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 109
... situation and didn't preexist . Now I said a set speech must move and take the audience along with it . But how does the actor achieve this ? Most set speeches break into three . They pick up some- thing in the immediate situation and ...
... situation and didn't preexist . Now I said a set speech must move and take the audience along with it . But how does the actor achieve this ? Most set speeches break into three . They pick up some- thing in the immediate situation and ...
Page 111
... situation with text that at first blush seems literary . The speaker seems much more articulate than he could possibly be if he was really in that actual situation . In Titus Andronicus , for instance , Titus has just seen his daughter ...
... situation with text that at first blush seems literary . The speaker seems much more articulate than he could possibly be if he was really in that actual situation . In Titus Andronicus , for instance , Titus has just seen his daughter ...
Page 123
... situation I'm in . And how would you all react if you were in such a situation ? " Yes , as ever , our word is " share . " So go for the mixture and share both the funny side of the situation and the horrors of it . Give us a mixture ...
... situation I'm in . And how would you all react if you were in such a situation ? " Yes , as ever , our word is " share . " So go for the mixture and share both the funny side of the situation and the horrors of it . Give us a mixture ...
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
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 question rehearsal rhythm Richard Pasco Roger Rees scene sense Shake Shakespeare's text Sheila Hancock Shylock soliloquy sonnet sooth I know sounds speak speare strong stresses talking tell theater thee there's thing thou thought Tony Church Troilus Tubal verse line verse-line VIOLA words