org, or call (413) 637-1199, ext. 114 for more information.
Photo Caption: Sheila Bandyopadhyay and Marie Ramirez Downing will lead Voice, Body, Being: Making Contemporary Connections to Shakespeare at Sonoma State University Friday, Jan. 28 through Sunday, Jan. 30.
About the Center for Actor Training
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. Through the Center for Actor Training, actors, directors, writers, and teachers from all over the world come to work with the Company’s faculty to train their voices and their bodies with a daily regimen of demanding classes, and to delve deeply into their own imaginations, intellects, and emotional lives. If you are interested in bringing a Weekend Intensive to your city, theater company, or university, contact us.
