John Barrymore, Shakespearean actor
"This book begins with two assumptions: first, that Shakespeare wrote scripts for actors and audiences, not texts for readers; and second, that we can best appreciate how Shakespeare's scripts create dramatic meaning by attempting to visualize their performances in the theatrical settings for which they were originally created, the Theatre and the Globe."--BOOK JACKET. "The shape of the thrust stage, with its spectators arranged on three sides around it, created complex spectator reactions to the performance of the plays. The resulting "multiple perspectives" are often central to the performed meaning of particular scenes in ways that cannot be appreciated in modern proscenium theaters. Rather than arguing for a "unified response" among spectators, as many scholars do, the book argues that when the plays are performed on thrust stages, the audience's reactions are actually seminal to the plays' intended dramatic effects."--BOOK JACKET. "The initial chapter defines Shakespeare's "theatrical energies" by scrutinizing the script of The Taming of the Shrew for clues to its performance and intended reactions. Arguing against feminist and new historicist criticism, which view the play as a social document, Shurgot insists that we examine it as what in fact it is - a play - and the author finds Petruchio's and Kate's theatrical energies leading to a robust and satisfying romantic finale."--BOOK JACKET. "The remaining chapters, beginning with the final scenes in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Love's Labor's Lost, examine Shakespeare's developing mastery of the relationship of stage and audience, multiple perspectives, and possibilities for complex dramatic meanings created by the architecture of the theater."--Jacket
Print Book, English, 1997
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [England], 1997
Biography
xvi, 398 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780521620284, 9780521629799, 0521620287, 0521629799
36549135
1. Introduction
2. From Fiction to Reality: Character and Stagecraft in The Taming of the Shrew
3. Inner Plays and Mixed Responses in Love's Labor's Lost and A Midsummer Night's Dream
4. Shylock, Antonio, and The Merchant of Venice in Performance
5. Falstaff and the Theater of Subversion: The Audience as Thieves in I Henry IV
6. Disabling Joy: Dramatic Structure and Audience Response in Twelfth Night
7. Seeing and Believing: Audience Perception and the Character of Cressida in Performance
8. "Get You a Place": Staging the "Mousetrap" at the Globe Theatre