train together
live together
perform together

My experience with Shakespeare Academy @ Stratford was transformational—incredibly challenging, rigorous, rewarding, fulfilling, immersive.

Simon | Summer 2016

14
actors

6
weeks

2
plays

1
ensemble

The Shakespeare Academy @ Stratford is a six-week residential summer theater program for college-age actors that uniquely combines rigorous training, ensemble collaboration, and the opportunity to rehearse and perform two Shakespeare plays in repertory. Each year we select a fourteen-member ensemble from around the U.S and abroad, to train and perform together on the property that once housed the legendary American Shakespeare Festival Theater.

MORNINGS

are spent studying with masterclass teachers and professional artists who offer specialized instruction in their areas of expertise. Our masterclass instructors are exemplary leaders in their field, joining us in Stratford from institutions such as the Juilliard School, Yale School of Drama, and the NYU Tisch/Grad Acting program.

Past masterclasses have included Voice, Shakespeare’s Text, Alexander Technique, Clown, Stage Combat, Droznin Method, and Lucid Body, among others.

AFTERNOONS + EVENINGS

are devoted to rehearsal for two Shakespeare productions, to be performed for the public in a repertory festival during the final ten days of the program. Inspired by our hometown of Stratford's history of producing Shakespeare, our program’s approach to theater-making emphasizes inclusion, collaboration, creativity, community, and joy.

At the end of each week, we all come together for Friday Night Showings, a kind of ensemble open mic — an opportunity to relax, perform, and share in each other's creative work, not simply in theater but in music, standup, writing, and more.