Shakespeare & Company, Inc.

Shakespeare & Company supports year-round performance, education and actor training programs.  Our company's most intensive performance and production season extends May to September of each year.  Our education program is nationally acclaimed.  We support elementary and middle school residencies that teach text, performance and movement through a 45 minute version of a Shakespeare play.  Our Fall Festival of Shakespeare sends 2 education artists into 10 high schools in NY and MA for a 9-week after school residency that culminates in performances at all 10 high schools and a 4 day festival during which all 10 plays are presented to all the participants and the general public.  In spring, our New England Tour of Shakespeare sends 6 actors on the road for 4 months touring high schools and public venues throughout New England with a Shakespeare production that also invites the middle and high school students attending to "do Shakespeare" after they see the tour performance.  This highly interactive, professional production is the first time most students ever see Shakespeare performed.  Our education director wrote "Shakespeare and a Language That Changed A World" which is a 45 minute exploration of William Shakespeare's life and all his work geared to a high school audience.  Our Training program invites professional, mid-career, college and graduate aged actors to our 33 acre campus to attend our Conservatory of Shakespeare, a semester long training program that culminates in a full Shakespeare production.  Participants train in text analysis, voice, movement, fight and dance in the original and unique classical training methods developed by Shakespeare and company faculty.  The Performance Intern Program, a summer program, is generally for college and graduate students majoring in theatre arts.  They train and study with S&Co faculty and perform in repertory at S&Co for three months each summer.  Many interns stay on to direct in our Fall Festival of Shakespeare, expanding their training to include directing Shakespeare and teaching voice, text analysis, fight, clown and movement themselves to high school students.  Weekend Intensive workshops are conducted in several cities throughout the United States each year, bringing Shakespeare & Company training to Chicago, Los Angeles, Austin, New York, Seattle and Atlanta.  Other special workshops include First Folio of Shakespeare, Gender workshop, Clown workshop and Dropping In workshop.  Finally, our extensive campus with its three theatres, two permanent and one temporary site, require consistent funding.  Our Founders' Theatre is a 410 seat theatre and our mainstage.  The Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, a 190 seat theatre housed in the Elayne P. Bernstein Center for the Performing Arts, is our more intimate theatre.  Within the BCPA, there are also our technical and production offices and workshops, three rehearsal rooms, a spacious lobby, kitchen and bar.