Education

The Language of Gesture with Terri Mastrobuono

See how to shape fully alive characters!
Whether it’s with full body, or only the hands, movement communicates volumes onstage and in film. The actor’s physical expression illuminates the character, helps carry the intention of a costume, and enhances the atmosphere of scenic design.
Terri Mastrobuono, co-founder of Lancaster’s CoMotion Theater, skilled mime, movement artist and commedia dell’arte expert, returns from Italy for a one-time session. In the workshop, she guides you in fun and freeing physical work to allow you to explore and discover your own means of visual eloquence. The workshop will include warm-ups, non-verbal theater play, basic mime technique, and principles of Michael Chekhov’s psychological gesture work. Bring a character or script to explore with the work if you like. Terri is happy to offer feedback.
Wear comfortable clothes and shoes.
This workshop is suitable for all experience levels.

Register

Will to Read

Dr. Justin Hopkins leads LST’s monthly Shakespeare reading and discussion group, “Will to Read.” Dr. Hopkins teaches Shakespeare at Franklin & Marshall College and has attended hundreds of performances of Shakespeare’s plays, reviewing many of them for academic journals. His book “My Year with Shakespeare” chronicles the Royal Shakespeare Company’s historic Complete Works Festival. A play’s important themes are discussed, segments of filmed Shakespeare scenes are reviewed, and snacks are provided. These sessions are free, but donations are encouraged. The titles and dates for 2026’s Will to Read sessions have not yet been announced.

Shakes-Peers

Lancaster Shakespeare Theatre looks forward to welcoming students and teachers back for the 7th Annual Shakes-Peers, a collaborative Shakespeare festival for high schools. This year’s festival will be held on Wednesday, January 21, 2026 at the Ware Center in downtown Lancaster (42 N. Prince St) beginning at 8:30 am.

Through this event, students and educators engage with Shakespeare through monologues, scenes, training, and competition. Since its inception at the beginning of 2020, Shakes-Peers has welcomed area high schools such as Ephrata High School, J.P. McCaskey, Lancaster Catholic High, Lancaster Country Day, Linden Hall, Manheim Central, Manheim Township, and York Country Day.

Of the students and teachers surveyed by Lancaster Shakespeare Theatre’s Assessments and Outcomes Committee following the last Shakes-Peers Festival in January of this year, 100% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the festival expanded their skills as performers and educators. All the responding educators indicated that the festival:

Provided helpful teaching ideas

Strengthened their connections with other Shakespeare faculty in the region

Provided a sense of “belonging” and shared affinity to the students

Increased their students’ knowledge of Shakespeare and theatre in general

Shakes-Peers mingles theatre educators and students from high schools across Lancaster County. Each student comes prepared with a memorized monologue from a Shakespeare play and performs it for our judges in a “monologue slam.” Later in the day, a Shakespeare theatre professional conducts an immersive acting workshop with the students while the teachers in attendance join a Shakespeare education roundtable.

Pizza is served for lunch (students are free to bring their own bagged lunch). In the afternoon, true to the “Shakes-Peers” name, each student is placed into a small troupe of “players” comprised of their peers from the other participating high schools. With the direction of the theatre professionals on hand, each troupe rehearses a scene from a Shakespeare play “on the fly” (for approximately one hour). At 2 pm, the public is invited into the Ware Center’s Steinman Theatre for the Shakes-Peers Showcase, a public performance of monologues delivered by the student-finalists from the monologue slam earlier in the day. The showcase will also feature each troupe of players and the scenes they have rehearsed. Our judges will conclude the festival by announcing the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place monologue winners, as well as the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place troupes. The festival typically concludes by 3:30 pm.

To ensure enough space for all the schools, each school is limited to 10 students participating. Registration is now free for students, thanks to a generous partnership with the Lancaster County Community Foundation! LST requires a $25 donation from each school to maximize the followthrough of attendance.