Thinking Shakespeare (Revised Edition): A working guide for actors, directors, students.and anyone else interested in the Bard

by Barry Edelstein

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781559365741
Publisher:	Theatre Communications Group
Publication date:	07/03/2018
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	460
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Barry Edelstein is a stage director, producer, author, and educator noted for his work on the plays of William Shakespeare. Some of the actors he has directed include Gwyneth Paltrow, Uma Thurman, John Turturro, Jeffrey Wright, Kevin Kline, Blair Underwood, Richard Thomas, and Julianna Margulies. He has taught Shakespearean acting at the Juilliard School, NYU, USC, and The Public Theater. He serves as Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director of The Old Globe in San Diego.

Table of Contents

Preface To The Revised Edition ix

Prologue 1

Act I

Chapter 1 A Thought At A Time 9

Why am I using this word now?

Chapter 2 What Actors Do 21

The basic techniques of acting

Act II

Chapter 3 That Would Be Scanned 47

Scansion and the architecture of the verse line

Chapter 4 Acting Is Arguing 71

The art of using language to persuade

Chapter 5 The Word Against The Word 103

Antithesis, the indispensable tool

Chapter 6 Different Voices 129

The changing height of Shakespearean language

Chapter 7 One Line At A Time 159

Phrasing with the verse line

Intermission

Chapter 8 Putting It Together 205

The fundamentals in action: a review

Act III

Chapter 9 Sweet, Varied Notes 247

The music of the language, and its rhythm, tempo, and pace

Chapter 10 Verbiage 281

The power of Shakespeare's verbs

Chapter 11 But How Do You Really Feel? 305

Irony, wit, humor, and emotion

Chapter 12 Suit The Action To The Word 333

Thought, text, and stage business

Act IV

Chapter 13 What The Other Guy Is Thinking 359

Thinking the text in scenes

Chapter 14 More Prosaic Concerns 393

Thinking Shakespeare's prose

Act V

Chapter 15 What'S Past Is Prologue 425

Some conclusions

Epilogue

Chapter 16 Some Resources 435

Works worth keeping close at hand

Curtain Call 457

List of Illustrations 459

Acknowledgments 461

Thinking Shakespeare Live! 465

About The Author 467

Editorial Reviews

Barry Edelstein directed me as Othello at The Old Globe a few years ago, and it was an amazing experience: quite frankly, the highlight of my career. To take on one of Shakespeare’s greatest roles was daunting and overwhelming, to say the least. Barry understands how Shakespeare’s words work, and how his characters think. He makes Shakespeare accessible to the actors who embody the characters and to an audience. He explains things in terms that actors like, concrete terms that an actor can really use. This book captures his voice and his knowledge, and, like him, it’s clear and fun. I recommend it for any actor, or anyone who wants to know more about Shakespeare.

Blair Underwood

Barry Edelstein knows more about Shakespeare, and in a less pedantic manner, than nearly anyone I know.

New Yorker Adam Gopnik

"Mr. Edelstein's book is the next best thing to being in one of his eye- and ear-opening classes on Shakespeare. Read it aloud, and, as with Shakespeare, you will be appreciably wiser."

Kevin Kline

Barry Edelstein really knows his Shakespeare. When he directed me in As You Like It, the depth of his knowledge about the text unlocked the character of Rosalind. His knowledge really served to deepen my work. His book Thinking Shakespeare puts this knowledge in a fun, accessible form. I highly recommend it.

Gwyneth Paltrow

Barry Edelstein is a marvel, someone who combines a scholar’s precision with a showman’s sense of delight. This book is simply essential reading for those who are passionate, or even curious, about Shakespeare. Barry is one of America’s most distinguished Shakespeareans, an artist and a scholar, and a beautiful guide to the mystery and power of the greatest writer in the history of the globe. His book is accessible, detailed, loving, learned, and delightful.

Oskar Eustis

Barry Edelstein has a wonderful grasp of how Shakespeare’s plays work. Rich in insight and beautifully written, Thinking Shakespeare is the best guide I know of to the challenges that confront
every student and actor who reads or performs the plays.

James Shapiro

"In talking with a great number of scholars and directors, I never came across anyone who did more to change the way I read Shakespeare than Mr. Edelstein. His book Thinking Shakespeare is so far superior to anything that has emerged recently from academia that it confirmed my feeling that directors... are much better scholars of Shakespeare... It's as a thinker about Shakespeare, and a thinker about how Shakespeare thought... that I've found him in a league of his own." — Slate

Slate

"Mr. Edelstein's book is the next best thing to being in one of his eye- and ear-opening classes on Shakespeare. Read it aloud, and, as with Shakespeare, you will be appreciably wiser." – Kevin Kline

From the Publisher