NEW YORK, N.Y. – Shakespeare & Company’s Center for Actor Training has announced it will hold a five-day Shakespeare Intensive in partnership with Fordham University’s Department of Theater at Lincoln Center, New York, N.Y., Wednesday, May 10 through Sunday, May 14.
Created for the working actor but open to all theater professionals interested in the practical study of Shakespeare, this workshop embraces the vibrancy and diversity of New York’s artistic community and is led by Designated Linklater Voice teacher Alba Quezada, Shakespeare & Company Artist Raphael Massie, Company Artist and Center for Actor Training Faculty member Michael F. Toomey, and the Company’s Director of Training Sheila Bandyopadhyay.
“We are thrilled to partner with Fordham University – a new endeavor that is providing at least four scholarships to the Intensive for artists who are BIPOC {Black, Indigenous, and People of Color},” said Bandyopadhyay. “I am deeply committed to this initiative that offers greater accessibility to our comprehensive Shakespeare Training for people of color and working actors in the city.”
The intensive allows participants to explore the use of Shakespeare’s text as a springboard for truthful, fully embodied, transformational acting, offering techniques for physical, psychological, and vocal freedom. These include but are not limited to Linklater Voice Work, Alexander Technique, monologue coaching, games/play, and somatic mindfulness practices. Identity-conscious conversation is welcomed to further participants’ unique, personal embodiment of Shakespeare’s language.
The five-day New York City Shakespeare Intensive will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day, and tuition is $875 USD – participants who submit payment by April 15 save $75, and partial scholarships are available for those experiencing financial hardship and People of the Global Majority/BIPOC artists. Alumni, student, and union discounts are also available. For more information or 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. o bring a Weekend Intensive to your city, theater company, or university, contact us.
About the Faculty
Sheila Bandyopadhyay (she/her) 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.
Alba Quezada (she/her) is a Designated Linklater Teacher and 2014 recipient of the Distinguished University Teaching Award at The New School, where she has taught actors Voice and Speech for 23 years. She has performed principal roles with regional opera and musical theater companies throughout the U.S. and in Europe including Houston Grand Opera, Brooklyn Academy of Music (Frida Kahlo in Frida), American Repertory Theater, American Music Theater Festival, and at the Teatro Tivoli in Barcelona (Maria in West Side Story). Most recently, she appeared as Maria Irene Fornes in Mujeres Fuertes at the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance and performed in concert at the Deià International Music Festival in Mallorca, Spain. She was an original cast member of Phantom of the Opera on Broadway and will perform at the final performance of Phantom in April 2023.
Raphael Massie (he/him) is a director, actor, and educator focused on how social and cultural factors can impact and enhance the performance of Western classical theater. He has worked at Shakespeare & Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Elm Shakespeare, and numerous other theaters and universities in the U.S. and abroad. He is a Drama League of New York Classical Directing Fellow (2013), OSF Killian Fellowship finalist (2019), and was the Associate Director on critically acclaimed productions of The Cymbeline Project at OSF and The Merchant of Venice at Shakespeare & Company. Massie holds an MFA with Distinction in Staging Shakespeare from the University of Exeter (U.K.), as well as undergraduate degrees in both Theatre and Education from Southern Connecticut State University.
Michael F. Toomey (he/him) has been a Company Artist with Shakespeare & Company for nearly 20 years, as an actor, director, and faculty member. He is the Co-Artistic Director of the New York City-based theater company The Humanist Project and a founding member and trustee of Split Knuckle Theatre, which devises new works of theater and is currently touring throughout the world with recent performances in Bangkok, Athens, and Paris. Toomey has been a Visiting Assistant Professor at Binghamton University teaching Clown, Shakespeare, and Fight, and teaches workshops for professional actors in Fight, Clown, and Shakespeare across the country and abroad. He has directed, devised, and choreographed numerous shows including Titus Andronicus, Julius Caesar, and Alice In Wonderland. Toomey has performed throughout the East Coast and internationally including roles such as Macbeth, Scapin, and Polonius. He has studied clown with Giovanni Fusetti and Philippe Gaulier, is a graduate of LISPA (London International School of Performing Arts), and holds an MFA in Lecoq-based actor-created theater from Naropa University.
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.
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Photo Caption: Lorna Lowe and Virginia Blanco, 2019 Month-long Intensive Final Scenes. Photo by Christina Lane.
