Description
Book SynopsisHow did Elizabethan and Jacobean acting companies create their visual and aural effects? What materials were available to them and how did they influence staging and writing? What impact did the sensations of theatre have on early modern audiences? How did the construction of the playhouses contribute to technological innovations in the theatre? What effect might these innovations have had on the writing of plays?
Shakespeare''s Theatres and The Effects of Performance is a landmark collection of essays by leading international scholars addressing these and other questions to create a unique and comprehensive overview of the practicalities and realities of the theatre in the early modern period.
Trade ReviewThe volume is a useful touchstone for scholars working on the senses, as well as being an authoritative introduction to the possible reception of the plays in early modern theatres -- Johann Gregory, University of East Anglia, UK * Notes and Queries *
This collection's successful three-part structure ... investigates the fabric of early modern theatre-houses, the technologies of staging bodies and drama's evocation of the senses. The wonderfully diverse range of subjects brings this all to life. -- Eleanor Decamp * Around the Globe *
With the opening of another reconstructed (or ‘reimagined’) early modern theatre in the Sam Wanamaker playhouse, and continued experimentation around the performance and practice of early modern drama more generally, this is a timely and thought-provoking volume about how the companies enacted and produced theatrical effects... -- Eoin Price, Eleanor Collins, Helen F. Smith, Chloe Preedy And Jem Bloomfield * Year's Work in English Studies *
All the essays in this collection heighten our perception of the differences between early modern and contemporary theatrical spaces, conventions, and cultures. They provide an insightful account of early modern theater that both facilitates and complicates attempts to recreate early modern plays in the spirit and practice of their Elizabethan counterparts. * Shakespeare Newsletter *
Table of ContentsPreface Andrew Gurr List of Illustrations List of Contributors Introduction Farah-Karim Cooper and Tiffany Stern
Part One: The Fabric of Early Modern Theatres 1. ‘This Wide and Universal Theatre’: the Theatre as Prop in Shakespeare’s Metadrama Tiffany Stern 2. Storm effects in Shakespeare Gwilym Jones 3. Performing Materiality: Curtains on the Early Modern Stage Nathalie Rivere de Carles
Part Two: Technologies of the Body 4.
‘They eat each others’ arms’: Stage Blood and Body Parts Lucy Munro 5. Cosmetic Transformations Andrea Stevens 6. Costume, Disguise and Self-Display Bridget Escolme 7. Character Acting Paul Menzer
Part 3: The Sensory Stage 8. Within , Without, Withinwards: The Circulation of Sound in Shakespeare’s Theatre Bruce R. Smith 9. ‘As Dirty as Smithfield and As Stinking Every Whit’: The Smell of the Hope Theatre Holly Dugan 10. Touch and Taste in Shakespeare’s Theatres Farah Karim-Cooper 11. ‘Sight and Spectacle’ 12. Evelyn Tribble Notes Index
