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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 46
Page 36
... Lisa Harrow : Shakespeare's text is full of acting clues . " Clue " is a good word , because we cannot always be a hundred per- cent certain that we are analyzing the verse rightly . One can't be a hundred percent clear about what is or ...
... Lisa Harrow : Shakespeare's text is full of acting clues . " Clue " is a good word , because we cannot always be a hundred per- cent certain that we are analyzing the verse rightly . One can't be a hundred percent clear about what is or ...
Page 68
... Lisa Harrow : Pushing the thought through is really to do with the problem of inflection . You haven't talked about that yet . Like antithesis , it's not something we as modern actors use every day . Yet we need it to carry the impetus ...
... Lisa Harrow : Pushing the thought through is really to do with the problem of inflection . You haven't talked about that yet . Like antithesis , it's not something we as modern actors use every day . Yet we need it to carry the impetus ...
Page 81
... Lisa Harrow : No , not at all . Ben Kingsley : Not to my taste , not to my ear , no . Roger Rees : It was like a fruitcake stuffed with lots of different ingredients . Lisa Harrow : But there was this amazing thread that went right the ...
... Lisa Harrow : No , not at all . Ben Kingsley : Not to my taste , not to my ear , no . Roger Rees : It was like a fruitcake stuffed with lots of different ingredients . Lisa Harrow : But there was this amazing thread that went right the ...
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 | |
10 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
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