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. |
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Page 32
... important ways in which he uses the verse to help the actor . A short verse line suggests a pause , and a shared verse line says , ' pick up the cue ' . Lisa Harrow : Shakespeare's text is full of acting clues . ' Clue ' is a good word ...
... important ways in which he uses the verse to help the actor . A short verse line suggests a pause , and a shared verse line says , ' pick up the cue ' . Lisa Harrow : Shakespeare's text is full of acting clues . ' Clue ' is a good word ...
Page 54
... important ? Yes , if there's a danger of us wallowing in vowels , it's useful to think of consonants as a goodly contrast and a stern corrective . Often they're more important than the vowels . Just listen to those two lines about the ...
... important ? Yes , if there's a danger of us wallowing in vowels , it's useful to think of consonants as a goodly contrast and a stern corrective . Often they're more important than the vowels . Just listen to those two lines about the ...
Page 59
... important to an actor , and it is dangerous to split it off as I seem to have been doing . I should however explain that I've been taking the importance of character for granted , simply because any actor who is worth his salt knows ...
... important to an actor , and it is dangerous to split it off as I seem to have been doing . I should however explain that I've been taking the importance of character for granted , simply because any actor who is worth his salt knows ...
Contents
Foreword by Trevor Nunn page | 1 |
Objective Things | 5 |
The Two TraditionsElizabethan and Modern Acting | 6 |
Copyright | |
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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