Rescripting Shakespeare : The Text, the Director, and Modern Productions

Alan C. Dessen

ISBN 10: 0521810299 / ISBN 13: 9780521810296

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2002

About this Item

Druck auf Anfrage Neuware - Printed after ordering - Building on almost 300 productions from the last 25 years, this 2002 book focuses on the playtexts used when directors stage Shakespeare's plays: the words spoken, the scenes omitted or transposed, and the many other adjustments that must be made. Directors rescript to streamline the playscript and save running time, to eliminate obscurity, conserve on personnel, and occasionally cancel out passages that might not fit their 'concept'. They rewright when they make more extensive changes, moving closer to the role of playwrights, as when the three parts of Henry VI are compressed into two plays. Alan Dessen analyzes what such choices might exclude or preclude, and explains the exigencies faced by actors and directors in placing before today's audiences words targeted at players, playgoers, and playhouses that no longer exist. The results are of interest and importance as much to theatrical professionals as to theatre historians and students.

Seller Inventory # 9780521810296

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Rescripting Shakespeare : The Text, the Director, and Modern Productions
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521810299
• ISBN 13: 9780521810296
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 235W x 157H x 20D millimeters 235 millimeters width by 157 millimeters height by 20 millimeters depth
• Weight: 563 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Alan Dessen focuses on the playtexts used for staging Shakespeare's plays, from almost three hundred productions of the last twenty five years. Dessen examines the process of rescripting--when directors make cuts to streamline the playscript, save running time, etc., and rewriting--when more extensive changes are made. He assesses what is lost and gained by rescripting, and the demands of presenting to contemporary audiences words targeted at players, playgoers, and playhouses that no longer exist. The results are of interest to theatrical professionals and historians.

About the Author

Alan C. Dessen is Peter G. Phialas Professor of English at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.