Performing Shakespeare's Tragedies Today: The Actor's Perspective - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521671221 ISBN 13: 9780521671224

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2006

Synopsis

What does it mean to perform Shakespeare's Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedies in the modern theatre? This book brings together the reflections of a number of major classical actors on how these works can most powerfully be realized for today's audiences. Concentrating on the 'great' tragedies - Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and King Lear - the actors offer unique insights into some of the most demanding and rewarding roles in world drama, by showing what it is like to play them on stage. Ten perceptive and articulate performers reflect on their experiences of ten major roles: the Ghost, Gertrude and Hamlet; Iago, Emilia and Othello; Lady Macbeth and Macbeth; Lear's Fool, and King Lear. Together, these essays provide a peculiarly intimate set of trade secrets about what techniques, ideas and memories actors may use when approaching tragic roles in Shakespeare's most challenging plays.

About this title

Book Description:

What does it mean to perform Shakespeare's Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedies in the modern theatre? This book brings together the reflections of a number of major classical actors, including Sir Antony Sher, Samuel West and Imogen Stubbs, on how these works can most powerfully be realized for today's audiences.

About the Author:

Michael Dobson is Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Birkbeck College, University of London.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0521671221
• ISBN 13: 9780521671224
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 154
• Editor: Dobson Michael