Looking at Shakespeare: A Visual History of Twentieth-Century Performance

Ranging widely over productions in Britain, Europe, Russia and North America, Dennis Kennedy gives a thorough account of the main scenographic movements of the century, investigating how the visual relates to Shakespeare on the stage.

Table of Contents:
1. Shakespeare and the visual; 2. Victorian pictures; 3. The scenographic revolution; 4. Styles of politics; 5. The stuffed stag and the new look; 6. Reinventing the stage; 7. The liberation of Europe; 8. New spaces, new audiences; 9. Imaging Shakespeare.

About the Author :
Dennis Kennedy's books include The Spectator and the Spectacle: Audiences in Modernity and Postmodernity, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, Looking at Shakespeare: A Visual History of Twentieth-Century Performance, Foreign Shakespeare, and Granville Barker and the Dream of Theatre. Shakespeare in Asia: Contemporary Performance is due late 2009 (edited with Yong Li Lan). He has twice been a fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities in the USA, twice won the Freedley Award for theatre history, received the Chancellor's Distinguished Research Award at the University of Pittsburgh, the Berkeley Fellowship at Trinity College Dublin, and was elected to the Royal Irish Academy and Academia Europaea. His own plays have been performed in New York, London, and many other places, and he has frequently worked as a dramaturg and director in professional theatres.

Review :
'Looking at Shakespeare is brilliant. Kennedy's analytic skills, his visual perceptiveness and ability to recreate the dynamic of performance from the static evidence of photographs mean the book moves seamlessly between productions seen and unseen ... His 170 photographs, almost uniformly intriguing, include many unfamiliar pictures even of familiar productions ... Justifiably confident in his broad sweep of European and American production ... Kennedy is that rarest of guides, the reliable kind.' Peter Holland, The Times Literary Supplement '… no previous study addresses the visual world of Shakespearean theatre in its full theoretical and cultural dimensions. Kennedy, a playwright himself and author of acclaimed books on Granville Barker, is remarkably well qualified for the task, and the result is dazzling.' Choice 'Dennis Kennedy's skill in describing specific performances will lead even the most theoretical or textually-oriented critic into visualising how multiple meanings can emerge from Shakespeare's plays … Looking at Shakespeare is a beautiful book … both archival and pioneering, this work is a major contribution to Shakespeare studies.' Theatre Research International '… it is Kennedy's commentary, at once lucid and erudite, that makes the visual documentation leap off the page. Enlightening for the general reader, invaluable for theatre professionals and academics, Looking at Shakespeare … breaks new ground for performance-oriented theatre scholarship.' American Theatre 'Clearly and elegantly written, and handsomely produced by Cambridge University Press, Looking at Shakespeare is richly informative. It sets a high standard for all future studies of Shakespearean scenography.' Daniel J. Watermeier, Theatre History Studies