LENOX, Mass. – Shakespeare & Company will host a Weekend Intensive at its Lenox, Mass. campus from Saturday, April 26 through Sunday, April 27, designed for professional actors and theater students who seek an introduction to Shakespeare & Company’s training methods, as well as alumni who wish to refresh and reconnect.
Shakespeare & Company’s Weekend Intensives integrate voice, movement, and monologue work. Rigorous attention is paid to identifying and offering skills specific to the needs of each participant throughout the weekend.
This Intensive will be led by the Center for Actor Training’s Director Sheila Bandyopadhyay, Training Programs Manager Kristen Moriarty, and Producing Associate and Designated Linklater Voice Teacher Ariel Bock.
“The Weekend Intensive is a fantastic way to experience our unique training aesthetic and connect with other creative individuals,” said Bandyopadhyay. “The format offers those who are new to Shakespeare, as well as seasoned professionals, time to engage with voice and movement training and work on a Shakespeare monologue. We welcome all who are curious and ready to explore.”
Tuition is $385, and scholarships are available for BIPOC artists. Alumni and union member discounts are also available.
The Lenox Weekend Intensive has housing available on the Shakespeare & Company campus for $65 per night, featuring single occupancy with a shared kitchen, bathroom, and living room.
For more information or to apply, visit shakespeare.org/actor-training, or call (413) 637-1199, ext. 114.
About Shakespeare & Company’s Center for Actor Training
The aesthetic of Shakespeare & Company was devised by Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer, Founding Director of Training Kristin Linklater, and a cadre of expert teachers.The Center for Actor Training’s approach is continually investigated, redefined, and reinvigorated, and welcomes actors, directors, writers, and teachers worldwide to work with the Company’s faculty.
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.
Ariel Bock has been an actor, director, and voice teacher at Shakespeare & Company for more than 20 years. She has served as Artistic Associate and Producing Associate and has been on the faculty as an acting or voice teacher at Dartmouth College, Smith College, and MIT. She has led workshops for professional and pre-professional actors and those interested in Theater-in-Education.
Kristen Moriarty is a teaching artist, actor, mom, sentimentalist, and an infinite seeker of thinking and feeling deeply. After earning her BFA in Acting/Dance at Adelphi University, she worked as an actor and movement choreographer in Chicago for several years before going back to school to pursue an MFA in acting/teaching at the University of Montana. In 2011, while earning her MFA, she also began her actor training with Shakespeare & Company, where she fell in love with Shakespeare’s language and its capacity to reveal the truth; the power of listening, honesty, and being present; and the Berkshires. Under the guidance of her teaching mentors Dennis Krausnick and Andrew Borthwick-Leslie, she began her journey as a teacher trainee with the Company in 2017 and joined the multi-hyphenate and exceptional faculty at Shakespeare & Company in 2022, where she currently teaches Text, Basics, and Weekend workshops. Passionate about contributing to brave spaces and creating a more just and welcoming theatre, and society, for all people, Kristen loves working with actors who are curious—about themselves and the world—and helping facilitate personal growth and deepening belief in self. A boundless student, Kristen is grateful to continue learning from her students, colleagues, and certainly her daughters, and hopes to become a Designated Linklater Teacher someday.
