Shantigar Foundation
in Western Massachusetts
Arts
Meditation
Nature
Jean-Claude van Itallie, Founder
1936 - 2021
Home Theatre
Acting with Basic Confidence
with Michael Schreiber
Thursdays at 12:30 PM (us eastern time)
Using simple meditative theatre techniques, and slow spontaneous moving, we drop our awareness and attention down into the body—sensing and communicating from that deep place.
Home Theatre is based on theater, writing, and meditation workshops developed and led by Shantigar’s founder, Jean-Claude van Itallie. All are welcome.
Suggested: $36 per session,
or $306 for 10 sessions.
No one turned away for lack of funds.
To request payment options, please email us.
about the teachers
Michael Schreiber is a teaching artist with an eclectic background including performance, spiritual practice, personal growth, and business development. He supports a wide range of clients, from entrepreneurs and executives to artists of all kinds. In recent years as a nomadic freelancer, Michael’s adventures include living in an Aikido dojo during the pandemic and directing comedic videos on serious topics for Citizens Awareness Network, a grassroots environmental organization.
At Shantigar, Michael serves on the Advisory Board, co-leads its Meditation Challenges, and created the Young Artist Residency Program for students at LaGuardia Community College in NYC. During his residencies, he has produced videos for Shantigar, including several with Jean-Claude demonstrating “games of transformation” from his book Tea With Demons. Michael began co-teaching with Jean-Claude in 2018.
Jean-Claude van Itallie (1936-2021) founded Shantigar and served as its artistic director. During the pandemic, he and Michael created Home Theater to welcome people into a courageous, supportive community, “to trust our bodies and uncover our souls, to be the best possible actor in the theater of life.”
As a playwright, Jean-Claude’s work was seminal in the explosive American theater of the 1960’s. He wrote the acclaimed anti-Viet Nam war trilogy America Hurrah; The Serpent (with the Open Theater); Tibetan Book of the Dead or How Not to Do It Again; The Traveler; Struck Dumb (with Joe Chaikin); Light, and The Fat Lady Sings, among many plays. He was co-librettist of the opera MILA, Great Sorcerer. His books include Playwright’s Workbook; Chekhov: The Major Plays (English versions); Tibetan Book of the Dead for Reading Aloud, and Tea with Demons, Games of Transformation. Read more about Jean-Claude here and www.vanitallie.com.