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).