The following is the text work session taken from the full episode with Richard. In this excerpt, Richard discusses one of Leontes’ speeches in The Winter’s Tale by Shakespeare—it’s in the first act where he has his suspicions about his wife and his best friend having an affair. Leontes is speaking with his trusted advisor Camillo, […]
Text Work: Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 with Tony Amendola
The following is the text work session taken from the full episode with Tony. In this excerpt, Tony discusses Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare. As Tony shares, it’s almost like an “anti-love” sonnet, that it makes fun of sonnets that are too flowery, as it has a very different tone and style with its message. You’ll hear […]
Ep #18: Tony Amendola (Regional Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Stargate SG-1) on Stamping Your Own Passport and Following the Work
Being an actor in Los Angeles can be—if you’re not careful—living off the interest of your talent and experience. And every so often, you need to make a deposit, and that can be doing theatre in LA, New York, in the regions, or it can be a self-generated project, but you do need to do […]
Ep #17: Robert Goldsby (Columbia/ACT/UC Berkeley; Directed 150+ plays, 60+ years in theatre) on the Aliveness of Molière, Clear Transitions, and Being Blissfully Happy
Plays are intensely personal to the writers—when they write them, they’re imagining something that’s very vivid to them. You have to get into their head and try to find another vividness that’s truthful to the original. I’m all for the playwright; that’s where you go to study. — Robert Goldsby On the show today is […]
Text Work: John Webster’s The White Devil with Ray Porter
So don't be surprised!The following is the text work session taken from the full episode with Ray. In this excerpt, Ray will be discussing a speech from John Webster’s The White Devil, which is a Jacobean play and comes in the period right after Shakespeare. As Ray shared, plays in this period were much darker and a definite […]
Ep #16: Ray Porter (Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 300+ Audiobooks) on Delivering the Mail, Being Your Advocate, and Good-Natured Arrogance
So don't be surprised!The biggest downfall of actors is when they start to get very pleased with themselves because they’re actors; having something else that will keep you a bit humble is a good thing. — Ray Porter On the show today is Ray Porter, an actor who spent 18 seasons with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival playing all sorts […]
Text Work: Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III with Nike Doukas
The following is a re-airing of Nike’s text work session taken from the full episode with her. In this excerpt we discuss performing a speech from Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III. Nike Doukas is a fantastic actress, director, teacher, and accent coach. Originally from Massachusetts (same as me!), Nike studied at the University of […]
Text Work: Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead with Geoffrey Wade
The following is a re-airing of Geoffrey’s text work session taken from the full episode with him. In this excerpt we discuss performing THE PLAYER from Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Geoffrey Wade (@geoffreywade) is an actor, director, teacher, photographer, and acting coach, and he was recently in the national tour of The Curious […]
Text Work: Noel Coward’s Mrs. Worthington and Shakespeare’s King Lear with Harry Groener
The following is a re-airing of Harry’s text work session taken from the full episode with him. In this excerpt we discuss singing a Noel Coward song and performing Shakespeare’s King Lear. Harry Groener is probably most familiar to audiences for his musical theatre work in New York, as well as being a series […]
Text Work: Shakespeare’s Henry VI with Armin Shimerman
The following is a re-airing of Armin’s text work session taken from the full episode with him. You wanted these text work sessions as separate episodes and I’m happy to accommodate! First up, Armin talks about his general approach to Shakespeare and some of the overall principles he teaches in classes. In this excerpt we […]