Playing Shakespeare: An Actor's Guide (Methuen Paperback) Book

Now in its first American edition, Playing Shakespeare is the premier guide to understanding and appreciating the mastery of the worldâ??s greatest playwright.

Together with Royal Shakespeare Company actorsâ??among them Patrick Stewart, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Ben Kingsley, and David Suchetâ??John Barton demonstrates how to adapt Elizabethan theater for the modern stage. The director begins by explicating Shakespeareâ??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 Shakespeareâ??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.