Staging in Shakespeare's Theatres

by Andrew Gurr, Mariko Ichikawa

By bringing together evidence from different sources--documentary, archaeological, and the play-texts themselves-- Staging Shakespeare's Theatres reconstructs the ways in which the plays were originally staged in the theaters of Shakespeare's own time, and shows how the physical possibilities and limitations of these theaters affected both the writing and the performances. The book explains the conditions under which the early playwrights and players worked, their preparation of the plays for the stage, and their rehearsal practices. It looks at the quality of evidence supplied by the surviving play-texts, and the extant to which audiences of the time differed from modern audiences; and it gives vivid examples of how Elizabethan actors made use of gestures, costumes, props, and the theater's specific design features. Stage movement is analyzed through a careful study of how exits and entrances worked on such stages. The final chapter offers a thorough examination of Hamlet as a
text for performance, excitingly returning the play to its original staging at the Globe.

Genres: Shakespeare, Nonfiction

188 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice selection of information and visualization of performances. Little dense in spots - but overall it's fairly accessible. The imagined "Hamlet" is fun (and useful per the venue).

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

it has good info, but i skimmed this book to write a paper and i don’t think i learned anything different from reading it in depth. it didn’t seem like the authors actually expected anyone to read it