Join CSU's new acting professor, Saffron Henke, as she brings new depth to Reading Shakespeare for the Theatre (TH 240). The course, which is also open to non-theatre majors, covers reading and speaking Shakespeare texts—comedies, sonnets, and romances—to develop various approaches for understanding and performing his work to modern audiences.
Prerequisite: TH241 Text Analysis; can be taken concurrently.
TH240 Reading Shakespeare for the Theatre meets T/TH 8—9:40 a.m. Non-majors may request an override from Walt Jones at walt.jones@colostate.edu.
About the professor
Saffron Henke comes to CSU from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where she established The Brink Theatre Company, and served as its artistic director. She has worked as a professional actor, director, and educator for many years. She received her M.F.A. from the Professional Actor Training Program at the University of Washington, during which she also performed with Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, Idaho Rep, Seattle Children’s Theatre, and the Recklinghausen Ruhrfestspiele in Germany. Henke joined the acting company at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for two seasons where she also devised and directed The Pale Fire Project. From there she became an associate artist and resident acting company member for four seasons at the Sacramento Theatre Company, where she was also the director of STC-2, a 10-month young professionals training conservatory. With STC-2, Henke developed and directed The Tale, a rock musical about Greek mythology that toured Greece and headlined the Mioulia Festival. Her last West Coast stop was in Los Angeles where she taught at the University of Southern California, Center Theatre Group, and A Noise Within Theatre; assistant directed The Heretic Mysteries with David Bridel; and expanded her on-camera resume, including a web series for HBO’s True Blood, and played Fiona in the online series for Web Therapy.
A Midwest native, Henke has worked with Working Group Theatre and Riverside Theatre as an actor and voice/text coach. She has directed at Coe and Augustana Colleges (Women in the Shadow, Metamorphoses, and The Bock-Eye), and taught and directed at St. Ambrose University (Les Liaisons Dangereuses), Cornell College (In the Next Room/Vibrator Play), ChiARTS, and the Englert School of Performing Arts (Bugsy Malone). She recently assistant directed George De La Pena in Music IC’s production of Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat, performed with the Richmond Shakespeare Festival, and directed A Winter's Tale.
A longtime member of the Actor’s Equity Association, Henke is also the recipient of the 2005 Princess Grace Foundation Honorarium for Emerging Artists and is an SAFD certified actor/combatant and yoga teacher (200hr RYT).