Rebecca Goodheart

Language, we all know, is the key to unlocking the secrets of character and action in Shakespeare’s plays, but there is an actor’s goldmine beyond meter and scansion in the ornamental and seemingly literary flourishes of Shakespeare’s densely figured patterns. How can an actor actively use what, at first blush, feels like arcane poetry to create immediate, ferocious, and relevant performances for a modern audience? How do we fully embody not just Shakespeare’s words and pentameter, but his rhetorical patterning? This 12-hour, four week mini-course for advanced actors will explore how to actively use Shakespeare’s rhetoric on stage through techniques and exercises designed to increase your sensitivity to rhetorical structures, reconnect your body and your thought through language, and restore your innate joy of playing with words. In addition to exercises, we will work with several Shakespeare speeches, and actors will have a chance to work with a speech they have in their repertoire.