Playing Shakespeare: An Actor's GuidePlaying Shakespeare is the premier guide to understanding and appreciating the mastery of the world’s greatest playwright. Together with Royal Shakespeare Company actors–among them Patrick Stewart, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Ben Kingsley, and David Suchet–John Barton demonstrates how to adapt Elizabethan theater for the modern stage. The director 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. A practical and essential guide, Playing Shakespeare will stand for years as the authoritative favorite among actors, scholars, teachers, and students. |
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Page x
... Hands and a small group of RSC actors , we conducted a session in front of an audience similar to the demonstration lectures all of us had done years previously as part of our company's work in education . The material we shot was ...
... Hands and a small group of RSC actors , we conducted a session in front of an audience similar to the demonstration lectures all of us had done years previously as part of our company's work in education . The material we shot was ...
Page 3
... hand , thus . But use all gently . For in the very torrent , tempest , and , as I may say , whirlwind of your passion , you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness ... Be not too tame neither . But let your own ...
... hand , thus . But use all gently . For in the very torrent , tempest , and , as I may say , whirlwind of your passion , you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness ... Be not too tame neither . But let your own ...
Page 7
... be looking at . Mike Gwilym : On the other hand we all know the sort of actor who won't speak at all until he feels absolutely the inner need to do so . Huge , long pauses . By the time he's ready THE TWO TRADITIONS 7.
... be looking at . Mike Gwilym : On the other hand we all know the sort of actor who won't speak at all until he feels absolutely the inner need to do so . Huge , long pauses . By the time he's ready THE TWO TRADITIONS 7.
Page 10
... hand you could go for the mood and the quality of it . Try it , for instance , sadly . Ian McKellen : Do you mean by the mood or the quality , just paint- ing it over with a color called sadness ? Yes , the feeling only . Ian McKellen ...
... hand you could go for the mood and the quality of it . Try it , for instance , sadly . Ian McKellen : Do you mean by the mood or the quality , just paint- ing it over with a color called sadness ? Yes , the feeling only . Ian McKellen ...
Page 19
... hand we mustn't forget that to the Elizabethan mind to be " gainst nature " or not natural was something profoundly disturbing . " To hold the mirror up to nature " or " to o'erstep not the modesty of nature " were maxims which told the ...
... hand we mustn't forget that to the Elizabethan mind to be " gainst nature " or not natural was something profoundly disturbing . " To hold the mirror up to nature " or " to o'erstep not the modesty of nature " were maxims which told the ...
Contents
3 | |
27 | |
Language and CharacterMaking the Words Ones Own | 56 |
Using the ProseWhy Does Shakespeare Use Prose? | 83 |
S Set Speeches and Soliloquies Taking the Audience with You | 106 |
Using the SonnetsGoing Over Some Old Ground | 128 |
Subjective Things | 147 |
Irony and AmbiguityText That Isnt What It Seems | 149 |
Passion and CoolnessA Question of Balance | 167 |
Rehearsing the TextOrsino and Viola | 188 |
Exploring a CharacterPlaying Shylock | 211 |
Contemporary ShakespeareA Discussion | 227 |
Poetry and Hidden PoetryThree Kinds of Failure | 243 |
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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 COSTARD course Cressida David Suchet de-dum death Desdemona director Donald Sinden dost doth Elizabethan EMILIA emotional 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 Peggy Ashcroft perhaps Playing Shakespeare poetic poetry PORTIA prose rehearsal rhythm Richard Pasco Roger Rees scene sense Shake Shakespeare's text Sheila Hancock Shylock soliloquy sonnet sooth I know sounds speak speare speech strong stresses talking tell theater thee there's thing thou thought Tony Church Troilus verse line verse-line VIOLA words