Playing Shakespeare: An Actor's GuideNow in its first American edition, Playing 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 35
David Suchet : Well , there's always a choice to be made . You can either take the pause before the line or after it . Here , I think the situation suggests that the pauses must come after the lines . Lisa Harrow : Yes , the choice you ...
David Suchet : Well , there's always a choice to be made . You can either take the pause before the line or after it . Here , I think the situation suggests that the pauses must come after the lines . Lisa Harrow : Yes , the choice you ...
Page 64
David Suchet : That would actually have helped me a lot the first time I did it . Roger Rees : It's almost like the West Coast of Ireland or the West Country . Yes , a funny mixture of West Country , Ireland , a bit of American .
David Suchet : That would actually have helped me a lot the first time I did it . Roger Rees : It's almost like the West Coast of Ireland or the West Country . Yes , a funny mixture of West Country , Ireland , a bit of American .
Page 217
David Suchet : It's a terrifying thing studying such a famous part because of the history of how it's been played . Mostly black , as you say , or white . I was desperate to try to look at that play without preconceptions and to look ...
David Suchet : It's a terrifying thing studying such a famous part because of the history of how it's been played . Mostly black , as you say , or white . I was desperate to try to look at that play without preconceptions and to look ...
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Playing Shakespeare: an actor's guide
User Review - Not Available - Book VerdictWalking the boards in a play by the Bard can be one of the most rewarding and frightening experiences of an actor's life. Drawing on 35 years' experience as associate director of the Royal Shakespeare ... Read full review
Contents
The Two Traditions Elizabethan and Modern Acting | 3 |
Using the Verse Heightened and Naturalistic Verse | 27 |
Language and Character Making the Words Ones Own | 56 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
acting actor actually Antonio audience balance become beginning believe better break Caesar called changes character clear comes course David Suchet death director don't doth easy Elizabethan emotional example eyes feel follow give goes happens hath hear heart heightened Henry hold Ian McKellen important intention irony it's John kind King language Let's Lisa Harrow listen live look mean Michael mind moved naturalistic nature never once ORSINO passage passion Patrick Stewart pause performance perhaps play poetry prose question reason rehearsal rhythm Richard scene seems sense sentence Shake Shakespeare Shylock situation soliloquy sometimes sonnet sounds speak speech stand stress strong sure talking tell That's theater thee there's thing thou thought tradition true verse VIOLA whole words wrong