Playing Shakespeare is the premier guide to understanding and appreciating the mastery of the world’s greatest playwright. Together with Royal Shakespeare Company actors–among them Patrick Stewart, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Ben Kingsley, and David Suchet–John Barton demonstrates how to adapt Elizabethan theater for the modern stage. The director begins by explicating Shakespeare’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 Shakespeare’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. Walking the boards in a play by the Bard can be one of the most rewarding and frightening experiences of an actor's life. Drawing on 35 years' experience as associate director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), Barton here offers advice on tackling Shakespeare as a performer. Along with assistance from fellow RSC players, including Ian McKellan, Judi Dench, Ben Kingsley, and Patrick Stewart, Barton offers tips on replicating the often tongue-twisting prose, exploring the characters, understanding the language, handling speeches and soliloquies, and more. A welcome handbook for any theater collection both public and academic. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. “One of the sanest, wisest, and most practical volumes I have ever read about Shakespeare.”–Michael Billington, The Guardian (London) Now in its first American edition, Playing Shakespeare is the premier guide to understanding and appreciating the mastery of the world?s greatest playwright. Together with Royal Shakespeare Company actors?among them Patrick Stewart, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Ben Kingsley, and David Suchet?John Barton demonstrates how to adapt Elizabethan theater for the modern stage. The director begins by explicating Shakespeare?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 Shakespeare?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. Now in its first American edition, Playing Shakespeare" is the premier guide to understanding and appreciating the mastery of the world's greatest playwright. Together with Royal Shakespeare Company actors-among them Patrick Stewart, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Ben Kingsley, and David Suchet-John Barton demonstrates how to adapt Elizabethan theater for the modern stage. The director begins by explicating Shakespeare'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 Shakespeare'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. John Barton has been associate director of the Royal Shakespeare Company for more than thirty-five years and has directed more than fifty productions. He lives in London and conducts Shakespeare workshops throughout the U.K. and the U.S. part one Objective Things chapter one The Two Traditions Elizabethan and Modern Acting [The following actors took part in the program that forms the basis of this chapter: mike gwilym, sheila hancock, lisa harrow, alan howard, ben kingsley, ian mckellen, david suchet.] Playing Shakespeare. Not reading him or writing about him but playing him. Over a thousand books or articles are written about him every year. In 1980 there were 195 books and 877 articles, many in Japanese. And yet very little is put on paper about how to act him. I think I can guess why. I have been urged to write about this but I have always felt I couldn't do it. I thought that the sort of points that need to be made could only arise truly in the living context of working with actors. On this subject each actor and his experience of acting is worth many books. So what I shall be saying in Playing Shakespeare is by itself w