The Humanist Project · New York City
Shakespeare Training in NYC
Shakespeare Is Meant to Be Played
Playhouses. Players. Playwrights. Plays.
At The Humanist Project, play is at the center of our Shakespeare training. We approach the language through curiosity, physical life, imagination and the actor audience relationship.
Rigorous text work gives us more to play with: clearer action, richer images and greater freedom to respond. We train actors to explore, take risks and discover what happens together.
How We Play
We work with verse and text, action, imagery and physical impulse through active exploration. The actor audience relationship is part of that play.
We investigate how the language works by playing it: testing an action, following an image, letting a thought move the body. Understanding and discovery grow together.
Training Grounded in Practice
We are working actors, directors and theater makers who bring ongoing professional practice into the room. Michael’s teaching centers play as a way into Shakespeare’s language, physical life and the actor audience relationship.
Michael F. Toomey
Michael is an actor, director, teacher and Artistic Director of The Humanist Project. He has worked with Shakespeare & Company for more than twenty years as a professional actor, director and faculty member.
His Shakespeare work extends well beyond Shakespeare & Company. He has acted and directed Shakespeare professionally, coached and consulted on Shakespeare productions and taught actors at theaters, universities and training programs in New York, across the country and internationally.
Sheila Bandyopadhyay
Sheila is an actor, director, movement specialist and longtime Shakespeare & Company faculty member. From 2022–2025 she served as Director of its Center for Actor Training.
Her professional Shakespeare work includes acting, directing, movement direction, coaching and actor training at Shakespeare & Company, The Humanist Project, NYU Gallatin, FSU/Asolo and other professional and educational theaters and training programs.
Shakespeare at THP
Shakespeare has been part of The Humanist Project’s artistic work throughout its history. We have produced and developed Shakespeare alongside our original and devised work, including Titus Andronicus and Macbeth.
Our teaching grows directly out of rehearsal rooms, productions and ongoing professional practice.
Current Training · Fall 2026
Shakespeare with Michael F. Toomey & Sheila Bandyopadhyay
Eight weeks of playing with Shakespeare’s language, action and physical life, with play at the center of the work.
October 5–November 23, 2026
Mondays, 7–10 p.m.
Houghton Hall, Manhattan · $450
