No Kidding Shakespeare Camp For Adults

The American Shakespeare Center began a new tradition in 2010, a tradition we are building on this year.  Last year, our inaugural No Kidding Shakespeare Camp welcomed folks from all walks of life to the Blackfriars Playhouse, to Staunton, and to the beautiful Shenandoah Valley.  

For a week, we explored the plays and playing, enjoyed cook-outs, wine tastings, and a cast party, and took the ASC mantra “the more you know, the more you enjoy” to heart.  

To demonstrate the joy and the enthusiasm engendered by the No Kidding Shakespeare Camp, we'd like to share excerpts from a letter sent by one of last year's campers:

"I can understand if my appearance, mannerisms, and turbo-charged Mustang belie a testosterone ridden wretch with no appreciation of language, culture, theater, or nuance. But I want to give a thorough accounting of my thoughts, experiences, feelings, opinion, and analysis of the Camp.  But I can assure you I thoroughly enjoyed myself, had a great time, and am selling the ASC experience to everyone I know!"

"I would like to express how much I appreciate [the ASC staff's] enthusiasm, professionalism, knowledge, attention, hospitality, and grace. Their approach to Shakespeare is refreshing, effective, and has the potential to infuse the true theater experience in the lives of many. Before I went to the camp, I truly believed art was dead. I still believe it, but know that aspects have been resurrected due to the vision, hard work, and diligence of a few brave souls in the Shenandoah Mountains."

"We'll be back many times, alone, or with friends in tow. I had everyone fired up at a Fourth of July picnic and was veritably frothing at the mouth talking about the Camp, ASC, and Shakespeare!"

Other comments from enthusiastic campers:

• "I think that this program has great potential for returnees... I would definitely come again..."
• "Utterly fascinating! I would welcome more time to play with the cue scripts!"
• "I have never had a week of Shakespeare that was more informative and more FUN (and I have been to every Shakespeare Seminar run by UVA since 2002)."
• "Every minute detail was perfect, smooth, and everything I could've dreamed of."

Session I (June 13-17, 2011) will be similar in curriculum to last year’s camp.  We will cover topics such as Shakespeare’s staging conditions (such as stage directions, special effects, costume, dance, combat, cue scripts), a basic approach to meter and rhetoric, historical perspectives on Shakespeare’s themes and the business of theatre, rehearsal observation, and we will hold special talkbacks with ASC actors.  The plays in this session will be As You Like It and Macbeth.

Session II (June 27-July 1, 2011) will feature The Importance of Being Earnest and The Tempest. The curriculum will be centered on an intensive study of Structure, in two ways.  We will consider the effect of exterior architecture on the playing and writing of plays, and we’ll examine the impact of the internal structure of rhetoric as it pertains to the work of Wilde and Shakespeare.

Director of Mission, Ralph Alan Cohen, will lead the program, and, as with last year, a host of authorities in the field will join him.  We will continue the traditions of cast parties, talk backs, rehearsal observations, and field trips, and tickets to two plays are included in the package. We are also offering the lodging option at Mary Baldwin College, or you may choose to stay at one of Staunton’s great downtown B&Bs or hotels. You may also register as a Day Camper and commute.

To learn more and to register for one or both of the 2011 sessions, visit the main No Kidding Shakespeare Camp page.

• ESU Award Winners at ASCTC 2011
• Shakespeare at Winedale
• The ASC at UC-Davis

< Back