“How I have been transformed”

I first came to Staunton to try the ASC’s summer camp, at the time called YCTC, purely out of curiosity… I had done a bit of film and voice acting before, and I had read/enjoyed Hamlet in my British Literature class, but YCTC introduced me to the world of PERFORMING Shakespeare and brought the magic of theatre to me like I had never seen it before… needless to say, my life would never be the same.

The friends, connections and experiences I gained under the tutelage of the ASC’s amazing crew of actors and academics were invaluable, and I loved the experience so much that, when I heard Stuart Hall (the building YCTC was held in that year) had a Shakespearean acting program in cooperation with the Blackfriars Playhouse, I ended up moving from my home in VA Beach all the way to Staunton just to go there.

In my time there I played Richard III, Oberon, and even some parts in an MFA production of Timon of Athens; and the summer after I graduated I had the opportunity to play Charles IX in a production of A Massacre in Paris at the Blackfriars Playhouse for the American Marlowe Society’s annual conference, a once in a lifetime experience I cherish to this day.

The friends and memories I’ve made through Shakespeare are the best I’ve ever had, and getting to bring these amazing stories to life for a modern audience, on the Blackfriars Playhouse stage no less, was a dream come true for me. As a dedicated ASC audience member, it would always make my day when the actors from the ASC would come to support our productions, as well!

My time in Staunton has transformed me in every way, and it’s all been because of the ASC. The Shakespearean scholars and enthusiasts I’ve had the amazing privilege of working with here at such a young age have given me an entirely different outlook on my craft and on my life. The feeling of taking on a myriad of pages that to many are just a bunch of fancy words, becoming the historical heroes and devils on those pages, and turning the whole thing into a moving breathing performance that makes people who have never understood Shakespeare say they loved it and understood every word… that’s one of the best feelings in the world, and I can think of nothing more exhilarating to do for the rest of my life.

I’ve gone from wandering aimlessly to knowing I want a career doing Renaissance theatre, and my experiences here have given me the confidence and knowledge to tackle that goal head-on. I’m currently pursuing a degree in Pre-Professional Acting at Emory and Henry College, and it makes my day whenever I see someone walk by me on campus wearing an ASC shirt.

I only hope that when I graduate I can get a job living in the Bard’s world again, and that someday I can have the amazing honor of bringing the magic of Shakespeare to a new generation of actors and dreamers in the life changing way the ASC did for me. Thanks to everyone involved with the ASC for all you’ve done and continue to do in my life!

– Rob Cantrell

“Met together to rehearse a play”

On Sunday June 18th, 2006, I arrived in Staunton for my first day at what was then called YCTC, or Young Company Theatre Camp.  With no idea who anyone was, and no idea what I was in store for, I headed for the Blackfriars Playhouse for the first of many times.

Doreen Bechtol led the 36 of us through some basic viewpoints exercises, and as the evening drew to a close, she asked us to pick a place in the theatre and to speak a line of Shakespeare.  At some point, one of the campers said the first line of Puck’s last speech from A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “If we shadows have offended.”

The next camper to take his place said the next line: “Think but this and all is mended.”

The next person the next line, and the noise and the energy grew.  By the end of the speech, we were standing all over the theatre, all speaking together, the words ringing out through the space.  We all knew the words, of course.  Many of us were strangers, but right then it couldn’t have mattered less.

That was the beginning of the greatest summers of my life.  I would never give up a moment of the fifteen weeks I spent as a teenager in Staunton rehearsing, performing, learning, and growing through art I am proud of and friends I still hold dear.

The Blackfriars Playhouse and its devotees have shaped my life permanently, and for those gifts I can’t thank the ASC enough.

– Jessie Cohen

Suiting the Action to the Word

Zach Armstrong, ASC Business Assistant

My first experience with the American Shakespeare Center was a school matinee when the name Shenandoah Shakespeare Express was still used.  My motivation to go was mainly derived from the words “field trip,” but it also came from a fascination with theater that had taken hold years ago.  I could not have grasped the fact that as I signed up for this outing I was, in a sense, signing up for the first major steps of my career a decade down the road.

The experience with the SSE’s staging left an immediate impact on me.  Theater is about connecting with people and telling our stories, right? So why not remove that barrier they call a “fourth wall” that someone decided to put up?  The last thing I want between me and human art is a wall.  Then I learned that Jim and Ralph hadn’t just thought this idea up; it is hundred of years old, and is so powerful that it transcends each permutation of popular culture because it speaks a universal language.

I attended more matinees and ended up attending Young Company Theater Camp (now ASCTC) in mid-high school.  Working under one of the actors at the time, Paul Fidalgo, convinced me that theater was where I wanted to be for a long time.  More training followed through productions and classes in high school and college.  I performed and learned in a variety of styles and genres but somehow each time I performed Shakespeare I had the audience on three sides, took lines to them, and sang with the other actors before the show.  I couldn’t escape it.

The two years after I graduated college I chased any glimpse of a career in Arts Management.  After being turned down for two full time jobs at the ASC (as well as countless jobs in other places), I moved to Staunton to work part-time in their box office.  Six months and another missed job later, I was called into an office and offered a job I hadn’t applied for… not with my words, at least.

Shakespeare’s words are part of it. The Blackfriars Playhouse is a part of it.  The actors, the staff, the Board, Staunton, the Blue Ridge, the Valley, and anyone who has ever seen us perform are all part of it. The company and I both turn 25 this December and there is so much future ahead.

Pack the Playhouse full with us.  Spread the word about our Touring Troupe with us.  Build the Globe II with us.  Set aside some time to see shows in the year 2038; I hear our 50th Anniversary is going to be a great one.

– Zach Armstrong, ASC Business Assistant

Centered on Shakespeare: My Transformative Summer Experience

“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.”

2013 ASCTC Camper Aric Floyd performs at the Blackfriars Playhouse

Upon writing these simple words, the newborn Shakespearean analyst in me is already overturning them in my mind, pondering how the uneven rhythm of the monosyllables reflects the insanity of the speaker, Ophelia, and how the eerie vagueness of her declaration simultaneously recollects her father’s death and foreshadows her own. A few months ago, I would have missed completely these nuances. I would have seen in this brief excerpt only a profound yet direct statement: our destiny is a thing too complex to comprehend, our future full of unimagined possibility – something like that. Attending the first session of the American Shakespeare Center Theater Camp is what gave me the tools and the knowledge to appreciate the brilliance of Shakespeare’s wordcraft, but even so, when reflecting on my experience there it is not the subtleties of this passage’s language that come to mind, but rather that original, simple conclusion. For, above all else, my three weeks in Staunton, Virginia taught me that we can never predict what passions we might discover. I went into camp a Shakespearean amateur, and emerged with a love of English Renaissance theater that I doubt will ever be extinguished.

I consider myself incredibly lucky to have begun reading Shakespeare at a young age, and even luckier to have been able to perform his monologues throughout my high school career by participating in the National Shakespeare Competition. This past year especially, in preparing for this event, I found myself immersed in reading and thinking about the Bard’s work for several months, enjoying each new play I tackled more than the last. But there is a level of appreciation for what William Shakespeare truly was that cannot be tapped during a solo soliloquy. It is accessible, I discovered, only through the magical process of collaborative performance, of working with and feeding off fellow actors to breathe life into Shakespeare’s scenes.

Camp afforded me the opportunity to do just that, and what’s more, to do so in the way that Shakespeare’s own company would have. In the midst of movie nights, field trips and all the fun of a typical summer camp, we found ourselves, in Early Renaissance fashion, reading from cue scripts with little more than our own lines and discovering how this process transformed the dynamic of dialogue. We infused live music and dance in our performances, just as the King’s Men would have done. Perhaps most notably, we were able to perform the fruits of our hard work on the stage of the gorgeous Blackfriars Playhouse, the world’s only re-creation of Shakespeare’s indoor theater in London. Performing for, or rather interacting with, audiences there, untethered from a wireless microphone and unbound by a fourth wall, was the most liberating theatrical experience of my life.

The American Shakespeare Center makes the Bard’s work what it should be: not high art reserved for the most erudite members of our society, but entertainment for all. It is truly an amazing thing to attend a performance there and see patrons from seven to seventy years old, wearing anything from blazers to blue jeans, laughing at jokes and gasping at plot twists that are still captivating four hundred years after their creation. I hope that one day Shakespeare and all the work he inspired can be as regular a part of everyone’s lives as they are for the residents of Staunton. Until then, though, I will forever by grateful for the opportunity I had this summer to glimpse all that this incredible playwright has to offer.

– Aric Floyd

Stories from a 1st-time ASC Theatre Camper

When a friend of mine told me about ASC and the ASC Theatre Camp (ASCTC), I expected it to be enjoyable, but more work than fun. However, in the course of the first few days of camp, I realized how amazing and nice everyone there was. Counselors, directors, and fellow campers all supported each other fully. The workshops that I had expected to be dry and boring turned out to be engaging and fun, while at the same time accomplishing their goal of teaching everyone something new. Something about the people there, the shared interests, or something impossible to put into words bred an aura of openness, and everyone felt it. There was no need to hide yourself as people so often do; nobody at camp was going to judge you, think worse of you, or make fun of you. More often than not, the crazy stuff about the people at camp that people in their day-to-day lives would make fun of made everyone like them more. Even though the camp only lasted three weeks, in that time everyone became such good friends with everyone else. I know of no other place in the world that this could happen.

As an actor used to being on stage in a proscenium theatre where the audience is all to one side and in the dark, one would think that transitioning to being surrounded by and able to see the audience would be difficult and stressful. In fact, while the transition was slightly difficult, it was more fun than anything. People sitting on stage and being able to see the audience made it seem like I wasn’t acting in front of an audience, but rather in a group of friends. Lowering the fourth wall and being allowed and encouraged to interact with the audience was amazing. During All’s Well That Ends Well (one of the shows we saw the resident troupe put on) an actor delivered part of a line to me, making me feel like I was a part of the story. When I felt that, I decided that I was going to make someone else feel that way during our show. While the character I played in The Taming of the Shrew, Gremio, didn’t have many moments that I found to interact with the audience, in the few that I did, being able to bring members of the audience further into the story felt awesome.

ASCTC was one of the most amazing experiences I have been through.

– Colin Archer