Raleigh Will Host Shakespeare & Company's Weekend Acting Intensive This Month

Shakespeare & Company's Center for Actor Training will kick off its fall programming in Raleigh Friday, September 27 through Sunday, September 29, with a Weekend Intensive for professional actors and theater students.

Led by Center for Actor Training faculty members Kristen Moriarty and Gwendolyn Schwinke, this acting intensive is an immersive introduction to Shakespeare & Company's Actor Training aesthetic and designed for theater professionals, acting students, and others seeking an introduction to Shakespeare & Company's training methods.

Schwinke, who trained at the Center for Actor Training and has worked with Shakespeare & Company for more than 15 years, said the immersive format of Weekend Intensives is what drew her to the program, and what compelled her to stay on as faculty.

"My very first encounter with Shakespeare & Company was as a participant in a Weekend Intensive," she said, "and I still get excited about the opportunity to lead an intensive. Working with Shakespeare is so exciting for me as an actor and a teacher, because he gives us an amazing playground: we get to explore the big questions, to take risks, to sharpen our intellect, and to be completely ridiculous.

"The participants form a supportive community that really allows for deep artistic transformation, Schwinke added. "There's so much joy."

Throughout the weekend, voice, movement, and monologue work are integrated with attention paid to identifying and offering skills specific to each participant's needs. Shakespeare's language is further explored through dynamic group and individual exercises.

Shakespeare & Company's Weekend Intensives are held year-round in cities across the U.S. Following Raleigh's session, the Center for Actor Training will hold intensives through November in San Jose, Calif.; Lenox, Mass.; New York, N.Y., and Chicago, Ill.

For more information or to apply, visit shakespeare.org/actor-training or call 413.637.1199, ext. 114. Student, BIPOC, alumni, and union discounts are available.