The large third-story room in the Arts District building has floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides and little furniture other than a semicircle of about 25 chairs.
In these sit attendees of the Nevada Shakespeare Festival’s monthly jam. Some are there to audit the session, led this time by company member Christopher Brown. Others are actors who’ve attended multiple jams and are using them to work on their classical monologues, required for many auditions.
A young woman with bicolored hair and short, rust-colored overalls is in front of the group, declaiming what proves to be Falstaff’s famous speech about honor from Henry IV, Part 1. She has it memorized; it’s a work in progress. Brown gives a suggestion: Can she visualize war’s carnage when the character talks about arms and legs?
The actor takes a moment to absorb the idea, then starts again. This time, there is a contrast between Falstaff’s jokey cynicism and his vivid memories of battle. An auditor says that hearing the speech analyzed and performed will help her understand an upcoming performance of the play.
“Falstaff” is followed by an actor working on a speech by Angelo from Measure for Measure. “If we start at ‘predator,’ where is there to go?” Brown asks. Another young woman essays Kate’s controversial final speech from The Taming of the Shrew. Brown suggests talking to a jam attendee as if he’s Petruchio.
The NSF has been doing these jams since 2024, this year partnering with Third Street Arts & Media Incubator. “Chris and I wanted a space where people felt safe exploring the text, a space to explore and fail and learn and be supported,” NSF Executive Artistic Director Matthew Morgan says. The jams help NSF find more actors for its shows, but another goal, he says, is letting audience members “come and learn and play with the material. The objective is the same for everyone: a better understanding of the words and ideas.”
During a break, professional actor Brown, who’s appeared with NSF as Mercutio, Henry V, and Claudius, among other roles, echoes these goals. “It’s a low-stakes environment, where you can align the words with the thoughts,” he says. “If a person has ever wanted to take a crack at embodying a Shakespeare character, this is the right room for them.”
Says Morgan, “We’ve had poets come in to learn to read in front of people so they can read their own poetry, teachers who have come to get a better understanding of the text in order to read better in class.”
Brown doesn’t see his jams’ role as directing, but rather as illuminating how to make choices that are supported by the text. “My intent is to help people get to the clarity of word, thought, feeling,” he says. “We laugh a lot in the room together. It’s really just a group of people coming together with a shared love of the Bard.”
The free jams will continue through this year, alongside free performances of Henry V, November 13 and 14 at the Windmill Library.
