TLC Talk

Becoming a Shakespeare Text Detective

Tuesday, July 14th from 6-7pm (Doors open at 5:30pm)

Cost is free. Donations are gratefully accepted.

New Mexico Actors Lab, 1213 Parkway Drive, Santa Fe, NM

Picture a master detective hunting for clues, but the mystery is 400 years old. Readers and actors of Shakespeare can learn to look at textual aspects such as rhythm, resonance, and phrasing that provide clues to the inner-workings of the characters. What is the relationship between textual analysis and embodied performance? What does a disruption to the rhythm of the verse tell us? What does the imagery a character uses reveal about the way they see the world? Why is a word or phrase repeated? What is the text doing? Audience members also can enrich their appreciation of Shakespeare performances by examining the text. In this interactive talk and demonstration, our master detective, Ariana Karp, will break down aspects of textual analysis and then work with the audience to translate clues into performance. The Incite Shakespeare Company will be performing The Tempest and Hamlet at The Lab from July 10 to August 2. Theatre Lovers Club will be Stepping Out to see The Tempest on July 19 and Hamlet on July 26. We hope you will join us for this illuminating Talk and both Steps Out events.

Ariana Karp (she|her) is a theatre-maker who has worked as an actor, director, educator, and cellist in New York, London, and across the United States and Japan. She is an alumna of London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) with a Master’s degree in Classical Acting for the Professional Theatre. In the fall of 2025 she began work as a teaching artist with Marin Shakespeare Company's Shakespeare for Social Justice program in various prisons throughout California's Central Valley. She has taught university courses and has extensive teaching and directing experience focused on empowering individuals and developing ensembles through using movement to activate the text through the body, the “quick-raise” process, textual analysis, Laban movement work, voice and vocal technique, and innovative staging of intimacy and violence through abstraction.