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 17
... poetic undertones which I want to look at later . I only mean it's natura- listic in comparison with Salerio , whose text is actually much trickier for an actor because it's full of images and metaphors and similes . " Tossing on the ...
... poetic undertones which I want to look at later . I only mean it's natura- listic in comparison with Salerio , whose text is actually much trickier for an actor because it's full of images and metaphors and similes . " Tossing on the ...
Page 24
... poetic . " " Poetic . " Dread word indeed . I think it a dangerous word to use in the theater because it's so general and imprecise . If you say to an actor , " Do it poetically , " I reckon alarm bells will ring in his head . Sheila ...
... poetic . " " Poetic . " Dread word indeed . I think it a dangerous word to use in the theater because it's so general and imprecise . If you say to an actor , " Do it poetically , " I reckon alarm bells will ring in his head . Sheila ...
Page 25
... poetic activity . I believe that the vague idea of " the poetic " can lead an actor into troubled waters . It can lead to what I've called playing the quality or the mood and to putting a great big wash of lyricism or sentimentality ...
... poetic activity . I believe that the vague idea of " the poetic " can lead an actor into troubled waters . It can lead to what I've called playing the quality or the mood and to putting a great big wash of lyricism or sentimentality ...
Page 30
... poetic about that , is there ? So how does blank verse actually work ? I said that its normal rhythm goes " de dum de dum de dum de dum de dum , " but actually that often isn't true . It some- times does , but perhaps more often it ...
... poetic about that , is there ? So how does blank verse actually work ? I said that its normal rhythm goes " de dum de dum de dum de dum de dum , " but actually that often isn't true . It some- times does , but perhaps more often it ...
Page 48
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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