Playing Indoors: Staging Early Modern Drama in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

Description

What have we discovered about performance practice in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse since the opening of the intimate candlelit theatre at Shakespeare’s Globe? Playing Indoors reveals the results of a two-year study into the performance of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama in this unique theatre, drawing together insights into early modern stage practice and the observations of today’s actors and spectators. A history of the experiences of artists and audience members who experienced the space first, the book is also a study of the significance of re-imagined theatres like the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and the Globe. Accessibly written and intended for a wide audience of students, scholars, artists and theatre-goers, Playing Indoors is a valuable contribution to the young field of early modern practice-as-research. Cover Contents Plates Acknowledgements Note on Texts and Editions Prologue PART ONE Playhouse in Context 1 Origins 2 Reception PART TWO Playhouse at Work 3 ‘Fair Lightsome Lodgings’: Initial Responses to the Space 4 ‘Full and Significant Action’: Technique and Craft 5 ‘This Darkness Suits You Well’: Acting by Candlelight 6 ‘You Can’t Help But Be Involved’: Audiences in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse PART THREE Playhouse and Research in Action 7 Stagecraft in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse 8 Music and Lighting in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse Epilogue Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Notes Bibliography Index