An in-depth exploration, through his plays and poems, of the philosophy of Shakespeare as a great poet, a great dramatist and a "great mind". Written by a leading Shakespearean scholar Discusses an array of topics, including sex and gender, politics and political theory, writing and acting, religious controversy and issues of faith, skepticism and misanthropy, and closure Explores Shakespeare as a great poet, a great dramatist and a "great mind"
The collection, edited by Annalisa Castaldo and Rhonda Knight, features essays by scholars interested in exploring how the material culture of sixteenth and early seventeenth English theatrical culture influenced the creation and presentation of drama and how understanding this culture can enrich scholars’ current interactions with these plays as well as offer insights to actors and directors. The essays include discussions of plays by Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Middleton as well as lesser known works and playwrights. This collection is unique in that it includes the body of the actor as a material object that is encountered and manipulated by other actors on the stage. These essays demonstrate how props, bodies and the architectural dimensions of early modern stages have both practical and symbolic registers.
If the mere mention of Shakespeare fills you with dread, evoking memories of arduous afternoons spent in stuffy classrooms with eccentric English teachers, it is time to reconsider. Let Portico's second title in the '...Matters' series rekindle your interest in the great bard, demonstrating that far from being three-hour marathons of unintelligible boring rubbish, Shakespeare's plays are in fact exciting, tragic, funny and often downright rude - full of memorable plots, great insults, filthy jokes and eccentric characters. 'Shakespeare Matters' lets you know the essentials, as well as providing you with a wealth of facts and trivia to amuse, impress and entertain (at school, in a seminar or down the pub). Succinct, pithy entries cover everything from Shakespeare’s greatest villains to his most cutting insult (hint: it involves your mum). As a playwright, he is truly a global figure – his work has been translated into more than 70 of the world’s languages, including Latin, ancient Greek and even Klingon. Did you know, however, that Shakespeare's influence even extends into the outer reaches of our solar system? 24 of Uranus' 27 moons are named after Shakespeare characters. The hundreds of entries range from the truly enlightening to the utterly obscure in this comprehensive guide that will re-introduce you to the fascinating world of Shakespeare’s work.
Thinking Shakespeare gives theater artists practical advice about how to make Shakespeare’s words feel spontaneous, passionate, and real. Based on Barry Edelstein’s thirty-year career directing Shakespeare’s plays, this book provides the tools that artists need to fully understand and express the power of Shakespeare’s language.
Shakespearean thinking is always dynamic: thinking that happens in the living moment of its performance, in quickly passing process. This book offers a model of human mentality that can be shown through the dense immediacy of dramatic thinking, as embodied above all in Shakespeare's working method. Shakespeare Thinking discusses the positioning of Shakespeare as the paradigm of fully human mental creativity from the Romantics to the latest neurological experiments which show that Shakespeare can reveal new understandings of the hard-wiring of the human brain, and the sheer sudden electricity of its synaptic development.
