In the summer of 1981, Sam Wanamaker, the American actor and director, and founder of the Shakespeare Globe Centre, observed Louis Fantasia teaching a workshop in London on Bertolt Brecht.
Sam, wearing his trade-mark cardigan sweater and flowered shirt from Liberty's department store, introduced himself to Fantasia and said, "Why don't you come and do this for us? This is where we're going to re-build Shakespeare's Globe theatre."
"Uhuh", Fantasia remembers replying. "I tried hard to be polite and not too skeptical. And then, as Sam went on, I found myself saying, 'All right', little knowing how that first encounter would change the next twenty years of my life; providing me - eventually! - with the opportunity, challenge and privilege of working on the Globe stage."
As a result, from 1982 to 1991, Louis ran a summer course at the Globe for American drama students from various universities. It was in these workshops, with students coming from disparate backgrounds, with different levels of experience and training, that Instant Shakespeare was born.
"We offered a crash course in Shakespeare and the London theatre, with an international faculty, culminating in a full production of a play --usually done with less than a week's rehearsal."
Truly instant!
In 1989, Fantasia became Education Director of the Globe's U.S. Western Region, one of five original regional centers of The Shakespeare Globe (USA) founded by Sam Wanamaker to help rebuild Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London and to promote the study of Shakespeare through performance. In that capacity Fantasia produced a series of conferences and workshops for students, teachers, theatre professionals and the general public. Among these were
Shakespeare in the Non English-Speaking World;
O Brave New Will;
Images Of Justice and Intolerance In Shakespeare;
Sunshine After Storm - Shakespeare and the Japanese Theatre;
Shakespeare, Passion and the Body Politic;
Shakespeare, California and the Spanish Connection,
and a series of workshops for actors entitled
Shakespeare and the Human Voice.
From its inception in 1997, he has been the director of the Globe's Teaching Shakespeare Through Performance summer London institute, which has trained more than one hundred and fifty U.S. secondary school teachers. He serves as co-chairman of the Western Region's Board of Directors and has been a member of the Globe USA's national board of directors, its executive committee, and its education and international advisory committees. In
1994 he was asked to write and direct "Within This Wooden O", the American memorial tribute to Sam Wanamaker.
[ Ordering | About Book | About Author | Contact | About Globe | Louis & Globe | About Workshops | Booking Workshops | Tools | Links ]
All rights reserved.
Photograhy credits