Shakespeare in Performance: Inside the Creative Process

Michael Flachmann knows Shakespeare. Not only does he have 40 years experience teaching Shakespeare as an English professor at California State University, Bakersfield, but he spends his summers working at the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah, and with other professional companies as dramaturg—a scholar-in-residence who helps actors, directors, and designers bring Shakespeare’s scripts to life on stage.

Flachmann’s unique and intimate acquaintance with the way plays are created and performed has given him unprecedented insider access to a wide range of fascinating information. In this collection, Flachmann brings the plays to life as he discusses their meanings and shares the challenges of performing them for a modern audience. Written in language that will engage scholars, directors, theatre-goers, and everyone who loves reading and watching the Bard’s plays, Shakespeare in Performance takes the reader inside design conversations, rehearsal halls, and actor discussions for a behind-the-scenes look at some of the mysteries of professional theatre usually shared only by those within this cloistered creative process.

“Shakespeare in Performance will be of interest to all Shakespeare enthusiasts—scholars, directors, actors, and audience members—who want to understand the process of producing Shakespeare's plays for contemporary audiences. This book fills a niche in that rarely visited but most important space between scholars and theatre professionals, and between specialists and the general public.”—Lois Feuer, Professor of English, California State University, Dominguez Hills

“Fun for all lovers of Shakespeare and theater. Analyses of the plays from a living participation in Shakespeare’s characters gives us a wholly penetrating and unique perspective. Fascinating and inspiring reading.”—Libby Appel, Artistic Director Emerita, Oregon Shakespeare Festival

“The general reader, uncertain of the processes involved in presenting a play, unaware of the function of the dramaturg, and needing an introduction to the plays, will enjoy dipping into Flachmann’s collection of essays and will be well rewarded.”—The Shakespeare Newsletter