Book

Early modern actors and Shakespeare's theatre : thinking with the body

Tribble, Evelyn B., author

Overview

What skills did Shakespeare's actors bring to their craft? How do these skills differ from those of contemporary actors?\" This volume \"examines the 'toolkit' of the early modern player and suggests new readings of the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries through the lens of their many skills.Theatre is an ephemeral medium. Little remains to us of the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries: some printed texts, scattered documents and records, and a few scraps of description, praise, and detraction. Because most of what survives are printed playbooks, students of English theatre find it easy to forget that much of what happened on the early modern stage took place within the gaps of written language: the implicit or explicit calls for fights, dances, military formations, feats of physical skill, song, and clowning. Theatre historians and textual editors have often ignored or denigrated such moments, seeing them merely as extraneous amusements or signs that the text has been 'corrupted' by actors. This book argues that recapturing a positive account of the skills and expertise of the early modern players will result in a more capacious understanding of the nature of theatricality in the period.

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
• Subject: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 Stage history To 1625. / Theater England History 16th century. / Theater England History 17th century. / Acting History 16th century. / Acting History 17th century.
• ISBN: 9781472576033, 1472576039

Item info:

1 item available

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Holdings :

Call Number	Copies	Material	Location
PN2589.T75 2017	1	BOOK	AUTOSTORE