Montague Shakespeare Festival expands in second year

This year’s lineup for the Montague Shakespeare Festival begins with Elle While, who brings a long performance and directorial background in both Shakespeare and outside work. Her Jan. 3 Zoom workshop titled “Recasting the Script — Shifting Away from Traditional Gender Imbalance” will explore gender dynamics in theater. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Published: 01-01-2025 12:01 PM |
TURNERS FALLS — Kenny Butler feels the works of Shakespeare should be accessible for everyone.
To help achieve this goal, Butler, founder and executive director of the Montague Shakespeare Festival, has worked with his team to set up Zoom workshops with creatives from Globe Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Co. to offer new perspectives on the works of the Bard of Avon.
Starting Friday, Jan. 3, and running through Friday, Feb. 28, the Montague Shakespeare Festival will host one-hour workshops via Zoom for anyone who is interested in learning more about the artistry behind Shakespeare, and to further explore acting in the context of the works of Shakespeare by hearing perspectives from acclaimed actors and directors.
The Montague Shakespeare Festival hosted workshops both in person and on Zoom in the spring of 2024, and this year the number of workshops has expanded. These workshops will lead up to six performances of “Macbeth: Something Wicked This Way Comes” starting the weekend of March 28 at the Shea Theater Arts Center.
Butler, along with Nia Lynn, who is artistic director of the Montague Shakespeare Festival and this year’s director of “Macbeth,” worked to secure the workshop leads through the connections Lynn has, especially with her background at the Royal Shakespeare Co. as a performer, and as a voice and text coach.
“These are all people she’s worked with,” Butler said. “We want to do more workshops, and we would like to have different voices in there, different people, different ideas.”
This year’s lineup begins with Elle While, who brings a long performance and directorial background in both Shakespeare and outside work. Her workshop titled “Recasting the Script — Shifting Away from Traditional Gender Imbalance” will explore gender dynamics in theater and “how we can shift away from traditional imbalances,” according to the workshop description.
While will examine gender within Shakespeare and other classic theater, and lean into how modern theatrical productions can evolve these shows by removing gender limitations. While is offering this workshop only a few months out from directing “Richard III” at Globe Theatre in London, where the cast was nearly entirely female, with actors playing both male and female characters.
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For the subsequent January workshops, actress and director Madeleine Hyland will discuss Shakespeare’s verse in storytelling on Jan. 10, actress Nia Gwynne will explore the nuanced villains of Shakespeare on Jan. 17, director Aileen Gonsalves will talk about her “Gonsalves Method” for acting on Jan. 24 and actor Ben Addis will discuss the Shakespeare soliloquy on Jan. 31.
Actress Hannah Young, voice and text coach Zoe Littleton, actress Siubhan Harrison and actor Tyreke Leslie will offer workshops in February, leading up to the “Macbeth” shows.
For Butler, he said he’ll be learning alongside everyone else in attendance at the workshops. To him, these workshops present the unique opportunity to learn from those who’ve not only formulated these ideas, but have put them to work.
“The great thing here is this isn’t just someone’s ideas. This is somebody who has put their ideas into action, saw the response from the actors themselves, to the producers, to the public, to the critics,” Butler said. “That’s going into the fire and figuring it out.”
To check out the workshops, learn more about the festival or purchase tickets for “Macbeth,” visit the Montague Shakespeare Festival website at montagueshakespearefestival.com/all-upcoming-workshops. Classes are each $25.
Erin-Leigh Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.