Author Description

"During his career as a director, Simon Dunmore has seen well over ten thousand auditions performed - many of them based on the same speeches. This latest collection of speeches from Shakespeare's plays has been carefully selected and edited to provide fresh and unusual audition material for the actor." "This book brings together another fifty speeches for men from plays frequently ignored such as Cymbeline, King John and Henry VIII. It also includes good, but overlooked speeches from the more popular plays such as Kent from King Lear, Tranio from The Taming of the Shrew and Ferdinand from The Tempest. Each speech is accompanied by a helpful character description, brief explanation of the context, and notes on obscure words, phrases and references - all written from the viewpoint of the auditioning actor. Also included is a comprehensive guide to selecting, preparing and performing audition speeches, and background material on Shakespeare and the times he lived in."--Jacket.