Staging Shakespeare

A Director's Guide to Preparing a Production

Brian Kulick

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English

Methuen Drama
21 October 2021

Theatre direction & production

This book begins with a phone call. You answer it and learn that you got the job. Several months from now you’re going to stage a Shakespeare play. Now … what do you do? I mean, what do you do after that initial burst of adrenalin has passed through your body and you realize you haven’t a clue as to what the play is really about, or what you might want to do with it? How exactly do you prepare for such an equally wonderful and daunting task?

This is the central question of this book. It grows out of decades of preparing for Shakespeare productions and watching others do the same. It will save you some of the panic, wasted time, and fruitless paths experienced. It guides you through the crucial period of preparation and helps focus on such issues as:

·

What Shakespeare’s life, work, and world can tell us ·

What patterns to look for in the text ·

What techniques might help unpack Shakespeare’s verse ·

What approaches might unlock certain hidden meanings ·

What literary lenses might bring things into sharper focus ·

What secondary sources might lead to a broader contextual understanding ·

What thought experiments might aid in visualizing the play

Ultimately, this book draws back the curtain and shows how the antique machinery of Shakespeare’s theatre works. The imaginative time span begins from the moment you learn that on such and such date you will begin rehearsing such and such Shakespeare play. Our narrative clock starts ticking the moment you put down the phone and stops when you arrive at the rehearsal hall and begin your first table read. So much of what will be the success or failure of a director’s project rests on this work that is done before rehearsals even begin.

By: Brian Kulick
Imprint: Methuen Drama
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 372g
ISBN: 9781350201026
ISBN 10: 1350201022
Pages: 232
Publication Date: 21 October 2021
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction: “For It Hath No Bottom” Shakespeare and the Vertigo of Multiple Meaning PART ONE: “It Shall be Inventoried” A Brief Look at Shakespeare’s Dramatic World Chapter One: “Now Sir, What is Your Text?” Which Shakespeare; Which Text? Chapter Two: “And There is Much Music.” Learning to Read the Visible and Invisible Score of Shakespeare Chapter Three: “Wherefore Are These Things Hid?” Pattern Recognition in Shakespeare’s Plays Chapter Four: “Your Actions Are My Dreams;” Structure and Shakespeare Chapter Five: “Stand and Unfold Yourself” Revelation of Character in the Works of Shakespeare. PART TWO “What Means This, My Lord?” A Fourfold Approach to Interpretation Chapter Six: “To Sing a Song That Old Was Sung.” Plain Readings Chapter Seven: “You Speak a Language I Know Not.” Allegorical Readings Chapter Eight: “A Natural Perspective That is and is Not.” Analogical Readings Chapter Nine: “Is Not This Strange” Abstract Readings PART THREE “Come, Give Us A Taste of your Quality.” Practical Matters Chapter Ten: “What Say You?” Finding the Rhyme between Shakespeare, Yourself, and Your Time Chapter Eleven: “The Fall of a Sparrow.” Shaping Shakespeare Chapter Twelve. “Brave New Worlds.” Designing Shakespeare Chapter Thirteen: “The World Must be Peopled.” Auditions Chapter Fourteen: “Resolve You For More Amazement.” The First Day of Rehearsal Chapter Fifteen: “For Here I Hope Begins Our Lasting Joy.” A Word About Shakespeare’s Endings Index

Brian Kulick is the Chair of Columbia University’s School of the Arts Theatre Program, where he also teaches directing with Anne Bogart. In addition to staging the works of Shakespeare, Brecht, and Tony Kushner, he has been the Artistic Director of Classic Stage Company and an ArtisticAssociate for The Public Theatre. He is the author of The Secret Life of Theatre and The Elements of Theatrical Expression.

Reviews for Staging Shakespeare: A Director's Guide to Preparing a Production

This is a powerful and useful book for directors and anyone interested in Shakespeare in the theatre. Kulick shows the wonderful ways that a director can combine research, study, and deep thought with flights of imagination and even dreams to bring Shakespeare to life on stage with vividness and originality. * Barry Edelstein, Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director, The Old Globe Theatre, San Diego, USA * Brian Kulick's book is illuminated by his deep love for the plays of William Shakespeare. He writes from the perspective of an accomplished theater director who is also able to lucidly share his discoveries, his palpable curiosity and the vast pleasure in artistic engagement with the plays. His insights are assembled from a lifetime of scholarship and practice and are informed by his personal relationships with the cognoscenti of the contemporary theater world. * Anne Bogart * Brian Kulick's Staging Shakespeare is wonderfully comprehensive, deeply informative, and like it's author, so damn smart. * George C. Wolfe * This book is a kind of miracle. Kulick's extraordinary learning and experience are fused with a loving clarity, a detailed precision, and marvelous imaginative breadth. Any director of Shakespeare, novice or master, will find much to inspire and appreciate here. A must-read. * Oskar Eustis *