Shakespeare's world, England from 1580-1610, might seem familiar to us because our contemporary lives have many of the same themes: love, lust, loss, grief, greed, forgiveness…  But the terms his contemporaries might use to address these themes: The Great Chain Of Being, The Five Wits, The Humors and The Elements, at first might appear to us wildly alien.

In this class, we will examine how Shakespeare’s characters are always trying to make sense of their journeys through this Elizabethan lens.  We will examine how our own understanding of our world might come from these older ideas.  We will look at how these characters might be unlocked in a new and performable way:  how in their moment of crisis they look to the stars, their bodies, nature and precedent for clues about how to act.

Each actor will work on a monologue of their choice from Shakespeare’s plays, playing with and embodying these concepts.

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Course Objectives:​

• Receive an introduction to the Elizabethan world view through the lenses of The Great Chain of Being, The Five Wits, The Humors, and The Elements

• Build connections between personal lived experience and Shakespeare’s characters 

• Workshop a monologue from Shakespeare’s canon through embodied textwork and exploration.

• Refine personal technique for developing an active and alive performance of classical text.

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