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 51
... RICHARD : Yes , one place else , if you will hear me name it . ANNE : Some dungeon . RICHARD : Your bedchamber . ANNE : Ill rest betide the chamber where thou liest . RICHARD : So will it , madam , till I lie with you . ANNE : I hope so .
... RICHARD : Yes , one place else , if you will hear me name it . ANNE : Some dungeon . RICHARD : Your bedchamber . ANNE : Ill rest betide the chamber where thou liest . RICHARD : So will it , madam , till I lie with you . ANNE : I hope so .
Page 151
... Richard II , the king looks at his face in a mirror and says to Bolingbroke , who has deposed him : RICHARD II ( Richard Pasco ) : A brittle glory shineth in this face . As brittle as the glory is the face , ( Breaks mirror . ) For ...
... Richard II , the king looks at his face in a mirror and says to Bolingbroke , who has deposed him : RICHARD II ( Richard Pasco ) : A brittle glory shineth in this face . As brittle as the glory is the face , ( Breaks mirror . ) For ...
Page 152
... Richard that his sorrow is as unreal as the rest of his public persona . Dickie , you played this part famously many years ago . How does that sage strike you coming back to it ? pas- Richard Pasco : I think that the way I saw Richard's ...
... Richard that his sorrow is as unreal as the rest of his public persona . Dickie , you played this part famously many years ago . How does that sage strike you coming back to it ? pas- Richard Pasco : I think that the way I saw Richard's ...
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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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