Ms-Directing Shakespeare: Women Direct Shakespeare

by Elizabeth Schafer

In this engaging and lively book, Elizabeth Shafer captures a sense of the creative world of women directing Shakespeare. She explores the works of such prestigious directors as Joan Littlewood, actress and director Dame Judi Dench, Gale Edwards, and Jude Kelley, and she looks at a variety of productions directed by women. In interviews with the author, the directors discuss their craft, their critics, and the innovative approaches they have brought to performances of Shakespeare's plays. These thoughtful reflections on the art of directing and the challenges facing women directors will be illuminating reading for anyone interested in the world of the theater and Shakespeare.

Genres: Nonfiction, Shakespeare

288 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1998

Reviews

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Universalism, saying "this play is about you and me, here and now", has made and still makes a lot of marketing sense when filling seats with the general public. But the directors interviewed here to very different degrees have been struggling with important social and political differences between Shakespeare's plays and the cultureS in which they are now read and performed. This book is an attempt at an alternative theatre history of Shakespeare. Productions by women directors have largely been ignored in the traditional theatre histories of Shakespeare, in spite of the fact that women have been successfully directing and producing Shakespeare for centuries. As of the date of this book, 2000, only six women had ever directed Shakespeare on the Royal Shakespeare Company mainstage at Stratford-upon-Avon. Yet women have been at the forefront of exploring new approaches to Shakespeare, and have directed some of the most exciting theatrical productions of Shakespeare in our day. This book examines the directing practices of eight women directors by reproducing interviews of each, and then examines, play by play, several productions of eight women directors. As most of the primary sources for production history are reviews written by male reviewers, and as most directing work by women is not, or badly documented and archived,the interviews of the women directors are detailled examinations of their professional histories and their directing theories and practices. How does each director see Shakespeare's characterization, language and even metre affect feminist direction of his plays? How do these directors deal with issues of gender, class and race in the reading/interpretation of the plays.

[Oscar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book that really made me think about women creatives and how they're treated in the world of Classical theatre. Complete with great pictures from the productions of the women interviewed, this is a great book for those who have a double major in theatre and gender studies, or simply fans of British theatre.

[Charlotte]

this was so interesting!! wasn't sure how this would read, as it's around 20 years old, but actually learning about what female directors were doing in the late 20th century was very illuminating. so little has changed.