Shakespeare In The Theatre The American Shakespeare Center

The original Blackfriars closed its doors in the 1640s, ending over half-a-century of performances by men and boys. In 2001, in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, it opened once again. The reconstructed Blackfriars, home to the American Shakespeare Center, represents an old playhouse for the new millennium and therefore symbolically registers the permanent revolution in the performance of Shakespeare. Time and again, the industry refreshes its practices by rediscovering its own history. This book assesses how one American company has capitalised on history and in so doing has forged one of its own to become a major influence in contemporary Shakespearean theatre.

In this first substantive study of directing Shakespeare in the USA, Charles Ney compares and contrasts directors working at major companies across the country. Because of the complexities of directing Shakespeare for audiences today, a director's methods, values and biases are more readily perceptible in their work on Shakespeare than in more contemporary work. Directors disclose their interpretation of the text, their management of the various stages of production, how they go about supervising rehearsals and share tactics. This book will be useful to students wanting to develop skills, practitioners who want to learn from what other directors are doing, and scholars and students studying production practice and performance.

The hilarious script for the Broadway play Peter and the Starcatcher is in the perfect format for performers and theater lovers. Actors will relish the opportunity to perfect the complex dialogue while fans of the play will delight in the humor and intricacies of the text.

This book is the new definitive guide to teaching students to love Shakespeare. ShakesFear proceeds from a very simple premise: William Shakespeare's plays were written for audiences to enjoy and not for readers to trudge through. Noted Shakespeare scholar Ralph Cohen's life is devoted to the notion that only through performance does the depth and complexity of Shakespeare's world comes to life. In this book, Dr. Cohen walks teachers through the process of making Shakespeare fun in the classroom by staging scenes and plays. He uses tricks and "ploys," arguments, and hypothetical questions to tease students into falling in love with the characters first, then the plays, and eventually the literature. - Publisher.

This collection of essays addresses questions peculiar to the Blackfriars and indoor playing: Did the Blackfriars have its own repertory? What was the place of the Blackfriars in the urban economy? What qualities did the Blackfriars share with the long tradition of great-hall performances? The essays span a range of approaches from performative to historical to textual.--Publisher's description.