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Upcoming Performances
May 26 – July 30, 2023
July 22 – August 27, 2023
August 01 – September 10, 2023Menu
In-Person Specialized Workshops
programme Dates
January 3 to 29, 2023
Arrival: Monday, January 2 Departure: Monday, January 30
Tuition Fees
$4,875 USD
Early payment discount: Pay the full tuition by October 15 and save $600.
The Center for Actor Training typically offers a variety of specialized workshops throughout the year exploring a full range of disciplines including rhetoric, wit, clown, fight, voice, movement, public speaking, and more. Go here details on our online programming.
PLEASE NOTE: For all in-person workshops, all participants and workshop staff are required to have completed a COVID-19 vaccine regimen (including a booster shot) and will be tested on-site for COVID-19.
Hamlet & You: The Soliloquies
Hamlet was written five hundred years ago, at a time when England was faced with huge moral issues, very like the ones we are grappling with today. There is no greater example of a play which examines an individual’s dilemma when the rules that society has lived by for centuries are changing! The soliloquies are nuanced and powerful maps that offer us choices when facing our greatest dilemmas. Our workshop over two days will focus on individual and ensemble work with six of Hamlet’s soliloquies. Through voice work, examining the actor/audience relationship and the deep meaning of words, each actor will get to explore the profound questions Hamlet asks of the audience and himself.
DATES: July 22 and 23, 2023 – SOLD OUT
*NEW SESSION ADDED: August 12 and 13, 2023
SCHEDULE: Saturday – 10 am to 5 pm, Sunday 10 am to 1 pm
TUITION: $385 USD
LOCATION: Shakespeare & Company, Lenox Mass.
HOUSING: Limited number of rooms available on campus for $65 per night
TEACHERS: Tina Packer (she/her) and Normi Noel (she/her)
Click here to apply.
Scholarships available for People of the Global Majority/BIPOC artists. Alumni and union discounts also available.
9-Day Intensive
Inspired by the content of our signature Month-long Intensive, this workshop is a deep dive into acting Shakespeare for mid-career professionals during the height of our summer season. Immerse yourself in Shakespeare’s language and aesthetics with daily classes in Linklater Voice, Movement, Text, Structure of the Verse, Sonnet and Play – all on our beautiful Berkshires campus. Suitable for actors, teachers, directors, and professors, this intensive is an opportunity for professional and artistic development. Schedule and tuition includes admission to all three current shows and an evening off to enjoy some of the cultural offerings of the larger Berkshires community.
DATES: August 24 to September 2, 2023
SCHEDULE: 10am to 10pm each day
TUITION: $1,495 USD**
LOCATION: Shakespeare & Company, Lenox MA
HOUSING: Double occupancy dorm rooms available for $300, single occupancy dorm rooms available for $450
FACULTY: Sheila Bandyopadhyay (she/her), Andrew Borthwick-Leslie (he/him), Ariel Bock (she/her), Michael F. Toomey (he/him), Ted Hewlett (he/him) and other teachers TBD
Partial scholarships available as well as alumni and union discounts.
**Early payment discount: Pay by July 1st and save $200.
Click here to apply.
Tuning Your Instrument
Just as a musician needs to tune their instrument, an actor must tune their body and voice. This two-day special workshop is a deep dive into Linklater Voice and Pure Movement practices to help you strengthen the connection to your instrument, and to develop an open channel for breath, sound and physical expression. This workshop is a great addition for those taking our Lenox weekend Intensive and a way for those familiar with the voice and body work to revisit the practices. All levels welcome.
DATES: October 19 & 20, 2023
SCHEDULE: 10am to 4pm each day
TUITION: $200 USD**
LOCATION: Shakespeare & Company, Lenox MA
HOUSING: Single occupancy dorm rooms available for $45 per night
FACULTY: Sheila Bandyopadhyay (she/her) and Ariel Bock (she/her)
**Discounted tuition of $150 available for those also registered for the Lenox Weekend Intensive on October 20-22.
Scholarships available for People of the Global Majority/BIPOC artists.
Click here to apply.
Cultivating Your Instrument: Butoh for Actors
All the World's a Playground
During this weekend workshop you will experience and explore the avant-garde Japanese art form Butoh as a way of re-imagining Shakespeare texts. You will experience a new, deeply emotional, psycho-physical response to your own life and the texts, as you explore the infinite possibilities of your own instruments: body, mind, emotions, energy, and spirit. Our goal is to give those instruments free expression within a playful, creative space. This training will serve you as an actor or non-actor to live fully, not only on stage, but also in daily life.
No previous experience with Butoh is needed, just curiosity and an open mind!
DATES: November 4 and 5, 2023
SCHEDULE: 10am to 6pm each day
TUITION: $385 USD
LOCATION: Shakespeare & Company, Lenox MA
HOUSING: Single occupancy dorm rooms available for $45 per night
TEACHER: Yokko (she/he/they)
Click here to apply.
Scholarships available for People of the Global Majority/BIPOC artists. Alumni and union discounts also available.
Course Gallery
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You will study...
.01 Linklater Voice
The full progression of Kristin Linklater’s approach to voice training for actors is taught during the four weeks by Designated Linklater voice teachers. In addition to daily classes in Linklater, voice teachers regularly join in text classes and offer specialized classes to help participants integrate the voice work into their scenes.
.02 Movement
The movement progression includes Pure Movement (Swings), Alexander Technique, physical expressivity, and dance. Participants will be guided through exercises to promote awareness of (and release from) habitual body tension, sensitivity to impulse, dynamic physical presence and stamina, delight in moving with passion and precision, and ensemble.
.03 Text Work
Basics introduces the actor to a text approach which demands an open and personal commitment to thought, word, and gesture. Basics evolves into scene work, first through Dropping In (an approach to experiencing the text on a word-by-word basis) and into text analysis and detailed scene work. Classes in Sonnet and Structure of the Verse round out the text progression, allowing actors to merge their personal connection with the form of Shakespeare’s language.
.04 Actor/Audience Relationship
The participant is invited to explore the Elizabethan world of Actor/Audience Relationship—a theatrical reality without a fourth wall, in which the immediate energy of the audience fuels the actor to reveal a deeper level of truth and experience, which in turns enkindles the audience’s ability to receive Shakespeare’s language.
.05 Clown & Stage Fight
The participant is invited to explore the Elizabethan world of Actor/Audience Relationship—a theatrical reality without a fourth wall, in which the immediate energy of the audience fuels the actor to reveal a deeper level of truth and experience, which in turns enkindles the audience’s ability to receive Shakespeare’s language.
Tuition
A limited number of scholarships are available for People of the Global Majority/BIPOC artists from the Dennis Krausnick Fellowship Fund. Contact us for more information.
You will learn:
- A deeper connection of the body and voice when acting on stage
- Confidence to be fully present on stage when speaking Shakespeare's language
- An understanding of the forms and structures that support the actor’s emotional, visceral and cognitive imagination
- The skills necessary to authentically deliver Shakespeare’s language with accuracy, specificity, and clarity of thought
- A renewed trust in yourself as a theatre artist
