Now Accepting Actor/Students
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Phone: 310-455-9400

Meeting Saturday mornings, 11 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
At the Globe in Topanga

Workshop Fee: $295 for 8 weekly sessions
10 weeks to complete the 8 sessions
Prerequisite: acting training or experience

IF YOU THINK YOU NEED TO GO TO ENGLAND TO STUDY SHAKESPEARE, THINK AGAIN....

Is it necessary to go to England to study Shakespeare?

England is a wonderful place to go for a visit, to get a feel for the countryside, castles, inns and other places about which Shakespeare wrote. If you open yourself to it, you can sense the presence of Shakespeare in his old haunts in London and Stratford-Upon-Avon.

But you don’t have to go to England to study good Shakespearean acting. In fact, sadly, many actors come back from a summer of studying Shakespeare in England with woefully inadequate professional skills.

The professional training you think you’ll  get in England,
you can get here at—

The Actor's Shakespeare Workshop

YOU CAN GET THE BEST SHAKESPEARE TRAINING IN THE WORLD RIGHT HERE...

WHAT SKILLS DO I NEED TO BE A
GREAT SHAKESPEAREAN ACTOR?

Acting, Voice, Diction, Movement, Appreciation for the Beauty of Speech, Poetry and Rhythm, and an Historical Perspective of the Elizabethan Period. This all adds up to Style. You get it professionally at—

WHAT DO I WORK ON AT THE
ACTOR’S SHAKESPEARE WORKSHOP THAT I WON’T GET IN A REGULAR ACTING CLASS?

In the Academy we specialize in those techniques you must have to be an excellent Shakespearean actor. 

These include:

ACTING

You continue working on good acting technique here, with emphasis on its application to Shakespeare. The basic elements of good acting are the same whether you are acting in film, on television, in a modern stage production or a classical play, but there is a technique and style to acting Shakespeare that all good Shakespearean actors learn. It puts the professional polish on your performance.

VOICE

Voice is especially important when you are performing Shakespeare. You learn and practice  regular warmups and exercises that develop your resonance and diction. You use Standard American Stage Speech, which is the kind of speech used by professional American actors when they are doing non-dialect roles, including Shakespeare, on camera or on stage.

You explore the sensuous beauty of your voice and learn how to use it to express the emotion and meaning in the lines.

MOVEMENT

What do you do with your hands? How do you stand? You learn how to be physically at ease doing Shakespeare. Naturalness within the needs of the situation and the character is the key. You learn what is appropriate to acting Shakespeare, from absolute stillness to grandiose gesture.

SCANSION

Shakespeare wrote his verse dialogue in iambic pentameter. Scansion is the technique for analyzing the rhythms in the verse lines. There is no mystery to scansion. In one session you learn the four simple steps of correct scansion. It’s so clear and easy that you’ll say, along with many others, “Why wasn’t I taught this before?” I don’t know. When I found out how easy it was I was just as surprised as you will be.

Some actors and directors claim you don’t need to be able to do this kind of analysis. That shows a great misunderstanding of what professional Shakespearean acting requires. An actor should be prepared!

LINE ANALYSIS

You learn a simple and unique four step approach to discover the meaning and emotion in the lines—based on acting techniques actually used by Elizabethan actors. It’s the approach Shakespeare used in his writing and acting.

MONOLOGUE and DIALOGUE ANALYSIS

You learn how to discover the thought process within a speech—from an actor’s point of view. You learn how to connect the thoughts to each other to build the dramatic effect.

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

The Elizabethan view of life was in many ways different from and in many ways similar to ours. Often an awareness of these parallels and differences gives insight into the needs and intentions of Shakespeare’s characters. A study of the Elizabethan period is part of the workshop.

MONOLOGUE & SCENE WORK

Every actor must work every class period. Members begin with sonnets and monologues and then move on to scenes.

One of the aims of the workshop is to give you two good audition monologues.

Videotaping of the workshop is available, though it is used at the discretion of the director of the workshop.

SHAKESPEARE WORKSHOP MEMBERS SAY:

“Thanks for being so patient. I’m really enjoying the class. For the first time I feel like I’ve finally got a grasp on Shakespeare’s style!”

K.P., Actor

“Thank you for your persistence. A good swift boot is at times required!”

M.P., Actor

“I’m so glad I decided to take this class. Shakespeare isn’t intimidating anymore, it’s FUN! Geoffrey Forward has been supportive and patient with my lack of knowledge of Shakespeare. I’m ready to enroll in a second course to continue working on my monologues. I definitely do and have been recommending the class to my friends.”

L. H., Actor

“I really enjoyed the class, felt that I learned a lot, and look forward to working further with you.”

A.C., Lawyer

“His work with us not only made the work more accessible, but fine tuned as an actor.”

B. Misty Wycoff

“Mr. Forward understands the wholeness of Shakespeare. His teaching extends from the actors voice and diction right through to a clear understanding of Shakespeare’s words. Simple yet powerful. It has been a privilege to have been in this workshop.”

Beth Macmillan

“Geoffrey G. Forward’s workshop is very enthralling! I learned a lot from you. Thank you, sir!”

Brian Donalson

“Geoffrey, Thank you for giving us the workshop. I found it extremely interesting and educational. I would like to go through more of the history of Shakespeare.”

James Wood

“Mr. Forward’s workshops made Shakespeare accessible, exciting and fun. I saw grown actors diving for dictionaries and tasting text as if for the first time. If you want a clear direct way to untangle text, his method works. If you want to get excited about Shakespeare, Geoffrey will take you there.”

Anonymous

“Geoffrey G. Forward’s The Actor’s Shakespeare Workshop was a revelation. No actor should attempt Shakespeare without this knowledge.”

Lois Brady

“I’m really enjoying your Shakespeare class. Even the iambic.”

Ross Mackenzie

“Geoffrey, thank you very much for your fabulous workshop. I learned so much from your class; voice, imagination, history, emotion and character, that this will be something that I will bring not only to Shakespeare, but to the whole art of acting in general. Thanks for making Shakespeare come to life! It was a real joy and I can’t wait until your next class.”

Jack Freiberger

“Mr. Forward’s class is a complet and comprehensive understanding of Shakespeare and his language. Mr. Forward is patient and thorough with his students as well athe complexities of the Bard.”

Pauline Tannous

“Dear Geoff, I wanted to thank you firstly for writing a recommendation for me but mostly for all you’ve taught me in your class. I can’t tell you how much I look forward to Saturdays and how elated I feel after each class. I appreciate all your taught me as well as your help with my audition monologues and recommendations. I hope I one day get the chance to work with you as actor and director, but for now I’ve enjoyed student and teacher. Thanks again.”

Amanda Rafuse

“I really enjoyed the class, felt that I learned a lot, and look forward to working further with you.”

Anthony Castanares

“Geoff, thanks for being so patient. I’m really enjoying the class. For the first time I feel like I’ve finally got a grasp on Shakespeare’s style.”

Kevan Patriquin

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Geoffrey G. Forward

The Founder and Artistic Director of The Los Angeles Shakespeare Company, Mr. Forward is a Shakespearean actor, director, author  teacher, and scholar.

Born in Wales and educated in Canada and the United States, Mr.Forward received his B.F.A.and M.F.A. in Acting and Directing from the University of Utah. He has  been teaching Shakespeare  performance to professional actors for over 20 years. He is a former vocal coach for The Shakespeare Society of America and for 7 years was an instructor at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Mr. Forward has been a distinguished author and Shakespearean scholar at the famed Shakespeare research library, The Huntington, in San Marino, CA, where he received a grant to continue his work.

His discovery of the syllogism in Henry IV, part 1, that had eluded scholars for over 300 years was published by the prestigious Shakespeare Quarterly, Fall, 1990. He has written a number of books, including POWER SPEECH, PROSPEECH, and the critically acclaimed, AMERICAN DICTION FOR SINGERS. His book, THE COMPLETE SHAKESPEARE COMEDY AND DRAMATIC MONOLOGUES FOR WOMEN, will be published this year, to be followed shortly by two more books in the series, THE COMPLETE SHAKESPEARE COMEDY MONOLOGUES FOR MEN and THE COMPLETE SHAKESPEAREDRAMATIC MONOLOGUES FOR MEN. Mr. Forward is currently writing a new book, THE ACTOR’S SHAKESPEARE.

Although he has strong academic and scholarly credits, Mr. Forward is equally at home in the real world of Theater. Early in his career he founded and directed The Rocky Mountain Regional Theatre, in Salt Lake City, as well as, two theatres at Snowbird Ski Resort, UT, and Parkwest Ski Resort, UT. He is also the founder and artistic director for The Los Angeles Shakespeare Company.

Mr. Forward is a member of SAG, AFTRA and AEA and has acted in or directed dozens of professional productions, with such stars as Academy Award winner, Joan Fontaine, James MacArthur and Emmy Award winner, Heather Tom.

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ON GEOFFREY G. FORWARD’S SPEECH BOOKS:

“Move over, Henry Higgins!...At last everything we’ve always wanted to know about speech (but were afraid to ask)...not only covers what to do, but almost more importantly, Mr. Forward explains to us how to do it!”

Allan Hunt, Award-winning
Stage Director

“...an invaluable tool for anyone... I am particularly impressed with “Expressive Speech” where you give a creative process to making the mechanics of speech meaningful and fun... I certainly will be recommending your book...!”

Joel Asher, Director, Acting Coach
Creator of “Actors at Work” Videos

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Actor's Shakespeare Academy
Location

Mailing address:
2123 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd.
Topanga, CA  90290
(310) 455-9400

The Academy outdoor, full-size Shakespearean stage is located in beautiful Topanga Canyon, midway between Santa Monica and Malibu. Shaded by giant oak trees, cooled by the ocean breeze, with a magnificent view, it is 15 minutes from the Pacific Ocean and 10 minutes from San Fernando Valley.

Directions to the Forward Globe Stage: 

Depending on where you are coming from, you may want to take Pacific Coast Highway (1) or Ventura Freeway (101).

From Pacific Coast Highway, turn north on Topanga Canyon Blvd.. Drive approximately 12 minutes up the canyon. Look for the address 2123, on your left.

From the Ventura Freeway (101) take Topanga Canyon Blvd., south. Drive approximately 10 minutes into the canyon. Look for the address, 2123, on your right.

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