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Eubanks Winkler and Schoch reveal how - and why - the first generation to stage Shakespeare after Shakespeare's lifetime changed absolutely everything. Founder of the Duke's Company, Sir William Davenant influenced how Shakespeare was performed in a profound and lasting way. This open access book provides the first performance-based account of Restoration Shakespeare, exploring the precursors to Davenant's approach to Restoration Shakespeare, the cultural context of Restoration theatre, the theatre spaces in which the Duke's Company performed, Davenant's adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, acting styles, and the lasting legacy of Davenant's approach to staging Shakespeare.The eBook editions of this work are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by Queen's University Belfast.

Siblings Sarah Siddons (1755-1831) and John Philip Kemble (1757-1823) were the most famous British actors of the late-18th and early-19th centuries. Through their powerful acting and meticulous conceptualisation of Shakespeare's characters and their worlds, they created iconic interpretations of Shakespeare's major roles that live on in our theatrical and cultural memory. This book examines the actors' long careers on the London stage, from Siddons's debut in 1782 to Kemble's retirement in 1817, encompassing Kemble's time as theatre manager, when he sought to foreground their strengths as Shakespearean performers in his productions. Over the course of more than thirty years, Siddons and Kemble appeared opposite one another in many Shakespeare plays, including King John, Henry VIII, Coriolanus and Macbeth. The actors had to negotiate two major Shakespeare scandals: the staging of Vortigern - a fake Shakespearean play - in 1796 and the Old Price Riots of 1809, during which the audience challenged Siddons's and Kemble's perceived attempts to control Shakespeare. Fiona Ritchie examines the siblings' careers, focusing on their collaborations, as well as placing Siddons's and Kemble's Shakespeare performances in the context of contemporary 18th- and 19th-century drama. The volume not only offers a detailed consideration of London theatre, but also explores the importance of provincial performance to the actors, notably in the case of Hamlet - a role in which both appeared across Britain and in Ireland.

This book examines the work of acclaimed director Tina Packer, founder of Shakespeare & Company, whose ground-breaking approach to performing Shakespeare has made her company among the most vibrant and enduring Shakespeare theatres in America.Tina Packer directed her first Shakespeare play at London Academy for Music and Dramatic Art in 1971. Fifty years later she still directs and teaches at Shakespeare & Company, which she founded in Lenox, Massachusetts in 1978. Drawing on new interviews with the original casts and creative teams as well as Tina Packer herself, this book is the first comprehensive analysis of all of her professional Shakespeare productions in their cultural and historical context.Over a career that spans five decades, Packer has directed or acted in all of Shakespeare's plays as well as many others. As artistic director she guided her company through times of expansion as well as belt-tightening, never wavering from her conviction that the purpose of theatre is to heal and that to fulfil that purpose, acting must tell the truth. With in-depth case studies of twelve of her most significant productions, Katharine Goodland offers a clear account of Packer's work and contribution to Shakespearean theatre in America while illuminating the embedded nature of regional Shakespeare in communities across the United States.

This analysis of the Stratford Festival examines the full history of one of the largest and oldest dedicated centres for the performance of Shakespeare in North America. In English Canada, this Festival has become the unofficial national theatre and, as such, it has drawn criticism and complaint as well as praise. This volume divides the history of the Festival into three distinct periods, beginning with the foundation of the company, moving through its middle years of expansion and securing stability and ending with an exploration of staging Shakespeare in the 21st century. Through case studies of productions, covering each Artistic Director from Tyrone Guthrie to Antoni Cimolino, it highlights issues of national identity but also the unique relationship that exists between the actor and the audience on the Festival stage. It not only explores the work of international stars such as Christopher Plummer, but also examines the work of longstanding company members William Hutt and Martha Henry, emphasizing the Festival's collective spirit. Shakespeare in the Theatre: The Stratford Festival argues that the Stratford Festival holds an influential position in the theatre world generally and in the Shakespeare performance environment specifically. Initially this was because of the innovative thrust stage built for its opening, but increasingly in the 21st century it has been due to the way that this Festival has used Shakespeare's work to articulate complex questions about national identity and used technology to reach new audiences. The work of the British and American artists who have come to the Festival has been significant, but these artists have also been influenced by the collaborative spirit and working methods established by the company. The Festival and its methods grew out of a very particular social and political climate, and when the actors and directors who trained at the Festival took their training elsewhere, they spread its impact.