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 7
... intention ? We use lots of words for the same thing . Sheila Hancock : Here is Stanislavsky again : " On the stage there cannot be , under any circumstances , action which is directed imme- diately at the arousing of a feeling for its ...
... intention ? We use lots of words for the same thing . Sheila Hancock : Here is Stanislavsky again : " On the stage there cannot be , under any circumstances , action which is directed imme- diately at the arousing of a feeling for its ...
Page 17
... intention ? David Suchet : I think his intention is to cheer Antonio up . Probably by sending him up . Good . So having first established his intention what do you do with the language to further that intention ? Ian McKellen : Language ...
... intention ? David Suchet : I think his intention is to cheer Antonio up . Probably by sending him up . Good . So having first established his intention what do you do with the language to further that intention ? Ian McKellen : Language ...
Page 19
... intention about why you're making the speech . And then decide why you use those particular words in order to pursue that intention . That's right , every actor needs to do that . So let's take the speech again , choosing and coining ...
... intention about why you're making the speech . And then decide why you use those particular words in order to pursue that intention . That's right , every actor needs to do that . So let's take the speech again , choosing and coining ...
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