Shakespeare on Theatre: A Critical Look at His Theories and Practices

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Shakespeare on Theatre: A Critical Look at His Theories and Practices Details

In Shakespeare on Theatre, master acting teacher Robert Cohen brilliantly scrutinises Shakespeare's implicit theories of acting, paying close attention to the plays themselves and providing a wealth of fascinating historical evidence.What he finds will surprise scholars and actors alike – that Shakespeare's drama and his practice as an actor were founded on realism, though one clearly distinct from the realism later found in Stanislavski.Shakespeare on Acting　is an extraordinary introduction to the way the plays articulate a profound understanding of performance and reflect the life and times of a uniquely talented theatre-maker.

Reviews

Intimate, highly accessible, and fast-paced, this book reads Shakespeare’s plays for signs of the Bard’s own perspective as an actor. Although there is some biography and theater history here, the emphasis (and the excitement) lies in the author's intuitive, experience-based, wisdom-rich readings of the plays.Cohen’s Shakespeare began as an actor, developed from acting into playwriting, and went on to direct and produce his plays, but retained the actor’s perspective throughout. Cohen argues that Shakespeare wrote plays about plays, and plays about playing in plays. Cohen analyzes the acting methods implied by the dramas and makes them available to contemporary readers, theater-makers, and theater lovers.

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