Boston, Mass. – Shakespeare & Company’s Center for Actor Training will hold a Weekend Intensive Friday, March 3 through Sunday, March 5.
Designed to meet the needs of professional actors and theater students seeking an introduction to Shakespeare & Company’s training methods, as well as alumni who wish to refresh and reconnect with the work, the intensive will be led by Shakespeare & Company’s Director of Training Sheila Bandyopadhyay (she/her) and long-time faculty member Andrew Borthwick-Leslie (he/him).
Shakespeare & Company’s Center for Actor Training’s Weekend Intensives integrate voice, movement, and monologue work, beginning with an introduction to Shakespeare & Company’s aesthetic and a series of exercises involving voice, body, and memory work. The workshops then move on to hone in on the actor’s individual voice and experiences, which are incorporated into a monologue that the actor has prepared for the class and culminates with the actors reconnecting with Shakespeare’s text, revisiting their monologues, and exploring how the structure of the verse might influence character and performance.
The Boston Weekend Intensive’s schedule is Friday, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday, 12 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. – the cost is $385. 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.
To apply, visit shakespeare.org, or call (413) 637-1199, ext. 114.
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.
To bring a Weekend Intensive to your city, theater company, or university, contact us.
Faculty Bios
Sheila Bandyopadhyay is the Director of Training for Shakespeare & Company, leading its Center for Actor Training. A director, deviser, movement specialist, Alexander Technique and yoga teacher, Bandyopadhyay has been part of the faculty at Shakespeare & Company since 2007. Her Movement Direction credits include Macbeth (The Humanist Project); Mother Courage and her Children, The Cherry Orchard (American Academy of Dramatic Arts Company); Hamlet, Measure for Measure (NYU Gallatin), and Twelfth Night (FSU Conservatory/Asolo Rep). She has directed shows in New York at the Brick, the United Solo Festival (Theater Row), the Tank, the Women in Theater Festival (the Gural), the West End Theater, and the 72nd St Theater Lab. Bandyopadhyay’s favorite roles include Stephano in The Tempest (Stages on the Sound), Tamora in Titus Andronicus (The Humanist Project) and Bianca/Grumio in The Taming of the Shrew (Tempest Ladies). She is a proud member of the Humanist Project and a sponsored artist with Leviathan Lab.
Andrew Borthwick-Leslie is a Shakespeare & Company Artist who has taught, directed, and acted with the Company for more than 20 years. He is also the Co-Artistic Director of The Humanist Project in New York, N.Y., and has taught acting and voice at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, Emerson College, DeSales University, and the University of Maryland among others. Borthwick-Leslie 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 with more than 50 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.
COVID Safety Guidelines
All workshop participants and staff must be vaccinated against COVID-19 (including a booster shot) and will be tested on the first day of the workshop. Masks are not currently required, but this is subject to change depending on the recommendation of our COVID Safety Officer.
Photo Caption: Conrad Solomons as Benedick, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING IV.i. Final Scenes. 2019 Summer Training Institute. June 23, 2019. Photo by Zachary DeSilva.
