Prague Shakespeare Company 2025 Summer Shakespeare Intensive

About the Program

I attended Prague Shakespeare Company’s 6-week Summer Shakespeare Intensive, an annual event that gathers dozens of students and faculty from across the globe in historic Prague. The intensive had two main parts: workshop-style classes and practical production experience.
Through classes, I explored topics such as Shakespeare’s verse, Chekov technique, voice, clown, playwriting, scene study, and improv. Classes were scattered around a ~1 mile radius within the city, so I got to work in a variety of (gorgeous) spaces around Prague. Each instructor had a different approach to Shakespeare, and I developed a sense of which approaches resonated with me and which did not. I was also able to get invaluable information and advice on the business of theater at weekly panel discussions, where I got an idea of the landscape and trends of Shakespeare theater today.

Over six weeks, I worked on three productions: Macbeth, directed by Nicolette Bethel and Phillip Burrows, where I played a witch; Romeo & Juliet, directed by Dmitry Troyanovsky, where I worked as the stage manager/assistant director; and Pop-Up Shakespeare, a collection of short performances directed by Jennifer King and Suzanne Dean, in which I performed a sonnet and scene.

In our version of Macbeth, developed originally at Shakespeare in Paradise, the three witches double as various supporting characters to infiltrate the Macbeths’ world and push them slowly into chaos. Re-styled as charismatic radio hosts, they charm the audience immediately – yet they are also responsible for much of the play’s destruction, brutally murdering Macduff’s wife onstage. The relationship between comedy and tragedy fascinates me, and playing one of these double-dealing witches was a fruitful way to explore it.

Romeo & Juliet offered the decidedly different, but equally valuable, challenge of stage managing a play in an unfamiliar city at an unfamiliar theater company. Memorable moments include searching the city for the right place to pick up the keys to the rehearsal space and taking the tram with a suitcase full of costume masks at my side and a prop cane over my arm.

Pop-Up Shakespeare was rehearsed in public at a local park. Memorable moments include searching through the park for the perfect setting for each scene or sonnet, nearly falling into the Vltava River, and seeing a construction worker turn his head to observe us (he did not comment).
In addition to these three productions, I was able to see 20 plays — mostly Shakespeare or Shakespeare-inspired, including a few in Czech, and visit various fascinating theaters and historical sites around Prague and Český Krumlov.

Through this intensive, I got to learn from and work with dozens of accomplished Shakespearean artists from around the world, from actors to directors to expert teachers to playwrights to artistic directors. I look forward to further adventures in the world of Shakespeare.