My Nonprofit Reviews

ActressTeacherMuse
Review for Shakespeare & Company, Inc., Lenox, MA, USA
I attended the January Intensive two years ago, and I'm STILL mining the discoveries about myself to be a more generous actor and authentic person. The Intensive stretched and grew me in ways I hadn't had in years, if ever. It's NOT for sissies; fourteen-hour days in six-day weeks will take you beyond what you thought you could do, and they'll bust you on old habits and mannerisms and life-cheating inauthenticities, which isn't pretty. But when confronting self-defeating barriers, their message isn't, "you're not good enough" but rather "this isn't worthy of you," meaning, "you're capable of greatness and I want to see it!" It's a tremendous gift when someone (and in Shakespeare & Co.'s case, everyone) takes a stand for the personal truth and passion you've been hiding from. The entire faculty is rooting for your truest, most life-affirming self to emerge, and the spirit of compassion and generosity runs deep and wide here.
Further, spending a month with some forty-odd other people who seek to show up and take themselves on in the name of Shakespeare and Art is nothing short of awe-inspiring. You'll adore these people for the rest of your life.
Again, not for the faint of heart, but if you really want to find depth and freedom in your work, it's a jolly good place to start. Worth every single penny, whether it boosts your career or not (and it often does).
More Feedback
I've personally experienced the results of this organization in...
my ability to mine the richness of Shakespeare's language for a visceral, immediate and passionate human experience.
If I had to make changes to this organization, I would...
let everyone sleep in ONE morning, in the middle of the second week during the Intensive. I'd be happy to stay an extra day at the end to make it up...