Actors and Acting in Shakespeare's Time
The Art of Stage Playing

Perfect for courses, this book is an account of the first actors in the plays of Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Jonson.

John H. Astington (Author)

9780521192507, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 September 2010

262 pages, 6 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.56 kg

'The book offers a complex, lively, absorbing sense of the acting profession, its 'art' and social networks.' Eleanor Lowe, Early Theatre

John Astington brings the acting style of the Shakespearean period to life, describing and analysing the art of the player in the English professional theatre between Richard Tarlton and Thomas Betterton. The book pays close attention to the cultural context of stage playing, the critical language used about it, and the kinds of training and professional practice employed in the theatre at various times over the course of roughly one hundred years - 1558–1660. Perfect for courses, this survey takes into account recent discoveries about actors and their social networks, about apprenticeship and company affiliations, and about playing outside the major centre of theatre, London. Astington considers the educational tradition of playing, in schools, universities, legal inns, and choral communities, in comparison to the work of the professional players. A comprehensive biographical dictionary of all major professional players of the Shakespearean period is included as a handy reference guide.

Introduction: the purpose of playing
1. Shadows, jests, and counterfeits
2. Playing and education
3. Apprentices
4. Playing many parts
5. Players at work
6. Conclusion
Appendix. Principal actors 1558–1660
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Shakespeare studies & criticism [DSGS], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD], Acting techniques [ANC], Theatre studies [AN]