Michael York performed on stage with the National Youth Theatre in London's East End and on international tour. Other early acting experience came through the Oxford University Dramatic Society (he graduated Oxford 1964), the Dundee Repertory, and Laurence Olivier's National Theater Company - where he worked with Franco Zeffirelli, who gave him his film debut as Lucentio in The Taming of the Shrew (1967) and his breakthrough role as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet (1968/I). The title of his lecture is Speak the Speech: Acting Shakespeare.