Testimonials
Marilyn Sanabria
It Came to This
"The Gym was my first Shakespeare class and I had no clue what I was doing. Susan Angelo taught me how to scan Shakespeare, and to speak with clarity. In a memorable moment for me, she also helped me discover the character's compassion and grace."
Jeff Pierre
Walker
“I was always intimidated by Shakespeare until I met Susan. She makes it fun and intriguing, bringing so much joy and excitement into the work that you can’t help but fall in love with The Bard. The Shakespeare Gymnasium is a safe place to work out and stretch those creative muscles. This class is an absolute must for any and all thespians who have a passion for the craft.”
Isabel Stallings
Helena, Midsummer
Maryanne, Tartuffe
'Working with Susan has been incredible! I have rediscovered classical material with the fantastic tools she has provided. There is so much play and heart in working with Susan! I wouldn't have booked both roles I just booked without her extraordinary help and belief in me!"
Ted Dane
Egeus, Midsummer Night's Dream
"I’ve had a number of acting teachers over the years, and Susan is by far the best. For the actor who wants to learn the fundamentals of technique for performing Shakespeare — making verse come alive, getting a sense of the musicality of his poetry, knowing how to make the language clear to contemporary audiences — no one is better."
Christian Jordan Smith
Florizel, Winters Tale
"Susan completely changed how I approach the work and view myself as an artist. We met when I was insecure about handling classical text, but she quickly helped me lay a foundation to support myself for a lifetime. The physicalized table work and exercises from the Gymnasium gave me confidence and a technical skillset that successfully carried me through a series of auditions. She is keenly aware of her students’ needs and will lovingly and passionately lead you towards your best work."
Lolita Davidovitch
Law & Order: Organized Crime
"This brilliant, high energy workshop consists of exercises physicalizing the text, facilitating both its discovery and authentic ownership of it. It's a thrilling and extremely productive approach to Shakespeare's language."
Seta Wainiqolo
Yale Drama School
“Susan’s incredible intuitiveness and passion for Shakespeare, and her remarkable gift of teaching, not only quelled a lot of my fears in approaching the text, but also nurtured in me a deeper love and exhilarating freedom in both the reading and performance of his work. Susan introduced me to Shakespeare like no other teacher could and I am forever indebted to her.”
Chris Brown
American Repertory Theatre
"I worked with Susan for the first time right before my grad school auditions. She went above and beyond to help me find the right monologues...I received 17 callbacks from different schools and chose ART. I will always coach with Susan for auditions!"
Brad Greenquist
Scandal
"Susan Angelo is the Shakespeare teacher I’ve spent years looking for. Smart, knowledgeable, intuitive and playful, she employs the technical demands of Elizabethan writing as a tool to spur the actor’s imagination. She is on a par with the teachers I’ve trained under at the Royal Academy in London.”
Patricia Fa' asua
Yale Drama School
“I had the honor of working with Susan as my director at Shakespeare Orange County in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and as a coach for my grad school audition... she was the first person who made Shakespeare approachable and exciting for me. My intimidation was transformed into curiosity for uncovering more!"
Jeff LeBeau
The Gary Plays,
Years to the Day
“... So thorough, and comprehensive...her breadth of knowledge is vast, her passion contagious, her sense of humor a delight, and her commitment to help ignite and guide each actor is nothing less than inspiring!”
Raul Bencomo
Julius Caesar,
NY Shakespeare in the Park
“Susan teaches the importance of knowing exactly what you’re saying with classical text. She helps you build the circumstances of the play with extreme specificity. Finally, she lets you play freely. She is a rhetorical genius and an actor’s best friend.”
Caris Vujcec
The Parisian Woman, Broadway
Hamlet, Pittsburgh Public
“...with her vast experience and knowledge of the text, she quickly can bring to light meaning, clarification and nuance... and I booked the job!”
Taylor Martorana
Elephant, Apart
"Susan is absolutely amazing....For the first time, I really felt like I was understandingShakespeare. And the most exciting part for me is that I’m am already seeing ways to implement the techniques into more contemporary work. If you want to not only understand Shakespeare, but also improve your overall acting range, take the Gymnasium.”
Beth Lane
Unbroken, director
“Working with Susan gave me the confidence and the tools….Her knowledge about acting, and Shakespeare in particular, is unparalleled. Without a doubt, her coaching led me to return to graduate school in acting….I couldn’t have done it without Susan’s expertise, encouragement and artistry.”
Joel Polis
Gurl
"Susan's workshop was one of the highlights of my Covid captivity, maybe THE highlight. I'm reading the sonnets, some of the plays, and the Poetics and Elizabethan World picture. I am a student newly inspired."
Emelie O'Hara
Utah Shakespeare
“Susan opened up new worlds for me. She unlocked the secrets that had kept me intimidated by classical works and helped me find greater depth as an actor and as a person.”
T'ai Hartley
Bristol Old Vic
"I absolutely love working with Susan. She's the kind of empathetic teacher you can really relax around, and she has mastered both sides of the coin when it comes to Shakespeare: Intellect and creativity, precision and freedom, form and content. With her help on my monologue, I got accepted into both Bristol Old Vic and LAMDA, with special remarks: "That's exactly how Iago should be done."
Kaira Campos
ACDA, NYC
“Susan’s kindness and support was what I needed to audition for drama school. She was very informative, guiding me in the right direction to be confident with my monologues, and showed me that I had a voice that needed to be heard."
Jesse Gabbard
Vassar
"The GYM really works! I reworked a monologue that I've had for a while with everything we have learned and it really came to life. I found so much nuance and the language really started to snap. You have such a good program!"
Vito D'Ambrosio
The Flash
"Susan is an amazing acting teacher, blending her repertoire as a Shakespearean scholar, actor, and theatre director...all with grace, humor, and supportive critiques. I’ve learned techniques that have helped me in all mediums.”
Kathleen Dunn Muzingo
Professor of Voice/Movement at USC
"This class is for professional actors, directors, teachers and students of Shakespeare. Susan combines the craft and tools of Shakespeare while at the same time unearthing the humanity of character. It is rare that a gifted artist is also a insightful teacher, but Susan is one of those jewels."
Derek Chariton
Andy Warhols' Tomato
Pacific Resident Theatre
"I’ve taken a lot of classical theater classes but the techniques taught in this class are the ones I use to warmup every time I’m about to step on stage. Susan Angelo is a Shakespearean witch who will not only increase your lung capacity beyond what you thought possible, but will also sharpen your mind and diction to an Elizabethan point capable of weaving through any of the Bard’s rhetoric with understanding and skill."
Mason Conrad
The Old Globe/USD Grad Acting Program
"Susan has a wonderful talent for making Shakespeare's language understandable to her students. She taught me how to dive into the complicated technicalities of the text with a curious and approachable simplicity. She creates a safe space...and encourages playful exploration and risks. She is a total pro with an infectious passion. Her class gave me the confidence I needed to audition.
Carmen Flood
Long Slow Exhale
“Susan encourages me to take risks by creating an environment that is safe and collaborative. Her passion for the craft is infectious….under her guidance I have learned one of the most invaluable tools an artist can have: the ability to take ownership of one’s work.”
Judy Durkin
Harvard University
“Studying with Susan, I learned to feel grounded, while gaining a strong foundation in rhetoric, prosody, characterization through movement and theatrical history of Shakespeare....her approach is rare."
Taryn Pearce
De Paul University
“...From our first meeting, I could feel her authentic desire to see me succeed. Susan is a present, mindful and compassionate coach. Without her guidance, I would not have felt as ready, or as confident, to audition for graduate schools.”
Diego DiGiovanni
Prague Film School
“What sets Susan apart from other coaches is her ability to quickly and effectively guide you to make clear and specific character choices. Online, she got me where I needed to be for my audition, and I got cast!”
Daniel Ramirez
Clown, Winters Tale
Susan is an anchor.... an expert excavator of classical text. She understands the importance of being both grounded in the text, yet opened up and made larger by it. She opens pathways to elusive subtleties, truths, beauties and human touches. Working with Susan, as in sonnet 116, one feels “guided by a star”.
Debi Tinsley
Voice over actress
"I hadn't had a classical audition in a while, so Iasked Susan to help me polish up a piece I had worked on a few years back. She gave me just the right tweaks to make everything crystal clear and give it some more 'umph'. Three days later, I booked the play!"
Andrea Iaia
Carnera: The Walking Mountain
"Having done Shakespeare in my country in Italy, I needed someone here in LA to give me a solid, grounded technique that would help me perform in English. Thanks to Susan, the rhetoric pointed me to the operative words, and the scansion revealed the rhythm of the speeches. Before the class had ended, I got cast in a Shakespeare play!"
Anahi Bustillos
Clemency
"Take Susan's class!!! She is a master in her craft and teaches with such passion and joy that it not only brings the text to life, but your own spirit inside. Susan pushes you past your fears so that you can step onto a higher level of your own artistry."
Hunter Sansone
Stargirl
"Susan was my first introduction into the world of Shakespeare. Coming from film and television, I had very little knowledge...she quickly and seamlessly helped me make that transition. Whether you are a beginner or a veteran, you will be in good hands. Susan is extremely knowledgeable, passionate, and an incredibly talented actor herself. She will forever be my 'go to' safety net when working on the extraordinary text of Shakespeare."
Laura Wineland
The Rock of Gibraltor
"The skills I have learned in Susan’s class are invaluable. I have never been taught by an instructor with such a vast and comprehensive knowledge of Shakespeare. Not only did I gain a deeper understanding of the text itself, but I grew in my ability to translate that knowledge into actual performance. She has provided me with new tools to approach virtually any piece of text, and it has bolstered my confidence as an actor."
Charles Lin
Merry Wives of Windsor
"If a classical acting masterclass met up with a weekly artist community for the most wonderful delicious brunch, that might be the starting point of how I've come to experience the Shakespeare Gymnasium. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Susan, for your compassionate genius, and for creating this dynamic, thorough, and empowering space to dive into the timelessness of being human. "
Raymond Watanga
SWAT
"I’ve been able to incorporate Susan Angelo's exercises into modern text and it has helped tremendously...not only made it easier for me to memorize, but also to have fun with the text and find 50 different ways of doing it! I have added these exercises to my tool box and will continue to use them.. They are not exclusive to classical work."
Claire Fullerton
Novelist, Mourning Dove
"Susan Angelo guides her students through the very foundation of Shakespeare’s texts by demystifying the structure, rhythm, and nuance in the lines with an eye to delivering an authentic and multidimensional performance." -
Eddie Shin
Beef
"Class was fantastic. Susan Angelo's
considerable knowledge and infectious passion made such a great vibe to soak in all-things-Bard. I thought I’d want to just get to the monologue, but it turns out, I absolutely loved the technical lectures and all the exercises that ultimately informed the performance, which almost became an afterthought, since there was so much stuff to chew on."
"I had a callback for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival this past weekend, and the entirety of my preparation was based in the multiple exercises we utilized in the Gymnasium! It was so exciting to have a practical reason to employ so many newly-found techniques. I can't express how meaningful and useful your class is. Thank you for your knowledge, support, and your encouragement." - Lauren Zbylski
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Other testimonials:
"In my experience, exceptionally gifted people--like mountains and wildfires--make their own weather. Such is true as well of the talented lady we're privileged to call our teacher."
-- Roy Allen, actor
“I have studied Shakespearean acting at the Actor’s Centre and the National Theatre in London and I find Ms. Angelo to be on the same stellar level as the professionals I worked with overseas. Ms. Angelo's knowledge of Shakespeare’s text with specific emphasis on meter and rhetorical devices is unparalleled.”
-- Therese Lee, actress, singer
"She is not just a teacher but a participate in the learning experience with her students. I struggled with scansion for the longest time ....when suddenly, the whole iambic pentameter light bulb came on!"
-- Bob Rodriguez, writer
"I used to dread Shakespeare, but Susan's passion and knowledge was infectious. She is an excellent teacher!"
-- Casey Ahem, theatre teacher
"Susan Angelo teaches with intelligence, creativity and passion. She obviously loves her work, and she imbues her classes with her quick wit, her deep understanding of the text, and her great use of physicality to explore the work."
-- Susan Fisher, actress, former teacher
"... Her acute ability to know just what an actor needs and when, without interfering in their process, is rare."
-- Kendall Linzee, actor
"Amazing!! No matter what your acting background or approach is, she is able to communicate with each performer in terms they can best accept and comprehend....she makes subtle suggestions and the work comes to life with passion, reality, and excitement. Susan is an insightful and nurturing instructor."
-- Leo Knudson, actor
"Susan commits to each student, regardless of their level. She doesn't give up...and cares deeply about the growth of each one."
-- Abby Adorney, psychologist