ABSTRACT
Acting styles have evolved across the centuries in correlation to the architecture of theatre spaces. Likewise Shakespeare & Company’s habitations have influenced their performance aesthetic. Beginning with their first home – the abandoned mansion of novelist Edith Wharton named ‘The Mount’ in Lenox, Massachusetts – we explore how the vast outdoor Mainstage, the intimate indoor Salon, the rough-hewn Stables and the smaller, outdoor Oxford Court activated not only the Company’s repertoire but also their ability to establish training forums and apprenticeships. A controversy with their sister company and ‘house-mate’ – Edith Wharton Restoration Inc. – led to their move onto the multi-acre campus at 70 Kemble Street (formerly Lenox Boys’ School, followed by the eccentric Bible Speaks and the eclectic National Music Foundation). We see how the new property exponentially expanded the Company’s Training, Education and Performance programs, while also bringing its own challenges and dreams. With venues comprising the Tina Packer Playhouse, Elayne Bernstein Theatre, Rose Footprint and Roman Garden Theatre, we examine how the Mission Statement (upholding the Elizabethan values of Inquiry, Balance and Harmony) emphasizes ensemble, ‘artist manager’ structures and the expansiveness of the Elizabethan World View, when the sky is literally the limit.
