The American Shakespeare Center Theatre Camp offers two summer Shakespeare intensives for ages 13-18 (residential or day camp). In each three-week session campers perform in an hour-long version of a Shakespeare play; participate in performance master classes (stage combat, dance, music, acrobatics); attend academic classes (theatre history, scansion/rhetoric, source study); and visit the Blackfriars Playhouse to watch the professional Resident and Touring Troupe actors rehearse and perform in our summer season of plays.
The shows in the camp's line-up have a Greek theme this year, in that we chose plays that Shakespeare (and Marlowe) set in Greece. In addition to studying Shakespeare and the early modern period, this summer's line-up will allow us to steep ourselves in Grecian manners, masks, and mythology. We’re also excited by the challenge of working on four plays that are new to our repertory: Two Noble Kinsmen, Timon of Athens, Troilus and Cressida, and Dido, Queen of Carthage, will see their premiere performances on the Blackfriars Stage this summer.
Session 1: June 19 – July 10, 2011- The Winter’s Tale follows the tale of King Leontes, whose irrational jealousy leads him to accuse his wife of infidelity with his best friend. After the apparent deaths of his wife and son, Leontes abandons his infant daughter, Perdita, who is taken in and raised by shepherds. Sixteen years later, a series of surprises and reunions force Leontes to re-examine his choices.
- Two Noble Kinsmen is a collaboration between Shakespeare and his successor with the King’s Men, John Fletcher, and is also an adaptation of a tale out of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. Best friends Palamon and Arcite are imprisoned in Athens, and both fall in love with the same woman, the Princess Emilia, who they see from their prison window. Their friendship turns to bitter enmity, and they decide they must break out of prison and settle the rivalry with a public tournament.
- Timon of Athens begins the play as a wealthy and generous gentleman, but when his supposed friends take advantage of his benevolence, eventually driving him to bankruptcy, his attitude changes. Cynical and betrayed, Timon retreats to a cave in the woods and tries to shut out the world which continues to make demands on him.
- Troilus and Cressida takes place towards the end of the Trojan War. The eponymous lovers are separated when the Trojans offer up Cressida as a prisoner of war to the Greeks, placing considerable strain on her relationship with Troilus. Meanwhile, Agamemnon, leader of the Greeks, must try to convince his best warrior, the proud Achilles, to rejoin the fight.
- Dido, Queen of Carthage meets and falls in love with the refugee Trojan prince Aeneas in this play by Shakespeare’s contemporary, Christopher Marlowe. Though her love is fanatical and consuming, Aeneas eventually betrays her, driving her to desperate action.
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the ultimate frothy romance, Shakespeare’s classic tale of lovers, fairies, and amateur actors taking to the forest to sort out their tangled lives. The mischievous spirit Puck intervenes with a powerful love potion, while Oberon, the King of the Fairies, plays a trick on his Queen that leads her to a most unorthodox love affair.
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