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How Do Performances Of Shakespeare Change The Meanings Of The Plays? In This Controversial New Book, Sarah Werner Argues That The Text Of A Shakespeare Play Is Only One Of The Many Factors That Give A Performance Its Meaning. By Focusing On The Royal Shakespeare Company, Werner Demonstrates How Actor Training, Company Management And Gender Politics Fundamentally Affect Both How A Production Is Created And The Interpretations It Can Suggest. Werner Concentrates Particularly On: The Influential Training Methods Of Cicely Berry And Patsy Rodenburg The History Of The Rsc Women's Group Gale Edwards' Production Of The Taming Of The Shrew She Reveals That No Performance Of Shakespeare Is Able To Bring The Plays To Life Or To Realise The Playwright's Intentions Without Shaping Them To Mirror Our Own Assumptions. By Examining The Ideological Implications Of Performance Practices, This Book Will Help All Interested In Shakespeare's Plays To Explore What It Means To Study Them In Performance.
This book investigates how the institutional and ideological structures of theater production fundamentally reshape the meaning of Shakespearean plays. Sarah Werner, a scholar of performance studies, utilizes the Royal Shakespeare Company as a primary case study to challenge the notion that a play's meaning is derived solely from the written text. She argues that external factors—including actor training, company management, and gender politics—act as filters that inevitably mirror contemporary societal assumptions rather than the playwright's original intentions.
What You Will Find
Experts in theater history and Shakespearean studies recognize this work as a critical intervention in performance theory. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which serves as a foundational text for those analyzing the intersection of gender ideology and stage production.
Page Count:
144
Publication Date:
2005-01-01
Publisher:
Taylor & Francis Group
ISBN-10:
0203995759
ISBN-13:
9780203995754
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