Shakespeare Expressed: Page, Stage, and Classroom in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries(The Fairleigh Dickinson University Press Series on Shakespeare and the Stage)

A collection of essays originally presented on the Blackfriars stage at the American Shakesepeare Center, Shakespeare Expressed brings together scholars and practitioners, often promoting ideas that can be translated into classroom experiences. Drawing on essays presented at the Sixth Blackfriars Conference, held in October 2011, the essays focus on Shakespeare in performance by including work from scholars, theatrical practitioners (actors, directors, dramaturgs, designers), and teachers in a format that facilitates conversations at the intersection of textual scholarship, theatrical performance, and pedagogy. The volume’s thematic sections briefly represent some of the major issues occupying scholars and practitioners: how to handle staging choices, how modern actors embody early modern characters, how the physical and technical aspects of early modern theaters previously impacted and how they currently affect performance, and how the play texts can continue to enlighten theatrical and scholarly endeavors. A special essay on pedagogy that features specific classroom exercises also anchors each section in the collection. The result is an eclectic, stimulating, and forward-thinking look at the most current trends in early modern theater studies.

Table of Contents:
Foreword: Lightning in a Bottle Ralph Alan Cohen Chapter 1: Introduction: Shakespeare Embodied, Expressed, and Enacted Kathryn Moncrief and Kathryn McPherson: I. The Body of the Actor Chapter 2: Speaking in the Silence: Deaf Performance at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Lezlie Cross Chapter 3: “I Have Given Suck:” The Maternal Body in Sarah Siddons' Lady Macbeth Chelsea Phillips Chapter 4: Competing Heights Jemma Alix Levy Chapter 5: The Mirror and the Monarchs: Suggestive Presences and Shakespeare’s Cast-Size Brett Gamboa Chapter 6: Embodying Shakespeare: In the Classroom Miriam Gilbert II. Playing the Text Chapter 7: Remember the Porter: Knock-Knock Jokes, Tragedy, and Other Unfunny Things Chris Barrett Chapter 8: Ghost in the Machine: Shakespeare, Stanislavski and Original Practices Peter Kanelos Chapter 9: “Speake[ing] the speech[es]:” Reassessing the Playability of the Earliest Printings of Hamlet Matthew Vadnais Chapter 10: A “Ha” in Shakespeare: The Soliloquy as Excuse and Challenge to the Audience Bill Gelber Chapter 11: A Knave to Know a Knock: Exploring Character Function in Scenic Structure Symmonie Preston III. Staging Choices Chapter 12: Behind Closed Doors: Perspective and Painterly Technique on the Early Modern English Stage Jennifer Low Chapter 13: Shticky Shakespeare: Exploring Action as Eloquence Sid Ray Chapter 14: Seeing Ghosts: Hamlet and Modern Original Practices Fiona Harris-Ramsby & Kathryn McPherson Chapter 15: Remembrances of yours’: Properties, Performance, and Memory in Shakespeare’s Hamlet 3.1 Kathryn Moncrief Chapter 16: The Mirror of All Christian Kings: Choral Medievalism in the Henry V Folio Christina Gutierrez Chapter 17: Playing with Character-Audience Members in Early Modern Playhouses Sarah Enloe IV. Playhouse and Playing Conditions Chapter 18: Blackfriars Stage-Sitters and the Staging of The Tempest, The Maid’s Tragedy and The Two Noble Kinsmen Leslie Thomson Chapter 19: “The Concourse of People on the Stage”: An Alternative Proposal for Onstage Seating at the Second Blackfriars Nova Myhill Chapter 20: The Two Blackfriars Theatres: Discontinuity or Contiguity? Jeanne McCarthy Chapter 21: “Here sit we down…”: The Location of Andrea and Revenge in The Spanish Tragedy Annalisa Castaldo Chapter 22: Thomas Middleton’s Use of the Gallery Space Christine Parker Chapter 23: Performing Space: Playing the Architecture Doreen Bechtol V. Technical and Material Matters Chapter 24: Light and Heat in the Playhouses Ann Jennalie Cook Chapter 25: Lighting Effects in the Early Modern Private Playhouses Lauren Shell Chapter 26: Sound Trumpets Alisha Huber Chapter 27: Play it again, Hal: The 1605 Revival of Henry V Melissa Aaron Chapter 28: Playing with Early Modern Special Effects Cass Morris

About the Author :
Kathyrn M. Moncrief is professor and chair of English at Washington College. Kathryn R. McPherson is professor of English at Utah Valley University. Sarah Enloe is the Director of Education at the American Shakespeare Center.

Review :
This book would be most helpful for pedagogical and performative purposes; both for educators seeking to incorporate practical staging issues into their classrooms and for performance practitioners. It fosters an important conversation on the role of the practical by examining factors sometimes overlooked as tangential. Shakespeare Expressed: Page, Stage, and Classroom in Shakespeareand His Contemporaries succeeds in capturing the spirit of the 2011 Blackfriars Conference. . . .The essays in this collection are filled with insight and provocative questions and are linked to engaging classroom activities that will invite teachers to incorporate them into their lesson planning, making the challenge of acquiring those skills more achievable. The volume is tightly focused and distinctive for the way it brings together teachers and theater practitioners to think about language and performance. It’s one of those rare volumes that will be of interest to actors and directors as well as academics.