User Icon Login

Shakespeare as Performance

Acting – even understanding – Shakespeare’s texts can be extremely challenging. However, Shakespeare wrote his plays so that his actors could use his language to connect to and communicate in an immediate way with the audience. And, he wanted his actors to have an easy way in.

This new six-part workshop, involving scene work with actors, is geared towards developing a rich toolbox for actors and directors, and making the language, action, and characters, completely accessible to all, who work with, or simply read and enjoy Shakespeare’s writing.

The Secret $50
1. The Secret: unlocking the text

We look at a set of keys that can be employed to unlock the text. We will see that the “secret” to performing and understanding Shakespeare was never meant to be a secret.

30 min
$50 Buy Now
Class 02 $50
2. Signaling the Actor: Technique

Through exploring a sonnet, we focus on the various writing "Techniques" Shakespeare uses, to signal performance opportunities to the actor.

30 min
$50 Buy Now
Class 03 $50
3. One on One: Choruses, Prologues, and Epilogues

We look at the primary relationship in the plays, between the actor/storyteller and the audience.

30 min
$50 Buy Now
Class 04 $50
4. No Man Is an Island: Soliloquy

We look at the particularly intimate relationship between the actor, as a character in the play, and the audience.

30 min
$50 Buy Now
Class 05 $50
5. Action, Reaction, and Transaction: Dialogue

We examine how the text propels the actors through action and reaction to “transact” a scene, and the triangular relationship between, actor, actor, and audience.

30 min
$50 Buy Now
Class 06 $50
6. Conclusion: working on your own

Summarizing the process of working on Shakespearea’s text.

30 min
$50 Buy Now

Meet your teacher

The Workshop is led by Peter Francis James, a two-time Obie award winner, as well as Drama Desk and Lortel awarded actor. He has worked with co-founders of the RSC, Peter Hall (as Oberon in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”), and with John Barton in workshops in New York and Oxford.

He is a native of the south side of Chicago, and a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London. From 2000 to 2020, Peter was the resident acting teacher, for Shakespeare, at the Yale School of Drama.

Pricing

Instead of $300, get a three-year access to the entire workshop for only:
$199
BUY
We offer a 14-day risk free purchase guarantee. Get a full refund if you are not 100% satisfied with your purchase.
BUY

or the entire anthology, financial aid is available for those in need – please leave your information below, and we’ll contact you with our financial aid request form.

Buy the complete Anthology

For a limited time only: Fill out your information below to get a 20% off discount code emailed directly to your inbox. Use it when the anthology launches in early 2022!