Shakespeare's double plays: dramatic economy on the Early Modern stage

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"Presenting the first comprehensive study of how Shakespeare designed his plays to suit his playing company, Brett Gamboa demonstrates how Shakespeare turned his limitations to creative advantage, and how doubling roles suited his unique sense of the dramatic. By attending closely to their dramaturgical structures, Gamboa analyses casting requirements for all the plays Shakespeare wrote for the company between 1594-1610, and describes how using the embedded casting patterns can enhance their thematic and theatrical potential. Drawing on historical records, dramatic theory and contemporary performance this innovative work questions received ideas about early modern staging and provides scholars and contemporary theatre practitioners with a valuable guide to understanding how casting can be exploited to facilitate audience engagement. Supported by an appendix of speculative doubling charts for plays, illustrations and online resources, this is a major contribution to the understanding of Shakespeare's dramatic craft"--;Cover; Half-title; Title page; Copyright information; Table of contents; List of figures; List of tables; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Establishing Realism and Credibility through Artifice; Doubling from Medieval to Modern Times; Shakespeare's Double Plays; Doubling Criticism and Speculation; 1 'Improbable Fictions'; Drama at and after the Margins; Conventions, Casting, and Cutting against the Natural; Metadrama 2.0; Onstage Graveyards and Embodied Ghosts; Embodied Ghosts and Doubling in Hamlet; 2 Versatility and Verisimilitude on Sixteenth-Century Stages; 'Put money in thy purse';1. ‘Improbable Fictions’ -- 2. Versatility and Verisimilitude on Sixteenth-Century Stages -- 3. Doubling in The Winter’s Tale -- 4. Dramaturgical Directives and Shakespeare’s Cast Size -- 5. Doubling in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet -- 6. ‘What, are they children?’ -- 7. Doubling in Twelfth Night and Othello -- Epilogue: Ragozine and Shakespearean Substitution -- Appendix: Doubling Roles in Shakespeare’s Plays. 1. ‘Improbable Fictions’ -- 2. Versatility and Verisimilitude on Sixteenth-Century Stages -- 3. Doubling in The Winter’s Tale -- 4. Dramaturgical Directives and Shakespeare’s Cast Size -- 5. Doubling in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet -- 6. ‘What, are they children?’ -- 7. Doubling in Twelfth Night and Othello -- Epilogue: Ragozine and Shakespearean Substitution -- Appendix: Doubling Roles in Shakespeare’s Plays. Cover Half-title Title page Copyright information Table of contents List of figures List of tables Acknowledgements Introduction Establishing Realism and Credibility through Artifice Doubling from Medieval to Modern Times Shakespeare's Double Plays Doubling Criticism and Speculation 1 'Improbable Fictions' Drama at and after the Margins Conventions, Casting, and Cutting against the Natural Metadrama 2.0 Onstage Graveyards and Embodied Ghosts Embodied Ghosts and Doubling in Hamlet 2 Versatility and Verisimilitude on Sixteenth-Century Stages 'Put money in thy purse' Doubling in Early English DramaConceptual Casting in Medieval Drama 'Four men and a boy' 'There's time enough for that' Other Precedents and Contemporary Analogues Ambidextrous Actors All Heywood's 'Man-Woman Monster' Evidence and Its Abuses Conclusion 3 Doubling in The Winter's Tale 4 Dramaturgical Directives and Shakespeare's Cast Size Conspicuous Absences Limiting Scenes Rival Camps and Green Worlds Suggestive Presences The Mirror and the Monarchs The Case for More Actors I. The 'Hired Men' II. Acting 'Lines' Boy Actors (Take One). 5 Doubling in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and JulietSeeing Double in A Midsummer Night's Dream Spontaneous Kinships, or Who Knew the Nurse and Tybalt were so Close? At First Sight 6 'What, are they children?' Apprenticeship ' ... between boy and man' The Case for Shakespeare's Boys Post-Jacobean Players and Prologues What's in a 'Boy'? Voice-Change and Puberty Beards and Beardlessness Aeries of Squeaking Cleopatras Contemporary Views (In- ) Conclusion 7 Doubling in Twelfth Night and Othello Twelfth Night with Ten Trading 'Places' in Othello. Epilogue: Ragozine and Shakespearean SubstitutionAppendix: Doubling Roles in Shakespeare's Plays Bibliography Index.