Instant Shakespeare: A practical guide for actors, directors and teachers

(Paperback)

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Description

"Instant Shakespeare" offers a straightforward, accessible and practical set of ground rules for performing Shakespeare, expanded and refined in performances and workshops throughout the world. These enable performers, directors and teachers of all backgrounds and levels of experience to demystify Shakespeare's complex language and perform his plays in a clear, fresh and unpretentious manner. Writing in a direct and humorous style, Louis Fantasia shows how to understand both the vocabulary and the structure and essential dramatic event of each play. He provides exercise monologues, exercise scenes and tools for textual analysis; explains correct breathing; and lays out his philosophies of training and performance.

Reviews

"A manifesto of liberation for Shakespeare fans....Fantasia frees rehearsal and performance from duty and snobbery and gives Shakespeare back to the actor."
"Louis Fantasia's personal experience of teaching at Shakespeare's Globe underpins his ideas, making them particularly persuasive and interesting."

Author Bio

Louis Fantasia is director of the American Shakespeare Globe Centre's Teaching Shakespeare Through Performance Institute. For ten years he directed the Globe's acting and directing workshop in London, and he has mounted productions at a variety of festivals and theatres worldwide.