The ASC Difference

• In the 16th century, there was no "fourth wall" ... the audience was seen as an integral part of every show, and the actors addressed them directly. The Actors Shakespeare Company performs in very much the same way, playing to the crowd as much as to the other characters on stage, creating an exciting and dynamic theatrical experience for the audience and the actors as well.
  
• ASC begins each production with the First Folio, published in 1623 by two members of Shakespeare's acting company. The Company believes that these texts can often illuminate and inform actor choices in a way that modern editions fail to do. Early spellings and punctuation are checked for meaning and actors learn to work from "cue scripts" - their own role, with a short cue line, rolled on two dowels, as historical documentation shows us that actors may have worked in Shakespeare's day. Actors and Play Masters also look to the Quarto history of each play as well as scholarly study over the past 400 years to determine the handling of controversial passages. However, intense work on the study and use of the Folio is one of the first things an actor learns at ASC.
  
  
• ASC attempts to re-create an authentic Elizabethan performance atmosphere, using unique lighting, authentic costumes and fun-filled pre-performance festivities, including professional Shakespearean insults, sword play demonstrations, songs, and dances.