A six-week intensive for actors preparing classical audition material. Small group, capped places, built around the Emily Jenkins Method. You leave with audition-ready speeches, shaped in a coached rehearsal room and tested under self-tape conditions.
Each session is two hours. The cohort works together across the six weeks, building on the same material. This is not a lecture or a watch-and-learn format. You work in every session.
You and Emily choose your classical speeches. First reads in the group. The method is introduced through the material itself, not as theory.
Breaking down the speeches line by line. Finding the playable choices: what your character is doing, not just saying. Group feedback and coached adjustments.
Working with the verse to deepen feeling rather than flatten it into correctness. How to let the structure support the performance, not constrain it.
Performing speeches under audition-like conditions. Coached feedback on what holds and what doesn't. Adjustments in the room.
Running speeches as self-tapes. Practical coaching on what casting directors see, how to hold the text on camera, and how to make classical material land in a recorded format.
A one-to-one session with Emily. Final shaping of your material. Specific notes, adjustments, and preparation for what comes next.
This is not a certificate, a showreel clip, or a polished final product. It is practical, rigorous preparation: speeches that are playable, specific, and yours. The kind of material you can walk into an audition room with and trust.
Every session in this cohort is built around the same approach Emily uses across all her work: a modern, actor-first way of working with Shakespeare that helps performers make the text playable, specific, and alive in the room.
The four pillars of the method (text into action, emotional truth, clarity under pressure, structure without rigidity) run through the cohort from week one to the final private session. Read more about the method.
No. The cohort is designed for actors at the First Folio stage: preparing for drama school, approaching classical auditions, or working with Shakespeare seriously for the first time. If you are newer to classical text, you belong here.
Email Emily with a brief note about your background, your experience with Shakespeare (if any), and what you are hoping to work on. Places are offered on a rolling basis until the cohort is full. Application details to be confirmed by Emily
No. The cohort works as a group from week one. Late entry would disrupt the room.
Sessions are live and not recorded. If you know you will miss a session, let Emily know in advance. Consistent attendance is expected. Absence policy to be confirmed by Emily
Yes. You will be working on your speeches between sessions. The group time is for coached shaping and testing, not first encounters with the material.
Zoom. You need a stable internet connection, a camera, a microphone, and a quiet space to work in.
Places are limited and offered by application. If you have questions before applying, Emily is happy to hear from you.
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