GAN-e-meed Theatre Project Announces Summer Educational As You Like It 7/30-8/1

GAN-e-meed Theatre Project continues their successful first season with Shakespeare's As You Like It, a Summer Education program for young actresses. Participants will experience three weeks of intensive afternoon and evening rehearsals, immersed in the demanding and exciting world of Shakespearean theatre, culminating in free performances in Boston-area parks. All roles will be cast with young actresses, as part of GAN-e-meed's mission to advance the role of women in theatre.
Enrollment for actresses aged 15-20 is now open at www.GANemeed.org, by phone at 617.863.0664, or by emailing info@GANemeed.org. Rehearsals will take place July 11-29, 4-9pm in Lowell, and As You Like It will perform July 30, 31 and August 1 (locations and times to be announced).

The program is taught and directed by SerahRose Roth, GAN-e-meed's Producing Artistic Director, who recently starred as Hamlet in GAN-e-meed's ground-breaking all-female production. Holding a prominent role in a classical play is not a chance most young women get, and Roth feels strongly that they should. "There is a distinct challenge in being able to wrap your mouth and soul around the words of Shakespeare." says Roth. "It is a challenge that every actress needs to embrace to move forward in her career, partly because she will, inevitably, be faced with the need to audition for a Shakespeare production."

Participants will leave the program with much more than a performance credit on their resume. "Uniquely, with only a couple of dictionaries and their intelligent imaginations, I work with each actress to develop an understanding of the text far beyond what comes from reading contemporary synopses and scholarly footnotes. This deeper meaning combined with additional work using The First Folio Technique means each actress will walk away with the skills and the self-confidence to continue to grow as an actress, as a student, and as a woman."

Students do not need to have experience with either Shakespeare or acting to apply. "This program is designed to work with the skills and challenges that the students bring to it. We welcome every actress without an initial audition. She can have absolutely no experience, or have performed in Shakespeare every summer, and she will still leave this program with new skills and self-confidence." Auditions for specific roles will take place early in the rehearsal process.

While Roth has developed and taught innovative programs for youth through adults at venues such as New Repertory Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Yellow Taxi Productions, Boston Children's Museum, and Chicago Children's Museum, she prefers to focus on young adults. "I have a passion for working with teen actors because they possess a singular combination of child and adult: contained within each is the vocal and physical prowess of an adult alongside a child's willingness to play and experiment with abandon. They consider their identities to be in flux but when given the right opportunity they prove to possess a vibrant, full, and powerful sense of self that belies their own beliefs."

This play holds a special meaning to GAN-e-meed. "We chose As You Like It because it not only features two of Shakespeare's most loved heroines, Rosalind and Celia, but it also created the name of this company. Rosalind disguises herself as a man and, calling herself Ganymede, proceeds to teach another man with whom she falls in love how to correctly woo a woman. In its day, with an all-male cast, this was quite funny to see a young man playing a woman disguised as a man. In our production, cast with all-women, the humor runs a little deeper: a woman disguised as a man teaching a man who is actually a woman how to woo women. This balancing of genders is what GAN-e-meed Theatre Project is all about."

About GAN-e-meed Theatre Project
GAN-e-meed Theatre Project's inaugural production of Hamlet (featuring an all-female cast) performed in May 2010 in Lowell and Somerville to appreciative audiences. Ties That Bind, three short plays about women and their families, was presented by GAN-e-meed as part of Whistler in the Dark's Second Act Series at the Factory Theatre in February 2010. Funds for Hamlet were partially raised by BOOBFest: Bringing On-Stage Opportunities to Babes, a wildly successful variety show celebration hosted by GAN-e-meed at Boston Playwrights Theatre. GAN-e-meed also continues to host monthly Happy Hours for Women in Theatre and their supporters, on the first Monday of every month (check www.ganemeed.org for details).

GAN-e-meed Theatre Project was founded in 2009 to advance the role of women in theatre: the experienced and novice, young and old, artist and leader. To accomplish this, their seasons are created from shows proposed by female artists (actress, stage manager, designer, playwright, or director), and they promote the study of and visibility of gender bias within the theatre community. GAN-e-meed Theatre Project hopes to be the catalyst to establishing gender equity in New England theatre. For additional information about As You Like It or other GAN-e-meed events, or to join the mailing list, visit www.GANemeed.org.