Non-Discrimination

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Baltimore Shakespeare Factory (BSF) is an equal-opportunity nonprofit organization committed to serving a diverse population. BSF does not discriminate against individuals based on race, creed, color, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, familial status, age, citizenship status, veteran status, or the presence of any disability.
This policy extends to staff, administration, actors, performers, designers, board members, and volunteers.

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What We Are Looking For

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• We want actors who are willing to be a member of an ensemble -- we want to remove the "drama" from drama -- we want actors who can play well in the sandbox.

• We want actors who are dependable, responsible, and generous – actors who realize the good of the many outweigh the good of the few, or the one (thank you, Mr. Spock).

• We love to see actors make BIG, BOLD choices.

• We want actors who LOVE THE LANGUAGE and relish speaking it.

• We want actors who are willing to do ALL the necessary text work required by this company.

• We love actors who are comfortable making strong eye contact with our audiences and interacting with them when it is appropriate -- so please don't hesitate to make eye contact with the auditors during the auditions if your text calls for it.

• We want actors who are on time to rehearsals and calls and off-book when requested.

• We want actors who are willing to learn and grow.

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Who We Are

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• We are dedicated to producing the works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries by employing, as closely as possible, the staging conditions used by Shakespeare and his contemporaries – see below for more information about these staging conditions.  

• We celebrate the concept of being an ensemble who works cooperatively together to achieve our artistic philosophy.

• We do NOT produce shows that involve an elaborate "notion" or a "concept."

• We are EXTREMELY DEDICATED TO THE TEXT -- we work hard on paraphrasing, scansion, analysis of rhetoric, and other text concepts which we believe enables us to produce shows of excellent clarity (don’t worry, we will help you to develop these skills if you are not familiar with this type of work).  We are iambic fundamentalists, and we are proud of it!

 

Shakespearean Staging Conditions

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• Use of universal lighting so actors can see the audience, and the audience members can see each other interact.  We do not want our audiences to feel that they are "AT" a play, we want them to feel they are "IN" a play.

• Cross-gender casting -- Shakespeare's female characters were played by males -- we let the women in on the fun. 

• Doubling -- most actors play more than one role -- some play MANY roles. 

• Use of modern music in our pre-show and interlude (Shakespeare used the modern music of his day). 

• Limited (if any) set pieces -- what we use we carry on and take off with each scene. 

• A brisk pace -- we do not use unnecessary an self-indulgent pauses, and we move very quickly from scene-to-scene -- as one scene is ending, the other is beginning.  We make every attempt to see that our shows adhere to Shakespeare's "two hours traffic of our stage". 

 

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Thanks for your interest in Baltimore Shakespeare Factory and we hope to see you at auditions!