School for Shakespeare

Twelfth Night
Photo by J. David Levy

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By now pretty much everybody knows that Shakespeare Festival St. Louis produces a Shakespeare play every June over in Shakespeare Glen on Art Hill in Forest Park (this year it was Twelfth Night).  Somewhat less well known are the company's many community outreach projects.

This past May, for example, they presented Winning Juliet, and original musical by Elizabeth Birkenmeier and Chris Limber about cyber-bullying at the Clayton High School little theatre, with performances for both the general public and for high school student groups.  Just last month they brought us Old Hearts Fresh, a new adaptation of The Winter's Tale by Nancy Bell, outdoors in The Grove as part of the Shakespeare in the Streets program.  And now they're offering you a chance to "discover your untapped Shakespearean potential" with Shakespeare Weekends.

Starting on November 2nd and running through February of 2014, these professional workshops "are ideal for theatre professionals and university students," looking for an inside track on The Bard of Avon.  Here's what's coming up this fall and winter:

Saturday, November 2: 10 AM - 1 PM and Sunday, November 3: 1-3 PM: Fitzmaurice Voicework.  Fitzmaurice Voicework is described as "a revolutionary process for breaking down physical tension in order to uncover a more resonant voice and deeper theatrical truth."  The teacher is actor/director Joanna Battles, a voice, speech and dialect coach for theatre and film as well as an Assistant Professor of Voice & Speech at The Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University.  The course will "explore the musicality inherent in Shakespearean verse, while strengthening and stretching each actor’s vocal and physical instrument."  I'm seriously thinking of doing this one.

Saturday, November 16: 10 AM – 1 PM and Sunday, November 17:  1PM – 3 PM: Commedia Keys.  This one is taught by local actor, director, movement coach, and teacher Jeff Awada who will "present a Commedia workshop that draws connections to Shakespeare’s plays."  The course promises to show you "new ways to create the Bard’s great clowns, fools and servants, as well as a physically dynamic way of understanding the relationships between lovers and between the parents and the lovers in plays like Midsummer and The Tempest."

Saturday, December 14: 10 AM – 1 PM and Sunday, December 15: 1 PM – 3 PM: Shakespeare Our Contemporary.  The teacher is Annamaria Pileggi, an actor and director whose career has included collaborations with writers Theresa Rebeck and Barbara Damashek, directors Barney Simon of the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa, and David Wheeler of the American and Trinity Repertory Theatres. Locally, she has directed at That Uppity Theatre, New Jewish, OnSite, Muddy Waters, Dramatic License, and HotCity theatres.  The course will "explore the poetic devices in Shakespeare’s writing and how they are used to create strong objectives, clear actions and nuanced relationships."

The series continues in 2013 with Cultivating Movement Intelligence, a Feldenkrais® Workshop for Shakespearean Actors, January 18 and 19 (teacher is Kelly Feder);  and Self-Hypnosis for the Actor February 15 and 16 (teacher is Shakespeare Festival veteran Chris Limber).

The classes take place at the Rep's Old Orchard Rehearsal Spaces at Webster University, 17 S. Old Orchard Avenue.  For more information, including prices (the more you sign up for, the less it costs per workshop), see the Shakespeare Weekends web site.  And tell 'em Will sent ya!