Helpful Links
For our productions we use the Folger version of the play. You may download the PDF for free using the link below, or you may purchase the book. We suggest that you purchase at least one copy of the book itself as it contains helpful glosses and commentary not available in the free version. If you're having trouble locating a copy, you can purchase one from any of the following places.
Memorizing Your Lines
The following website was INCREDIBLE for helping a few of the cast members (including Thayer and his over 600 lines in Taming of the Shrew in 2014) to memorize their parts. Look up the cues and speeches for your part, then print it out. Have someone read the cues to you, and you follow them with your lines. Tasha (Tranio in Taming of the Shrew) and her mom did this for 1/2 hour, 4 days a week, from the time she was assigned her part, and she knew all of her lines by the end of December.
The site is called "Open Source Shakespeare." Find the appropriate play on the left, then you can either click on the character or the scene to find the appropriate lines.
Coping After the Show Ends
After the show is over. After you have spent months getting to know the cast and crew. After you spent a week in the caucus room and on stage with these new friends. It suddenly ends. Here and here are some helpful thoughts for you from a SMASHer. She wrote it after A Midsummer Night's Dream in 2011. Everything she wrote is true!