The Mission of the Grassroots Shakespeare Company:
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Grassroots is a collaborative touring ensemble of multi-disciplinary artists who create joyous, vibrant productions inspired by Shakespeare's original staging techniques. Through open-air performances, interactive workshops, and scholarly events, we produce and promote genuinely engaging, popular, and relevant theatre.
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So let's break it down...
Collaborative: Everything we do, from the rehearsal room to the board room, is based on the principle of consensus-based democracy. As a member of the GSC, you have a voice in every step of the process.
Touring: We are portable. With our incredibly flexible Elizabethan touring stage, we can transform virtually any space in Utah into an Early Modern theatre venue.
Multi-Disciplinary: We believe in cultivating all the talents of our artists. That includes music, dance, design, marketing, directing, teaching, editing, writing, and of course acting. Our actors are not puppets, they are professionals.
Joyous: Our homespun productions, whether hilariously uplifting or devastatingly sorrowful, are always teeming with life. We celebrate the human experience through Shakespeare's magnificent eyes and ears, in all its complexity and magic.
Original staging techniques: Like Shakespeare's troupe, we work without a director, design team, or concept. Unlike Shakespeare's troupe, we employ women! Rather than slavishly adhering to every tenet of original-practices, we use these principles as our primary inspiration as we seek to create a new, more collaborative and interactive form of theatre.
Open-air performances: Although the cold Utah winters force us indoors, we were born in the park, and that's where we thrive. Our performances borrow inspiration from the expansive canopy of the sky above our heads, and from the connected roots of the grass beneath our feet.
Interactive workshops: Hundreds of people across Utah have already experienced our transformative workshops, in which actors of any age or ability can learn firsthand how Shakespeare's troupe may have rehearsed. Additionally, members of the GSC are afforded free monthly opportunities to learn a wide variety of acting techniques and approaches from professional actors and educators.
Scholarly events: Through the generous assistance of UVU and Dr. Kate McPherson, Grassroots recently brought Tiffany Stern, the world's foremost academic expert on original-practices, here to Utah for a phenomenally successful workshop and community lecture. Additionally, the GSC is planning a school tour, bringing our educational outreach to students and teachers across Utah for the first time.
Engaging: We don't believe in breaking the "fourth wall," we believe in demolishing it! Our audiences compare the energy and flexibility of our performances to that of a rock concert. That's why we can confidently state that we're among the best outdoor theatre companies in Utah - our shows are simply more fun.
Popular: We believe Shakespeare was never meant to be enjoyed by an elite few. When done right, Shakespeare appeals to everybody. So bring the non-believers, the skeptics, the people who "don't go to the theatre." This stuff is at least as much fun as the movies, and it should be at least as popular, too.
Relevant: The themes, the characters, the emotions in these plays are recognizable to us all. They are part of what it means to be human. To all those who say Shakespeare is boring, outdated, or hard to understand, we invite you with open arms to come and see what you've been missing!
