Actors' Shakespeare Project

CONTACT:

191 Highland Avenue
Somerville, MA 02143
617/776-2200, X221
actorsshakespeareproject.org

Sara Stackhouse, Executive Producer

DESCRIPTION:

Shakespeare, of course, was a philanthropist—loving what it is to be human, helping us all to be more fully humane, focusing on quality of life. His audiences—from Queen and Court to commoners—were captivated by the sonorous magic of his words, the power of the acting, and the relevance of the issues dramatized, both to daily life and to timeless human verities. In that same spirit, ASP was founded in 2004 by Benjamin Evett, a 20-year veteran actor/director in the American Repertory Theater, for the common good in Boston today. ASP has staged sixteen productions, featuring some of the area’s finest actors in a straightforward, bare-bones, text-focused style. They have won three Eliot Norton Awards—two for Best Actor, one for Best Director. But what is much more, each play is the centerpiece of a larger community project, with a focus on economically disadvantaged communities. The plays have been presented not only in proper theatres, but in all manner of neighborhood venues throughout Greater Boston. A 2008 National Endowment for the Arts grant, "Shakespeare for a New Generation",enabled ASP to establish year-long residencies in twelve underserved Massachusetts schools. Each production to schools, youth correctional facilities, and to those who cannot pay, generates workshops and real-life interactions with students, who are encouraged not just to study the plays academically as literature, but to embody them, and through them to find their own voices. If you believe in the value of rendering art of the highest quality with and for everyone, for our common weale, this is your chance to participate.

(2008: CULTURE: Arts: Performing: Theatre)