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 vii
... Question of Balance 167 9 Rehearsing the Text - Orsino and Viola 188 10 Exploring a Character - Playing Shylock 211 II Contemporary Shakespeare - A Discussion 227 12 Poetry and Hidden Poetry - Three Kinds of Failure 243 « Actors who ...
... Question of Balance 167 9 Rehearsing the Text - Orsino and Viola 188 10 Exploring a Character - Playing Shylock 211 II Contemporary Shakespeare - A Discussion 227 12 Poetry and Hidden Poetry - Three Kinds of Failure 243 « Actors who ...
Page xvi
... question , " How does Shakespeare's text actually work ? " I realize of course that what I have to say must often represent my own subjective response to the text rather than a completely objective account of what goes on . Even so , I ...
... question , " How does Shakespeare's text actually work ? " I realize of course that what I have to say must often represent my own subjective response to the text rather than a completely objective account of what goes on . Even so , I ...
Page 4
... question. Particularly we want to show how Shakespeare's own text can help to solve the seeming problems in that ... questions which come up when we work on him we have picked the ones that seem to us the most important at this time ...
... question. Particularly we want to show how Shakespeare's own text can help to solve the seeming problems in that ... questions which come up when we work on him we have picked the ones that seem to us the most important at this time ...
Page 4
... question . Particularly we want to show how Shakespeare's own text can help to solve the seeming problems in that ... questions which come up when we work on him we have picked the ones that seem to us the most important at this time ...
... question . Particularly we want to show how Shakespeare's own text can help to solve the seeming problems in that ... questions which come up when we work on him we have picked the ones that seem to us the most important at this time ...
Page 5
... question will still be able to follow quite easily the points we are making . As ever , the audience is quite as important in all this as the actors . If we don't reach our audience we fail . We must make them listen and share and ...
... question will still be able to follow quite easily the points we are making . As ever , the audience is quite as important in all this as the actors . If we don't reach our audience we fail . We must make them listen and share and ...
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