Preview: Shakespeare & Company, Free Friday Talks

Shakespeare & Company, Lenox, MA

www.shakespeare.org

Fridays in July and August

Shakespeare & Company has added a new series this season of free Friday morning talks to their summer programming. Once each month the public is invited to hear members of upcoming productions talk about their work. The talks, which were originally scheduled to begin during the 2020 season, are led by Ann Berman. 

Ann Berman

A long-time volunteer at Actors’ Shakespeare Project in Boston, Ann combines that connection with teaching in the Life-long Learning at Regis College program in Weston, MA to present courses based on the organization's productions. Her work includes classroom visits from company members and attendance at performances.

Ann is an international Shakespeare scholar who moved to the Berkshires in 2020 soon after earning a Masters in Shakespeare Studies from Kings College London, a program co-sponsored by Shakespeare’s Globe. In other words, these Friday Talks are coordinated by a true Shakespeare aficionado, yet with a non-didactic and light touch of knowledge

Designed to provide interested members of the community with background information about the plays, each talk includes a summary of the plot (no spoilers, though) and characters, information on the play’s development and previous productions, and a Q and A session with people involved in the production, including the director. 

Audience members ask questions about the rehearsal process, what is timely about the project, and more. Attendees at the first session, which focused on The  Approachby Mark O’Ware, who then saw the play, reported being able to appreciate more of its nuances as well as feeling oriented right from the start of the play.

She was developing a series of production-related talks at Shakespeare and Company when the season was shut down. Since then, she has joined both OLLI (Osher Life-long Learning Institute), taking classes as well as teaching classes on early modern plays, and Shakespeare and Volunteer Company, supporting S&Co by gardening, baking, ushering and serving as S&V Co vice-president. She is very happy to be a part of these talks, sharing her interest in learning more about theater with others.