Contact: Jean Dykstra
(212) 992-9825
jmd7@nyu.edu
Faculty member Ben Steinfeld, co-founder of the critically acclaimed Fiasco Theater Company, has introduced an intensive summer theater workshop at NYU Gallatin. The course, which is focused on acting, runs five days a week for three weeks.
During that time, eight very committed undergraduates will put together the first act and a half of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The workshop will conclude with an “open rehearsal,” staged on the afternoon of June 15 in the Jerry H. Labowitz Theater for the Performing Arts. Steinfeld is teaching the class with Fiasco co-founders Jessie Austrian and Noah Brody.
“The class functions as part of Fiasco’s ongoing residency and relationship with Gallatin,” says Steinfeld, adding, “This is the first time Fiasco has ever done a classical theater boot camp.”
Fiasco’s production of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline last year was widely praised, and one of the things the students are being taught, Steinfeld adds, “is how an ensemble works together to build a show. And we’re able to model that through our teaching.”
A robust theatrical culture has been fostered at Gallatin, says Steinfeld, "and we've proven that an active artistic theatrical practice is something that can be at the center of an intellectual community.”
