Playing ShakespeareTogether with Royal Shakespeare Company actors including Patrick Stewart, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Ben Kingsley, and David Suchet, director John Barton demonstrates how to adapt Elizabethan theater for the modern stage. Barton begins by explicating Shakespeare's verse and prose, speeches and soliloquies, and naturalistic and heightened language to discover the essence of his characters. In the second section, Barton and the actors explore nuance in Shakespearean theater, from evoking irony and ambiguity and striking the delicate balance of passion and profound intellectual thought, to finding new approaches to playing Shakespeare's most controversial creation, Shylock, from The Merchant of Venice. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 29
Page 47
... MICHAEL PENNINGTON , ROGER REES , PATRICK STEWART , DAVID SUCHET , MICHAEL WILLIAMS . ] POLONIUS : What do you read , my lord ? HAMLET : Words , words , words . . . Hamlet : II.2 . ' Words , words , words . ' The Elizabethans loved them ...
... MICHAEL PENNINGTON , ROGER REES , PATRICK STEWART , DAVID SUCHET , MICHAEL WILLIAMS . ] POLONIUS : What do you read , my lord ? HAMLET : Words , words , words . . . Hamlet : II.2 . ' Words , words , words . ' The Elizabethans loved them ...
Page 57
... Michael Pennington : It's the shortest possible route between the speaker and the audience , isn't it ? It's a way of communicating . The actor has the privilege of and the good fortune of having lived with the language for a long time ...
... Michael Pennington : It's the shortest possible route between the speaker and the audience , isn't it ? It's a way of communicating . The actor has the privilege of and the good fortune of having lived with the language for a long time ...
Page 101
... Michael , come and follow that . But where to begin ? Why don't you also start by taking it at first to yourself ? Let's go through the process again of seeing how that works . HAMLET ( Michael Pennington , to himself ) : To be , or not ...
... Michael , come and follow that . But where to begin ? Why don't you also start by taking it at first to yourself ? Let's go through the process again of seeing how that works . HAMLET ( Michael Pennington , to himself ) : To be , or not ...
Contents
Foreword by Trevor Nunn page | 1 |
Objective Things | 5 |
The Two TraditionsElizabethan and Modern Acting | 6 |
Copyright | |
12 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
actor actually Alan Howard ambiguity antitheses Antonio audience Barbara Leigh-Hunt believe Ben Kingsley blank verse Brutus Caesar character course Cressida David Suchet de-dum death Desdemona director Donald Sinden dost doth Elizabethan EMILIA emotions example FALSTAFF feel FESTE give Hamlet happens hath heightened language Henry honour Ian McKellen intention irony Jane Lapotaire Judi Dench King Kingsley Lisa Harrow listen look mean Merchant of Venice Michael Pennington Mike Gwilym naturalistic Norman Rodway once ORSINO Othello passage passion Patrick Stewart pause perhaps Playing Shakespeare poetic poetry PORTIA prose question rehearsal rhythm Richard Pasco Roger Rees scene sense sentence Shakespeare's text Sheila Hancock Shylock soliloquy sometimes sonnet sooth I know sounds speak speech strong stresses talking tell theatre thee there's thing thou thought Tony Church tradition Troilus Tubal verse line verse-line VIOLA words