So you have some Shakespeare text - what now? This session is for performers who would like to learn strategies for increasing their facility with Shakespeare’s language, as they prepare for auditions or performance. Informed by her early years training with Kristin Linklater, Tina Packer, and the other master teachers at Shakespeare & Company as well as the past two decades working at Bard on the Beach, Mary Hartman will share a multi-layered, embodied approach to exploring a Shakespeare speech and forging a personal connection. No need to prepare anything; text will be provided.

6:00pm - 9:00pm: Victorian Cane Fighting for the Stage! with Sylvie La Riviere and Mike Kovac

Come practice the fundamentals of stage combat while exploring the unique martial art of Bartitsu - a combination of Victorian walking stick fighting, French kickboxing, bareknuckle boxing, and jujitsu. Our main focus will be the walking stick, where we will learn stage-safe techniques with fashion and flair!

Bring a water bottle and wear athletic clothing and shoes.

2:00pm - 5:00pm: Instant Composition in Space and Time with Zoe Jordan

This is a movement-based improvisation workshop. We will begin with a warmup designed to limber up, ground us in our bodies, and tune in to our senses (and sensibilities). Following some solo exploration, guided by somatic prompts and imagery, we will do some tuning work as pairs and groups, after which we will begin to experiment with composition in the space.

Through exercises and scores, we will consider compositional elements such as space/placement, rhythm/timing, contrast/harmony, expectation/surprise in crafting short, ephemeral movement pieces in duets, trios, and groups.

The work is embodied, exploratory, and process-based, with an emphasis on following curiosity and pleasure, finding satisfaction and delight - as opposed to producing beautiful dance or executing flawless moves. Come dance!

Wear/bring clothes to move in, layers for temperature regulation, and a water bottle.

6:00pm - 9:00pm: Active Analysis with Stephen Atkins

This three-hour session of active analysis centres on the etude as a foundational tool for understanding a scene, not as a replacement for text analysis but as a parallel and equally rigorous source of inquiry.

The etude allows us to test how meaning emerges through action and relational dynamics rather than relying solely on interpretive reading.

The contemporary relationship with Stanislavski is in various stages of disrepair, largely due to layers of academic misappropriation that have flattened his practice into simplified psychological objects.

This session is not intended to be reverent or restorative in a nostalgic sense, but it does aim to recover some of the practical gems of insight that have been detached from their original laboratory conditions.

Particularly the etude process in the ""method of physical actions"" and the late-period work at the Opera-Dramatic Studio, for example, shows a clear shift toward action-based investigation rather than interior psychology alone. Within this frame, and with three short hours, the etude will become a way of re-engaging the scene as a living system of choices rather than a fixed interpretive object. The session seeks to reopen questions that were prematurely closed by 20th-century Western biases, and to recover the practical intelligence embedded in performance traditions that have often been marginalised or simplified.

Wear loose clothing. 

6:00pm - 9:00pm: Monologue Session 1

In these sessions, a limited number of actors will work in-depth on Shakespeare monologues. Each actor will have approximately 20 minutes of one-on-one workshop time while the rest of the group is present to support their work.

2:00pm - 5:00pm: Creating Character Through Stage Combat with Hitotose

Fight choreography cannot be improvised for safety reasons, but each character can still have their own personality and unique way of moving within the choreography. Similar to working with a script, we explore how movement can express a character's emotions, intentions, and relationships without words. In the first half of the workshop, participants will learn basic stage combat skills and safety rules. In the second half, participants will work in small groups using the same choreography while taking on different character roles, exploring how physical choices can create distinct personalities and bring each character to life.

Participants should wear comfortable clothing and shoes that allow for easy movement and bring a water bottle. If you own a bokken (wooden sword), please bring it.

2:00pm - 5:00pm, Studio D: The Four Humours - Explore the Essence of Shakespeare's Characters through Movement and Voice with Erin Ormond

Explore Shakespeare through the lens of The Four Humours: sanguine, choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic, and understand how it defined Elizabethan's physical and mental health, and distinct personalities. Carried by the blood stream, the four bodily fluids: (blood, yellow bile, phlegm, and black bile) bred the core passions of anger, grief, hope, and fear—the emotions Shakespeare conveyed in his characters throughout his comedies and tragedies.
After an introduction of the humours and their significance in Shakespeare’s time, we will explore each of them through a guided improvised movement and voice approach. Activate your imagination, breath and impulse and find vocal freedom. Using your memorized monologue, uncover the humour, humanity, and vitality within your character, making Shakespeare's language feel immediate, embodied, and alive.
A confidently memorized Shakespeare monologue (1-2 mins in length) is required for the exploration.

6:00pm - 9:00pm: How to Nail Your Dance Call with Hailey Fowler

Do you dread the words DANCE CALL? Feel like you're giving it your all, yet leave feeling unsatisfied like something is missing? This workshop intends to give insight so you can nail it! Get insider thoughts, tips & tricks, and bits of wisdom for what casting is really looking for behind the table.

The class will start with an open discussion, given some food for thought, before transitioning to work on our feet. By the end of the workshop, we will simulate a dance call by learning a small combo with feedback given at the end.

This is an OPEN level class for movers and strong dancers alike. Come play!

Bring athletic wear that you are comfortable to move in. Sneakers, dance shoes (character or jazz) or bare feet encouraged. No jeans please.

2:00pm - 5:00pm: Let's Make It So! with Christine Quintana 

In this current artistic climate, it can feel hard to dream big - but where there's a will, there's a way. In this session, each participant is invited to bring in a theatre dream or goal they have (such as putting on a fringe play, booking work out-of-province, writing your own works). Facilitator Christine Quintana will help you make a road map to your goal - with support from all your fellow participants - by looking at existing opportunities like grants, festivals, and workshops, and how to structure your creative practice to step towards your goals. No one does it alone - this session seeks to inspire and empower participants to consider the possibilities for their theatre dreams.

Participants should bring a goal of theirs - it can be big or small, and related to any part of artistic practice (design, direction, acting, arts admin, stage management, technical work). Participants should be prepared to share this goal with the group, and participate fully in the other participant's turns as well.

6:00pm - 9:00pm: Directing Prep with Jiv Parasram

This workshop will offer some strategies to help you realize a show concept, and subsequently prepare for rehearsal and production. Using an existing play (TBD), we'll look at how to scope out the scale of your would-be production 'vision' based on identifying key storytelling moments. We'll also cover the pre-production essentials you'll need in order to plot out a reasonable rehearsal plan, and discuss how to respectfully and realistically collaborate with different departments (stage management, set, lighting, sound, costume, etc). The director might be the 'leader' but they can lead better when they have an informed understanding of what they're asking the artists they're directing to achieve.

Participants will be asked to familiarize themselves with a play. This will be sent out to everyone before the workshop.

6:00pm - 9:00pm, Studio D: Song Session with Peter Abando

In these sessions, a limited number of actors will receive song coaching from Bard's accompanist and music director, Peter Abando. Each actor will have approximately 20 minutes of one-on-one workshop time while the rest of the group is present to support their work.

This session is for performers working on audition songs. Bring a song (contemporary or classic) and be prepared to work with an accompanist.

2:00pm - 5:00pm: Composing with Texture to Sculpt Sound with Anju Singh

We will use found, recorded, and designed sonic artifacts to compose scores using dense textural walls to support stage based performance.

Please bring a laptop and headphones to this session.

6:00pm - 9:00pm: Spatial Audio: from binaural to large scale theatre with Carey Dodge

This session will survey a variety of spatial audio techniques highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. It is ideal for someone who is curious about using spatial audio in their work and also for those who are already using spatial audio and want to dig a little deeper into its possibilities. Carey Dodge will be drawing from his more than 25 years of experience with spatial audio in order to give context and hopefully some inspiration for you to use spatial audio in your work.

Please bring your own device (ideally a laptop) and headphones.

2:00pm - 5:00pm: Constellation Mapping with Cydney Uffindell-Phillips

This session introduces actors to Constellation Mapping—a movement coaching technique that uses both external and internal influences to reveal the emotional, psychological, and interpersonal forces shaping a character. Working with a monologue, participants will explore seeing the world through their character’s eyes, asking: What sparks them to speak? What drives their choices and actions?
The process encourages actors to shift their focus from “acting” to authentic reacting, grounding performance in impulse and connection. Through one-on-one coaching, each participant will map their character’s world—identifying key influences, relationships, and turning points—and integrate those discoveries directly into their monologue.

Bring a monologue you would like to explore constellation mapping with.

6:00pm - 9:00pm: New Work Creation: Accessing Inspiration Through Music with Ming Hudson

Whether you are a playwright who makes work alone, or a deviser who builds work in a collective, or anyone in between, we've all had those times where we just didn't know how to access an idea or start a project. Sometimes, we just need an in. An exercise in finding inspiration anywhere, this workshop uses music as an entry point into new work creation. Participants will explore freefall writing, Shakespearean Sonnets as found text, and gestural movements to first construct a short individual piece. These pieces will then be knit together in small groups to produce a new work of collaborative theatre. Come prepared to write, move, and get through that creator's block!

Please bring paper and something to write with, movement clothes, and a water bottle.

6:00pm - 9:00pm, Studio D: Monologue Session 2

In these sessions, a limited number of actors will work in-depth on Shakespeare monologues. Each actor will have approximately 20 minutes of one-on-one workshop time while the rest of the group is present to support their work.

2:00pm - 5:00pm, Studio D: Monologue Session 3

In these sessions, a limited number of actors will work in-depth on Shakespeare monologues. Each actor will have approximately 20 minutes of one-on-one workshop time while the rest of the group is present to support their work.

6:00pm - 9:00pm:Status in Shakespeare: The Kinetic Dance with Jeff Gladstone

“We pay money to see people onstage altered and alter each other.” – Keith Johnstone

Move beyond Elizabethan social hierarchies and discover the active, physical mechanics of power. Drawing on Keith Johnstone’s improvisation techniques, this workshop explores "status" not as a fixed class, but as a dynamic, behavioral relationship. Through active scene work, actors will master the non-verbal signifiers of dominance and submission, the "kinetic dance" of the stage, and how to authentically raise or lower yourself and your scene partners. Get out of your head, and discover how playing the physical status transaction can unlock new dimensions of Shakespeare's text. (scene text will be provided)

2:00pm - 5:00pm: Introduction to Fitzmaurice Voicework - exploring your core as site of feeling and action with Lee Su-Feh

Fitzmaurice Voicework® is a whole-body approach to voice that, in founder Catherine Fitzmaurice's words, "explores the dynamics between body, breath, voice, the imagination, language and presence." The method integrates adaptations of classical voice training with modifications of yoga, bioenergetics and other body-centered disciplines to harmonize the voluntary and involuntary aspects of the nervous system and breath. In this introduction to the method, we will be focusing on how our core responds to breath, thought, and action.

Please bring a yoga mat, a cushion or thick towel you can roll up (ideally a zafu or meditation cushion if you have one), and a short piece of memorized text (8-10 lines).

2:00pm - 5:00pm: Story Values with Tetsuro Shigematsu

+/- Story Values -/+ Using Positive & Negative Charges to ⚡️ELECTRIFY⚡️Your Writing.
Have you ever had this experience? Someone you know watching some terrible movie, and you KNOW its terrible because you hate THAT kind of movie, but as you linger you find yourself drawn in? You don't even like this kind of movie, but you have to admit, THIS one is kinda interesting!
You're getting drawn in despite yourself. Likely what is happening is that moment by moment, the story, scene, or beats are TURNING, TWITCHING, REVERSING. Learn what this important technique means. How to recognize it. How to master it. Is your play’s scene, short story, book chapter dead, lifeless on the page? Discover the high-voltage secret to bringing it back to life.

Bring something to write on/with.

6:00pm - 9:00pm: What We Put On, What We Peel Away: Creating Characters and Learning About Ourselves Through the Alexander Technique
The Alexander Technique teaches us to notice the ways our habits shape how we move, speak, and perform. With this awareness, actors learn to let go of excess tension and express themselves with greater ease and clarity of intention. This process opens the way for actors to develop characters while learning more about themselves and how they relate to others.
Creating a character requires making choices about how and why one moves, talks, and communicates in certain ways. This requires awareness of the actor's conscious and unconscious habits of movement, voice, and interaction with others. In this workshop, we offer actors spoken and hands-on guidance to explore their habitual patterns of movement, voice, and responses to stimuli and invite them to try out new choices. Working with text and character choices, we will invite actors to make choices in real-time as they explore new possibilities with the application of Alexander Technique principles. The participants will be called to choose what to put aside and what to put on as they embody a character and use text. This conscious and thoughtful exploration of character and self may shed light on the connections we have to others and ourselves.

Prepare one character with a short monologue (1-2min). Be prepared to consider the choices you have made and to explore contrasting alternatives. Be open to exploring, experimenting, moving beyond your comfort zone, and receiving hands-on guidance.
Wear comfortable clothes that allow for movement, and bring water and a snack.