Author: Jonathan Croall
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350030740
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 217
Book Description
Hamlet is arguably the most famous play on the planet, and the greatest of all Shakespeare's works. Its rich story and complex leading role have provoked intense debate and myriad interpretations. To play such a uniquely multi-faceted character as Hamlet represents the supreme challenge for a young actor. Performing Hamlet contains Jonathan Croall's revealing in-depth interviews with five distinguished actors who have played the Prince this century: Jude Law: 'You get to speak possibly the most beautiful lines about humankind ever given to an actor.' Simon Russell Beale: 'Hamlet is a very hospitable role: it will take anything you throw at it.' David Tennant: 'No other part has been so satisfying. It was tough, but utterly compelling.' Maxine Peake: 'Hamlet was a way of accessing bits of me as an actress I've not been able to access before.' Adrian Lester: 'Working with Peter Brook on Hamlet changed me as an actor, and for the better.' The book benefits from the author's interviews with six leading directors of the play during these years: Greg Doran, Nicholas Hytner, Michael Grandage, John Caird, Sarah Frankcom and Simon Godwin. Many other productions are described, from those starring Michael Redgrave, Alec Guinness and Paul Scofield in the 1950s, to the performances of Benedict Cumberbatch, Andrew Scott and Paapa Essiedu in recent times. The volume also includes an updated text of the author's earlier book Hamlet Observed, and an account of actors' experiences of performing at Elsinore.
Performing Hamlet
Author: Jonathan Croall
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350030740
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 217
Book Description
Hamlet is arguably the most famous play on the planet, and the greatest of all Shakespeare's works. Its rich story and complex leading role have provoked intense debate and myriad interpretations. To play such a uniquely multi-faceted character as Hamlet represents the supreme challenge for a young actor. Performing Hamlet contains Jonathan Croall's revealing in-depth interviews with five distinguished actors who have played the Prince this century: Jude Law: 'You get to speak possibly the most beautiful lines about humankind ever given to an actor.' Simon Russell Beale: 'Hamlet is a very hospitable role: it will take anything you throw at it.' David Tennant: 'No other part has been so satisfying. It was tough, but utterly compelling.' Maxine Peake: 'Hamlet was a way of accessing bits of me as an actress I've not been able to access before.' Adrian Lester: 'Working with Peter Brook on Hamlet changed me as an actor, and for the better.' The book benefits from the author's interviews with six leading directors of the play during these years: Greg Doran, Nicholas Hytner, Michael Grandage, John Caird, Sarah Frankcom and Simon Godwin. Many other productions are described, from those starring Michael Redgrave, Alec Guinness and Paul Scofield in the 1950s, to the performances of Benedict Cumberbatch, Andrew Scott and Paapa Essiedu in recent times. The volume also includes an updated text of the author's earlier book Hamlet Observed, and an account of actors' experiences of performing at Elsinore.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350030740
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 217
Book Description
Hamlet is arguably the most famous play on the planet, and the greatest of all Shakespeare's works. Its rich story and complex leading role have provoked intense debate and myriad interpretations. To play such a uniquely multi-faceted character as Hamlet represents the supreme challenge for a young actor. Performing Hamlet contains Jonathan Croall's revealing in-depth interviews with five distinguished actors who have played the Prince this century: Jude Law: 'You get to speak possibly the most beautiful lines about humankind ever given to an actor.' Simon Russell Beale: 'Hamlet is a very hospitable role: it will take anything you throw at it.' David Tennant: 'No other part has been so satisfying. It was tough, but utterly compelling.' Maxine Peake: 'Hamlet was a way of accessing bits of me as an actress I've not been able to access before.' Adrian Lester: 'Working with Peter Brook on Hamlet changed me as an actor, and for the better.' The book benefits from the author's interviews with six leading directors of the play during these years: Greg Doran, Nicholas Hytner, Michael Grandage, John Caird, Sarah Frankcom and Simon Godwin. Many other productions are described, from those starring Michael Redgrave, Alec Guinness and Paul Scofield in the 1950s, to the performances of Benedict Cumberbatch, Andrew Scott and Paapa Essiedu in recent times. The volume also includes an updated text of the author's earlier book Hamlet Observed, and an account of actors' experiences of performing at Elsinore.
Hamlet, Globe to Globe
Author: Dominic Dromgoole
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN: 0802189687
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 374
Book Description
A New York Times Notable Book: “A loving testament to the enduring ability of Shakespeare’s play to connect in myriad ways across countries and cultures” (Pop Matters). For the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth, the Globe Theatre undertook an unparalleled journey: to take Hamlet to every country on the planet, to share this beloved play with the entire world. The tour was the brainchild of Dominic Dromgoole, artistic director of the Globe, and in Hamlet: Globe to Globe, Dromgoole takes readers along with him. From performing in sweltering deserts, ice-cold cathedrals, and heaving marketplaces, and despite food poisoning in Mexico, the threat of ambush in Somaliland, an Ebola epidemic in West Africa, and political upheaval in Ukraine, the Globe’s players pushed on. Dromgoole shows us the world through the prism of Shakespeare—what the Danish prince means to the people of Sudan, the effect of Ophelia on the citizens of Costa Rica, and how a sixteenth-century play can touch the lives of Syrian refugees. And thanks to this incredible undertaking, Dromgoole uses the world to glean new insight into this masterpiece, exploring the play’s history, its meaning, and its pleasures. “The Shakespearean equivalent of Bourdain’s TV series, Parts Unknown. . . . [Dromgoole’s] aesthetic principle, or unprincipled aesthetic, makes him a natural tour guide for global Shakespeare . . . A comic epic.” —The Washington Post
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN: 0802189687
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 374
Book Description
A New York Times Notable Book: “A loving testament to the enduring ability of Shakespeare’s play to connect in myriad ways across countries and cultures” (Pop Matters). For the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth, the Globe Theatre undertook an unparalleled journey: to take Hamlet to every country on the planet, to share this beloved play with the entire world. The tour was the brainchild of Dominic Dromgoole, artistic director of the Globe, and in Hamlet: Globe to Globe, Dromgoole takes readers along with him. From performing in sweltering deserts, ice-cold cathedrals, and heaving marketplaces, and despite food poisoning in Mexico, the threat of ambush in Somaliland, an Ebola epidemic in West Africa, and political upheaval in Ukraine, the Globe’s players pushed on. Dromgoole shows us the world through the prism of Shakespeare—what the Danish prince means to the people of Sudan, the effect of Ophelia on the citizens of Costa Rica, and how a sixteenth-century play can touch the lives of Syrian refugees. And thanks to this incredible undertaking, Dromgoole uses the world to glean new insight into this masterpiece, exploring the play’s history, its meaning, and its pleasures. “The Shakespearean equivalent of Bourdain’s TV series, Parts Unknown. . . . [Dromgoole’s] aesthetic principle, or unprincipled aesthetic, makes him a natural tour guide for global Shakespeare . . . A comic epic.” —The Washington Post
Playing Hamlet Roulette
Author: Mark Jackson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781941704141
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Drama. Literary Nonfiction. In the hit 2016 Shotgun Players production of Hamlet, seven actors learned all the roles. Each night, in front of the audience, they drew from Yorick's skull the characters they would play, then had five minutes to get ready before show time. PLAYING HAMLET ROULETTE explores what eventually emerged as the production's true subjects: failure, expectation, possibility, and democracy. In these pages, the production's director, actors, designers, and audience explore the wide ranging implications of these subjects both in and out of theatre. How might a critical consideration of creative experiences with failure expand our expectations of what is possible in our democratic societies? Theatre makers, goers, students, and teachers alike will enjoy the book for its exploration of rehearsal processes and of the impact theatre performances can have on audiences, as well as its uniquely poly-vocal analysis of Shakespeare's play, Hamlet. "A mind- bending new production... Refreshing... The actors' ability to pull off this Hamlet is simply awe-inspiring. And the format makes you examine your preconceptions of both the play and the nature of theater: All lines of gender, age and race will be crossed at some point."--San Francisco Chronicle "Uplifting and weirdly affecting... You immediately notice that there isn't a conventional Hamlet in the cast. They are a wonderfully eclectic bunch: men and women, a smattering of ages and races, even different acting styles... We are plunged into a democracy of infinite possibilities... A unique and rich response to the play... We should be thankful to witness such a circus of daring."--KQED.org "By opening up Hamlet to thousands of possible casting combinations, Jackson inevitably defies traditional assumptions about the gender, age and race of the play's well-known characters... This spontaneous diversity seizes upon the universality of Shakespeare's work in a way that many other productions fail to--fully revealing the kernels of common humanity within each character... An exhilarating journey, and one that manages to stoke the audience's appreciation for the very mechanics of theater while its powerhouse cast brings new vitality--and vigor--to a well-known play."--East Bay Express
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781941704141
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Drama. Literary Nonfiction. In the hit 2016 Shotgun Players production of Hamlet, seven actors learned all the roles. Each night, in front of the audience, they drew from Yorick's skull the characters they would play, then had five minutes to get ready before show time. PLAYING HAMLET ROULETTE explores what eventually emerged as the production's true subjects: failure, expectation, possibility, and democracy. In these pages, the production's director, actors, designers, and audience explore the wide ranging implications of these subjects both in and out of theatre. How might a critical consideration of creative experiences with failure expand our expectations of what is possible in our democratic societies? Theatre makers, goers, students, and teachers alike will enjoy the book for its exploration of rehearsal processes and of the impact theatre performances can have on audiences, as well as its uniquely poly-vocal analysis of Shakespeare's play, Hamlet. "A mind- bending new production... Refreshing... The actors' ability to pull off this Hamlet is simply awe-inspiring. And the format makes you examine your preconceptions of both the play and the nature of theater: All lines of gender, age and race will be crossed at some point."--San Francisco Chronicle "Uplifting and weirdly affecting... You immediately notice that there isn't a conventional Hamlet in the cast. They are a wonderfully eclectic bunch: men and women, a smattering of ages and races, even different acting styles... We are plunged into a democracy of infinite possibilities... A unique and rich response to the play... We should be thankful to witness such a circus of daring."--KQED.org "By opening up Hamlet to thousands of possible casting combinations, Jackson inevitably defies traditional assumptions about the gender, age and race of the play's well-known characters... This spontaneous diversity seizes upon the universality of Shakespeare's work in a way that many other productions fail to--fully revealing the kernels of common humanity within each character... An exhilarating journey, and one that manages to stoke the audience's appreciation for the very mechanics of theater while its powerhouse cast brings new vitality--and vigor--to a well-known play."--East Bay Express
Hamlet
Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781616002190
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781616002190
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
Women as Hamlet
Author: Tony Howard
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521864666
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 315
Book Description
A study of actresses playing the role of Hamlet on stage and screen.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521864666
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 315
Book Description
A study of actresses playing the role of Hamlet on stage and screen.
The Masks of Hamlet
Author: Marvin Rosenberg
Publisher: University of Delaware Press
ISBN: 9780874134803
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 1006
Book Description
Every reader is an actor according to Rosenberg. To prepare the actor-reader for insights, Rosenberg draws on major intepretations of the play worldwide, in theatre and in criticism, wherever possible from the first known performances to the present day. The book is rich and provocative on every question about the play.
Publisher: University of Delaware Press
ISBN: 9780874134803
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 1006
Book Description
Every reader is an actor according to Rosenberg. To prepare the actor-reader for insights, Rosenberg draws on major intepretations of the play worldwide, in theatre and in criticism, wherever possible from the first known performances to the present day. The book is rich and provocative on every question about the play.
Performing Unification
Author: Matt Cornish
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472037560
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 263
Book Description
Since the moment after the fall of the Berlin Wall, important German theater artists have created plays and productions about unification. Some have challenged how German history is written, while others opposed the very act of storytelling. Performing Unification examines how directors, playwrights, and theater groups including Heiner Müller, Frank Castorf, and Rimini Protokoll have represented and misrepresented the past, confronting their nation’s history and collective identity. Matt Cornish surveys German-language history plays from the Baroque period through the documentary theater movement of the 1960s to show how German identity has always been contested, then turns to performances of unification after 1989. Cornish argues that theater, in its structures and its live gestures, on pages, stages, and streets, helps us to understand the past and its effect on us, our relationships with others in our communities, and our futures. Engaging with theater theory from Aristotle through Bertolt Brecht and Hans-Thies Lehmann’s “postdramatic” theater, and with theories of history from Hegel to Walter Benjamin and Hayden White, Performing Unification demonstrates that historiography and dramaturgy are intertwined.
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472037560
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 263
Book Description
Since the moment after the fall of the Berlin Wall, important German theater artists have created plays and productions about unification. Some have challenged how German history is written, while others opposed the very act of storytelling. Performing Unification examines how directors, playwrights, and theater groups including Heiner Müller, Frank Castorf, and Rimini Protokoll have represented and misrepresented the past, confronting their nation’s history and collective identity. Matt Cornish surveys German-language history plays from the Baroque period through the documentary theater movement of the 1960s to show how German identity has always been contested, then turns to performances of unification after 1989. Cornish argues that theater, in its structures and its live gestures, on pages, stages, and streets, helps us to understand the past and its effect on us, our relationships with others in our communities, and our futures. Engaging with theater theory from Aristotle through Bertolt Brecht and Hans-Thies Lehmann’s “postdramatic” theater, and with theories of history from Hegel to Walter Benjamin and Hayden White, Performing Unification demonstrates that historiography and dramaturgy are intertwined.
The Necessity of Theater
Author: Paul Woodruff
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199715750
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
What is unique and essential about theater? What separates it from other arts? Do we need "theater" in some fundamental way? The art of theater, as Paul Woodruff says in this elegant and unique book, is as necessary - and as powerful - as language itself. Defining theater broadly, including sporting events and social rituals, he treats traditional theater as only one possibility in an art that - at its most powerful - can change lives and (as some peoples believe) bring a divine presence to earth. The Necessity of Theater analyzes the unique power of theater by separating it into the twin arts of watching and being watched, practiced together in harmony by watchers and the watched. Whereas performers practice the art of being watched - making their actions worth watching, and paying attention to action, choice, plot, character, mimesis, and the sacredness of performance space - audiences practice the art of watching: paying close attention. A good audience is emotionally engaged as spectators; their engagement takes a form of empathy that can lead to a special kind of human wisdom. As Plato implied, theater cannot teach us transcendent truths, but it can teach us about ourselves. Characteristically thoughtful, probing, and original, Paul Woodruff makes the case for theater as a unique form of expression connected to our most human instincts. The Necessity of Theater should appeal to anyone seriously interested or involved in theater or performance more broadly.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199715750
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
What is unique and essential about theater? What separates it from other arts? Do we need "theater" in some fundamental way? The art of theater, as Paul Woodruff says in this elegant and unique book, is as necessary - and as powerful - as language itself. Defining theater broadly, including sporting events and social rituals, he treats traditional theater as only one possibility in an art that - at its most powerful - can change lives and (as some peoples believe) bring a divine presence to earth. The Necessity of Theater analyzes the unique power of theater by separating it into the twin arts of watching and being watched, practiced together in harmony by watchers and the watched. Whereas performers practice the art of being watched - making their actions worth watching, and paying attention to action, choice, plot, character, mimesis, and the sacredness of performance space - audiences practice the art of watching: paying close attention. A good audience is emotionally engaged as spectators; their engagement takes a form of empathy that can lead to a special kind of human wisdom. As Plato implied, theater cannot teach us transcendent truths, but it can teach us about ourselves. Characteristically thoughtful, probing, and original, Paul Woodruff makes the case for theater as a unique form of expression connected to our most human instincts. The Necessity of Theater should appeal to anyone seriously interested or involved in theater or performance more broadly.
Performing Shakespeare's Women
Author: Paige Martin Reynolds
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350002615
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 207
Book Description
Shakespeare's women rarely reach the end of the play alive. Whether by murder or by suicide, onstage or off, female actors in Shakespeare's works often find themselves 'playing dead.' But what does it mean to 'play dead', particularly for women actors, whose bodies become scrutinized and anatomized by audiences and fellow actors who 'grossly gape on'? In what ways does playing Shakespeare's women when they are dead emblematize the difficulties of playing them while they are still alive? Ultimately, what is at stake for the female actor who embodies Shakespeare's women today, dead or alive? Situated at the intersection of the creative and the critical, Performing Shakespeare's Women: Playing Dead engages performance history, current scholarship and the practical problems facing the female actor of Shakespeare's plays when it comes to 'playing dead' on the contemporary stage and in a post-feminist world. This book explores the consequences of corpsing Shakespeare's women, considering important ethical questions that matter to practitioners, students and critics of Shakespeare today.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350002615
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 207
Book Description
Shakespeare's women rarely reach the end of the play alive. Whether by murder or by suicide, onstage or off, female actors in Shakespeare's works often find themselves 'playing dead.' But what does it mean to 'play dead', particularly for women actors, whose bodies become scrutinized and anatomized by audiences and fellow actors who 'grossly gape on'? In what ways does playing Shakespeare's women when they are dead emblematize the difficulties of playing them while they are still alive? Ultimately, what is at stake for the female actor who embodies Shakespeare's women today, dead or alive? Situated at the intersection of the creative and the critical, Performing Shakespeare's Women: Playing Dead engages performance history, current scholarship and the practical problems facing the female actor of Shakespeare's plays when it comes to 'playing dead' on the contemporary stage and in a post-feminist world. This book explores the consequences of corpsing Shakespeare's women, considering important ethical questions that matter to practitioners, students and critics of Shakespeare today.
Hamlet’s Hereditary Queen
Author: Kerrie Roberts
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000821358
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 206
Book Description
This book explores a fresh and insightful interpretation of Hamlet’s Gertrude as a prominent and powerful figure in the play. It shows how traditional readings of this character, both performance-based and scholarly, have been guided and constrained by misogynistic perspectives on female power. Bringing together the author’s wealth of insight from a theatre practitioner’s perspective and combining it with a scholarly perspective, the book argues that Gertrude need not be limited to sex and motherhood. She could instead be played as Denmark’s blood royal Queen, her role in the play then being about female political power. Gertrude’s royal status could play out on stage through a variety of possible performance choices for stage design, stage business, acting processes, and the actor’s presence – both speaking and silent. Hamlet's Hereditary Queen takes into consideration Shakespeare’s source myths, historical studies of the position of queens and the issues concerning them in early modern England, Hamlet’s performance history, and the text itself. It questions traditional readings of Hamlet, and offers detailed analyses of relevant scenes to demonstrate how Gertrude’s Hamlet might play out on stage in the twenty-first century. This is an engaging and insightful interpretation for students and scholars of theatre and performance studies and Shakespeare studies, as well as theatre practitioners.
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000821358
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 206
Book Description
This book explores a fresh and insightful interpretation of Hamlet’s Gertrude as a prominent and powerful figure in the play. It shows how traditional readings of this character, both performance-based and scholarly, have been guided and constrained by misogynistic perspectives on female power. Bringing together the author’s wealth of insight from a theatre practitioner’s perspective and combining it with a scholarly perspective, the book argues that Gertrude need not be limited to sex and motherhood. She could instead be played as Denmark’s blood royal Queen, her role in the play then being about female political power. Gertrude’s royal status could play out on stage through a variety of possible performance choices for stage design, stage business, acting processes, and the actor’s presence – both speaking and silent. Hamlet's Hereditary Queen takes into consideration Shakespeare’s source myths, historical studies of the position of queens and the issues concerning them in early modern England, Hamlet’s performance history, and the text itself. It questions traditional readings of Hamlet, and offers detailed analyses of relevant scenes to demonstrate how Gertrude’s Hamlet might play out on stage in the twenty-first century. This is an engaging and insightful interpretation for students and scholars of theatre and performance studies and Shakespeare studies, as well as theatre practitioners.