What we teach at the Funnery
On this page you'll find out about our approach to Shakespeare,
the basic physical theatre techniques we teach,
and "The Sign of the Four!"
Each summer we bring young actors together in the gorgeous Green Mountain State. We train for just two weeks. We create an intentional community of the arts. Then we put on a production that we're proud to show to anyone in the world.
How do we do it? We get physical! With great warm-ups, voice training, and techniques passed on to us by amazing teachers, like Jacques LeCoq, Tony Montanaro, and Gould & Stearns, we get Shakespeare's language to leap right off the page. With our original "Vector Training," we teach Shakespearean speech in a way that young people will never forget.
Why do we do it?
We think that Funnery training is so positive, it's the CURE for everything negative, cynical, depressing, scary, or commercial that threatens to colonize our bodies and brains.
We wish we could be together for the other fifty weeks of the year.
But we're not. So we make it last.
How do we do it? We get physical! With great warm-ups, voice training, and techniques passed on to us by amazing teachers, like Jacques LeCoq, Tony Montanaro, and Gould & Stearns, we get Shakespeare's language to leap right off the page. With our original "Vector Training," we teach Shakespearean speech in a way that young people will never forget.
Why do we do it?
We think that Funnery training is so positive, it's the CURE for everything negative, cynical, depressing, scary, or commercial that threatens to colonize our bodies and brains.
We wish we could be together for the other fifty weeks of the year.
But we're not. So we make it last.
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The Sign of the Four
The four main elements of our daily teaching: Heart, Mind, Body, and Voice. If you ever see anyone wearing a "Get Thee to the Funnery" T-shirt, make the Sign of the Four. It'll come right back at you.
HEART: We work on empathy: for each other, for the material, for our audience, our community, and for Shakespeare himself.
MIND: We help each other to understand every word, context, and character. We learn history and culture, and we discuss Shakespeare's constant relevance to the world of today. We calm our minds with meditation, too.
BODY: We physicalize as much as we can—not to subtract any words from the text, but to clarify them.
We train with yoga, stretching, mime, dance, eclectic movement, and more!
VOICE: We learn about resonance and articulation, and we sing. We care enough about our audience that we want everyone to hear and understand! We dive deep and discover what may be blocking our free and natural voice, and we work to get whatever it is out of the way.
You may hear about this "Sign of the Four" somewhere else. Remember: it all began at the Funnery!
HEART: We work on empathy: for each other, for the material, for our audience, our community, and for Shakespeare himself.
MIND: We help each other to understand every word, context, and character. We learn history and culture, and we discuss Shakespeare's constant relevance to the world of today. We calm our minds with meditation, too.
BODY: We physicalize as much as we can—not to subtract any words from the text, but to clarify them.
We train with yoga, stretching, mime, dance, eclectic movement, and more!
VOICE: We learn about resonance and articulation, and we sing. We care enough about our audience that we want everyone to hear and understand! We dive deep and discover what may be blocking our free and natural voice, and we work to get whatever it is out of the way.
You may hear about this "Sign of the Four" somewhere else. Remember: it all began at the Funnery!
Our style
We gear all our daily activities to form a sprawling happy ensemble. And then we cast the play! We have no stars; we share roles. One summer, six different people played King Lear. Five of them were girls. Sometimes our urge to multiply or divide a role brings unexpected dividends, like when we discovered that Trinculo in the Tempest could be a terrible ventriloquist!
Most years, we perform in the formal garden at Sterling College, with the Vermont hills as our backdrop. Costumes and props are minimal. We're all visible all of the time, watching the action, adding voices, being responsible for the whole play, not just the several scenes we are in.
Our campers come back for more every summer, so they'll have a chance to play young, old, male, female, any gender, comic, tragic, noble and lowly, by the time they're just too old to do camp any more.
Then, if they're lucky, and we're lucky, too, they may join our staff!
Most years, we perform in the formal garden at Sterling College, with the Vermont hills as our backdrop. Costumes and props are minimal. We're all visible all of the time, watching the action, adding voices, being responsible for the whole play, not just the several scenes we are in.
Our campers come back for more every summer, so they'll have a chance to play young, old, male, female, any gender, comic, tragic, noble and lowly, by the time they're just too old to do camp any more.
Then, if they're lucky, and we're lucky, too, they may join our staff!
SPECIAL VOICE TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES
SOMETIMES we hold special during-the-year VOCAL TRAINING. Like the one we just did on ZOOM on Friday and Saturday April 2nd and 3rd, (9:00 am US Eastern Time and 6:30 pm India Standard Time, sponsored by Thespo in India and Funnery in Vermont, but available all over the globe! Here's the link: