ENGLISH

Elizabethan Stage Conventions and Modern Interpreters

By Alan C. Dessen

Book information

Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Year
1986
ISBN
0521311616, 9780511554179, 9780521259125, 9780521311618
Open Library ID
OL15058444M
Language
english
Format
DJVU
Filesize
1 MB (1226903 bytes)
Pages
204\202
Time added
2011-04-28 18:43:47

Description

Alan Dessen samples about four hundred manuscripts and printed plays to record the original staging conventions of the age of Shakespeare. After studying the stage properties, movements and configurations implicit in recurrent phrases and stage directions, he concludes that Elizabethan spectators, less concerned with realism than later generations, were used to receiving a kind of theatrical shorthand transmitted by the actors from the playwright. Professor Dessen both describes this shorthand (e.g. the use of nightgowns, boots and dishevelled hair) and draws attention to the implications of his findings for modern interpreters, addressing not only critics and teachers but also editors, actors and directors.

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