Education

For ADults

Lecture Program

Join us for a free lectures and discussion about Othello featuring Yale Professor Mark Schenker.

Rowayton Library - Friday, May 21, 6:30 p.m. wine and cheese, 7 p.m. lecture

Darien Library - Thursday, June 3, 7 p.m.

New Canaan Library - Saturday, June 5, 3 p.m.

Rye Free Reading Room - Tuesday, June 22, 6:30 p.m.

Greenwich Library - Tuesday, June 29, 7 p.m.

For more information, click here.

For educators

Educators! Join with us in planning initiatives for Shakespeare in your classroom. Shakespeare on the Sound provides workshops and storytelling to schools, libraries and community centers. Please contact us at 203-299-1300 or email: info@shakespeareonthesound.org.

Stacey Ballis

Photo by Gillian Marshall

Apprentice Company

What?

Shakespeare on the Sound’s 2010 Apprentice Company was recently announced by Artistic Director Joanna Settle. Each apprentice earned a spot in the company by participating in a rigorous and highly competitive selection process. The apprentices range in age from 14 to 24. They share a passion for the theater and an interest in pursuing theater careers. The four apprentice actors will have roles in our 2010 summer production of Othello or in the pre-performance show for children. The eight apprentice designers, managers, directors and dramaturges will assist in the design, rehearsal and marketing of the show. They will all apprentice to, learn from and explore with our master artists.

CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES & PROFILES OF OUR APPRENTICES.

Why?

Artistic Director Joanna Settle was inspired to launch this program in part by her personal experience as a graduate student studying directing at The Julliard School in New York City. Her faculty mentors were the three distinguished directors Garland Wright, JoAnne Akalaitis and Michael Kahn. Joanna recalls the experience:

“Of course we took classes and had formal training. But just as influential and defining on the making of me as an artist were the "down time" experiences. The dinners at JoAnne's house that would come together informally, where we would all argue about current events and what a good play was.

Or the times I would fall asleep on the floor of Michal Kahn's office between classes. I would quietly wander into Michael's office when I thought he was in DC at the Shakespeare Theater for the day and nap in the dark. One day he caught me! He turned on the light, we both jumped, and he said "What the hell happened to you?” I explained I was having trouble directing The Cherry Orchard, that I had tried everything including piling up all the rehearsal room furniture in a conceptual act of desperation - but in the end I was glad that irrelevant woman lost her orchard and was happy the peasants were getting their own. He laughed and said “Yeah, Chekov. The actors get it or they don't. Nothing a director can do for them.”

And Garland Wright. A few weeks before he died we had lunch. I was on my way to Brazil to direct the South American tour of Grease! and he was in chemo. He told me I had to get my taxes in order, that I wasn't always gonna be broke and he had gotten busted while running the Guthrie Theater in a financially devastating way. He also offered to assist me on Grease (this is perhaps America's greatest director) because he needed a job.

All of these experiences were outside of the classroom, and about having access to my mentors to learn not only about matters of production, but also about the life of an artist. As Artists we are our own source of material. Our lives are a part not only of how we respond to the material we are dealing with, but how we shape our careers. We are the field. That spirit will be in our apprentice program. They will define their activities outside of the production. The program will be shaped to explore and support their interests, in addition to giving them exposure to the profession via their work on the show. We seek, in our apprentice program, to develop the whole artist.”

Talk-Backs

Post-Performance talks with members of Othello creative team and other leading theater artists. Talk-Backs will occur immediately after selected performances of Othello.

Photo by Gillian Marshall