W. B. Worthen

How do our ideas about Shakespeare inform our understanding of the limits of performance? This stimulating book asks how both text and performance are construed as vessels of authority. The author finds that our understanding of Shakespearean performance retains a surprising sense of the possibility of being ‘faithful’ to Shakespearean texts, and so to ‘Shakespeare’. After an opening theoretical chapter, Worthen examines the relationship between text and performance in directing, acting, and scholarship. He considers how some prominent theatre directors articulate their role as régisseur under the sign of Shakespeare. Next he looks at how actors read Shakespeare’s plays, and in the final chapter he inspects performance-oriented criticism of Shakespeare since the 1960s. This undogmatic and exploratory book contributes to the scholarly study of acting and directing, and to the wider discourse of performance studies.… (mehr)

Amazon.com: Sets the pace in comprehensive coverage of world theatre from Greek to the present. This anthology continues that trend with a strong representation by women writers and by writers of color. Each unit begins with an extensive introduction, placing drama in the context of a specific historical era. Each play is accompanied by a brief biography of the playwright and a short introduction to the play and concludes with a selection of critical readings drawn from the period, essays on performance, and a contemporary theater review of one play in that unit. The text can be adapted for a range of courses, such as Theatre History, Modern Drama and various surveys of drama, i.e., by genre (tragedy, comedy), by national origin (American) or as a survey or dramatic literature.… (mehr)