Kevin Long has been working with actors and non-actors to interact with Shakespeare’s text and its challenging language as an introduction to watching a performance at Chicago Shakespeare Theater or performing scenes themselves as part of CST’s Shakespeare Slam. He has developed a modified version of “original practice” rehearsal techniques used by Shakespeare’s actors to get student actors – novice and experienced, eager, or reluctant – to try on Shakespeare’s language and characters. This workshop will introduce a series of “Folio Clues” embedded by the Bard to guide actors’ preparation and to speak that language with intent and understanding. Then those Folio Clues will be applied to reading through cue scripts, containing only the lines for a character and the phrases that proceed (or cue) each line. Participants will work through a scene in small groups to experience how this “original practice” rehearsal approach works and how it introduces Shakespeare’s language to student actors and varying abilities.
