Elizabethan stage conventions and modern interpreters
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Elizabethan stage conventions and modern interpreters
Cambridge University Press, 1984
Available at 38 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
"List of plays and editions": p. 181-185
Includes bibliographical notes and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Alan Dessen samples about four hundred manuscripts and printed plays to record the original staging conventions of the age of Shakespeare. After studying the stage properties, movements and configurations implicit in recurrent phrases and stage directions, he concludes that Elizabethan spectators, less concerned with realism than later generations, were used to receiving a kind of theatrical shorthand transmitted by the actors from the playwright. Professor Dessen both describes this shorthand (e.g. the use of nightgowns, boots and dishevelled hair) and draws attention to the implications of his findings for modern interpreters, addressing not only critics and teachers but also editors, actors and directors.
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Note on texts and old spelling
- 1. The arrow in Nessus: Elizabethan clues and modern detectives
- 2. Interpreting stage directions
- 3. The logic of 'this' on the open stage
- 4. Elizabethan darkness and modern lighting
- 5. The logic of 'place' and locale
- 6. The logic of stage violence
- 7. Theatrical metaphor: seeing and not-seeing
- 8. Conclusion: Elizabethan playscripts and modern interpreters
- Notes
- List of plays and editions
- Index.
by "Nielsen BookData"