SHAKESPEARE FOR ACTORS AND DIRECTORS

Catalog description

The history of directing Shakespeare’s plays in America illustrates opposing methodologies: those who use all available means to enliven the play with contemporary resources versus others who examine Shakespeare’s texts and original theater practices; the choice between proscenium and thrust stages, or to privilege pictorial and static blocking instead of movement and audience-actor intimacy; directorial concepts grounded in set, costuming, and lighting designs versus what Peter Brook called “rough theater,” shows for the people and opposed to pretentious stage designs. The professional norms further divide directors from actors, actors from so -called “creatives,” and creatives from voice and speech coaches. This course will question such binary oppositions by offering students the opportunity to train and work as both actors and directors upon a thrust stage according to the structure of Shakespeare’s language and scenes. Cross -listed with HUMS/COMM 410.