Playing Shakespeare: An Actor's Guide (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780385720854)

Playing 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.

Author: John Barton
ISBN-10: 0385720858
ISBN-13: 9780385720854
Publisher: Anchor Books
Language: English
Published: 08/21/2001
Pages: 288
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.59lbs
Size: 8.02h x 5.24w x 0.60d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 06/18/2001 pg. 75
Library Journal 08/01/2001 pg. 109
Library Journal 11/01/2001 pg. 138