Shakespeare's Staging and Properties (Paperback)

David Albert Mann

ISBN 10: 1542416981 / ISBN 13: 9781542416986

Verlag: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017

Paperback. How were female characters dragged on by the hair, men beheaded or subject to the strappado, ? How did magic trees rise from a stage trap only five feet high, and banquets disappear? And how could characters set themselves on fire?This is the first full-length study to concentrate on the practical issues of property construction and stage business in Elizabethan Theatre and offers both a guide to students imagining how the plays were performed and a reference work for scholars and practitioners alike.Alongside the extravagant effects popular at The Rose, David Albert Mann shows how the commonplace hand property was one of the few performance aids needed as the Elizabethan player emerged from the itinerant tradition, and how Shakespeare transformed it into a pivot of character interaction, presenting in concrete terms what had hitherto been purely verbal. Mann stresses the centrality of the actor in the newly-built theatres, modelled on the simple demands of the earlier playing places in which he had developed his art. The concept of 'scenic units', he suggests, is inimical to the fast-moving production process of Elizabethan theatre which argues instead for the simplest solutions to staging cruces; often relying on the suggestive possibilities of the theatre structures themselves to suggest locale, or on poetic description to engage the audience's imagination and give greater flexibility to its staging.Unlike most previous scholars, this study finds much that is useful in Henslowe's Inventory, with an annotated index revealing hitherto undiscovered property-costumes for miraculous transformations, together with a complete armoury with which to mount their simulated combat. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 9781542416986

Inhaltsangabe:

How were female characters dragged on by the hair, men beheaded or subject to the strappado,? How did magic trees rise from a stage trap only five feet high, and banquets disappear? And how could characters set themselves on fire?This is the first full-length study to concentrate on the practical issues of property construction and stage business in Elizabethan Theatre and offers both a guide to students imagining how the plays were performed and a reference work for scholars and practitioners alike.Alongside the extravagant effects popular at The Rose, David Albert Mann shows how the commonplace hand property was one of the few performance aids needed as the Elizabethan player emerged from the itinerant tradition, and how Shakespeare transformed it into a pivot of character interaction, presenting in concrete terms what had hitherto been purely verbal. Mann stresses the centrality of the actor in the newly-built theatres, modelled on the simple demands of the earlier playing places in which he had developed his art. The concept of ‘scenic units’, he suggests, is inimical to the fast-moving production process of Elizabethan theatre which argues instead for the simplest solutions to staging cruces; often relying on the suggestive possibilities of the theatre structures themselves to suggest locale, or on poetic description to engage the audience’s imagination and give greater flexibility to its staging.Unlike most previous scholars, this study finds much that is useful in Henslowe’s Inventory, with an annotated index revealing hitherto undiscovered property-costumes for miraculous transformations, together with a complete armoury with which to mount their simulated combat.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor: About the Author – ‘I was born in May 1941, just in time for the Battle of Britain. I was a twin and with no cots available, we slept in a chest of drawers. I spent my early years in a terrace house without indoor sanitation or electricity, (but it all seemed very comfortable at the time). It was not until1945 with the War ended, that I first met my father, fresh back from the North Africa Campaign; an unsettling occasion. A single-sex school left its mark; well several actually, split-lip Wednesday being our weekly boxing-lesson; but it was here that I had my first success onstage, as Shylock, which for me was indelible. The Fifties were largely taken up with delivering newspapers, though I do remember Rationing was taken off sweets (for a full twenty-four hours). The Sixties swung by, though in deepest Dorset where I began my teaching it was only the barest tremor. My headmaster claimed to have taught the Beatles, which is something I thought at the time he should have kept to himself. Life then passed in a flash – rehearsals, tutorials, meetings, research, meetings, marriage and children, and more meetings and in the latter years a great deal of time hunched over one kind of screen or another – and then retirement, farming and a near fatal accident. I live now with my dear wife Carole in a farmhouse amidst Cumbria’s beauty, and when I’m not setting the world to rights, I make furniture and toys for our ten grandchildren, (whether they like it or not).

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Shakespeare's Staging and Properties (...
Verlag: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
Einband: Paperback
Zustand: new