Shakespeare Dancing A Theatrical Study of the Plays

by Brown, John Russell

• ISBN13: 9781403941961
• ISBN10: 1403941963
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-03-02
• Publisher: Red Globe Pr

Summary

In his newest book, noted Shakespeare and theater scholar John Russell Brown explores the operation of the playwright's creative mind in his most frequently performed texts and encourages readers to seek out the performance possibilities of the works for themselves. Moving beyond the study of what has happened on stage in a number of specific productions, Brown examines the entire theatrical event in which performance occurs, as well as the meeting and interaction of actors and audience, and the social and cultural contexts of the plays' reception in the past and present.

Author Biography

John Russell Brown is Professor of Theatre at Middlesex University. He is an internationally known theatre director and author and a Former Associate Director of the National Theatre.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction	1	(10)
1 Present Laughter: Comedy in Performance	11	(26)
Including As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of Venice
2 Living with the Tragedies: a Progressive Experience	37	(28)
Macbeth, with Coriolanus, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear
3 Annotating Silence: Speechless Eloquence	65	(22)
Including Richard the Third, King Lear, Hamlet
4 Accounting for Space: Choreography	87	(27)
5 Awakening the Senses: an Actor's Task	114	(27)
Including Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, As You Like It and other plays
6 Staging the Everyday: Actual Activities	141	(26)
Including King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Twelfth Night and other plays
7 Seeing Double: Uncertainty and Choice	167	(29)
Including Love's Labour's Lost, A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, King Lear
8 Criticism: Making the Plays One's Own	196	(11)
Index	207