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 xvi
When the questions covered in Playing Shakespeare come up in rehearsal they of course emerge in a more freewheeling way . The twelve chapters that follow cover what seem to me the most important areas in which an actor needs to find his ...
When the questions covered in Playing Shakespeare come up in rehearsal they of course emerge in a more freewheeling way . The twelve chapters that follow cover what seem to me the most important areas in which an actor needs to find his ...
Page 4
Of course , much of it is instinct and guesswork . We will try to distinguish between what is clearly and objectively so and what is highly subjective . I hope that if I'm too dogmatic the actors will challenge me .
Of course , much of it is instinct and guesswork . We will try to distinguish between what is clearly and objectively so and what is highly subjective . I hope that if I'm too dogmatic the actors will challenge me .
Page 7
It seems to them to imply that we are saying a playwright always has a character's conscious intention in mind when he writes a given line , but of course that isn't necessarily so . A playwright can write a play without asking that ...
It seems to them to imply that we are saying a playwright always has a character's conscious intention in mind when he writes a given line , but of course that isn't necessarily so . A playwright can write a play without asking that ...
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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