Professional isn't about the paycheck. It's about the skills.
And wanting to be more skilled at the things you love is only logical.

So let's keep growing skills together.

Join us for an engaging and interactive workshop designed to hone your theatrical skills and help you feel more in control of your rehearsal process. The Community Theatre Acting Intensive event is an excellent opportunity for early career actors looking to take the next step. 

Hosted on August 22-23, 2026 in Madison, Wisconsin, this workshop invites 10 actors to immerse themselves in a safe environment, guided by seasoned professionals, to play with some performance and rehearsal tools and to flex their muscles a little bit.

Using Shakespeare's text as a base over the course of two days we will cover:

Rhetoric - breaking down text to use it more effectively.

Movement - exercises to bring you to neutral before rehearsal/shows and exercises to help build out character postures and movement on that neutral base.

Vocal - exercises to build a warm-up practice for breath and vocals and strategies for making strong vocal choices.

Strategies - for staying on track and in control of the work you need to accomplish in rehearsal. 

This is not an audition class.

This is not a class about emotive acting.

This is a class about getting better and more efficient at everything else to free up rehearsal time for the rest of the work.

This class will be physical and demanding of your voice.
It is intended for adults and no participants under 18 will be allowed.

The 10-hour intensive is presented by director and historian Dr. Christina Gutierrez-Dennehy of Western Washington University, artist and educator David Boss, and Madison-based performer Travis Bedard (Madison Shakespeare Company, Mercury Players, Madison Public Theatre).

Dr. Christina Gutierrez-Dennehy
is a Director, a Theatre Historian, and a Theatre Educator. She is currently on the faculty of Western Washington University as an Assistant Professor of Theatre History and Theatre for Youth (and a faculty director). She is also a freelance director operating out of Washington, Texas, Arizona, and California, and is the co-Artistic Director of the 7 Towers Theatre Company in Austin, Texas.

Christina holds a Ph.D. in Performance as Public Practice from the University of Texas at Austin, with a dissertation focusing on re-imaginings of medieval history in 21st century performance contexts. She also holds an MA in Theatre History from the University of Colorado at Boulder where she spent time as a production dramaturg for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.

David Boss
Biography

Travis Bedard
is an award winning performer and puppeteer currently encamped in Madison, Wisconsin. From NH by way of San Francisco, Austin, TX, & the Twin Cities, he has proudly performed in parks and prisons, cafeterias and churches… even a few theatres. He plays a lot of very bad people very well. Most recently he performed with Madison Shakespeare Company (Edward IV, Comedy of Errors, Love’s Labours Lost Twelfth Night); the Mercury Players (Threepenny Opera, Hamlet, Becky’s New Car), as well as Langely Collyer for Madison Public Theatre, Count Almaviva in Falconbridge Players premiere of “A Timely Intervention by the Former Barber of Seville (Figaro’s Final Adventure)”, and Luke in the Broom Street Theatre premiere of “Doed Koecks”.

To register for the intensive please fill out the form below.
Registration for the intensive will cost $100 - payable via Venmo.

Registration Form