Contents
Prologue
Part One: Before the Curtain
1. Beginnings
2. Lessons from the Past
Part Two: The Great Shakespearean Roles
3. Hamlet
4. Henry V
5. Macbeth
6. Richard III
7. King Lear
8. Othello
9. Antony and Cleopatra
10. The Merchant of Venice
Part Three: Contemporary Influences
11. Knights of the Theatre
12. Breakthrough
13. Colossus of the Drama
Part Four: The Silver Screen
14. Early Hollywood
15. Shakespeare on Film
16. In Front of the Camera
Part Five: Reflections
17. On Acting
Epilogue: A Letter to a Young Actress
List of Performances
Index
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar (First Folio title: The Tragedie of Ivlivs Cæsar) is a history play and tragedy by William Shakespeare first performed in 1599. Although the play is named Julius Caesar, Brutus speaks more than four times as many lines as the title character, and the central psychological drama of the play focuses on Brutus.
Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The play was first performed, by the King's Men, at either the Blackfriars Theatre or the Globe Theatre in around 1607; its first appearance in print was in the Folio of 1623.
In rhetoric, a rhetorical device, persuasive device, or stylistic device is a technique that an author or speaker uses to convey to the listener or reader a meaning with the goal of persuading them towards considering a topic from a perspective, using language designed to encourage or provoke an emotional display of a given perspective or action. Rhetorical devices evoke an emotional response in the audience through use of language, but that is not their primary purpose. Rather, by doing so, they seek to make a position or argument more compelling than it would otherwise be.
"Asp" is the modern anglicisation of the word "aspis", which in antiquity referred to any one of several venomous snake species found in the Nile region. The specific epithet, aspis, is a Greek word that means "viper". It is believed that aspis referred to what is now known as the Egyptian cobra.
Crocodile tears is a false, insincere display of emotion such as a hypocrite crying fake tears of grief.
The Colorado Shakespeare Festival is a professional acting company in association with the University of Colorado at Boulder. It was established in 1958, making it one of the oldest such festivals in the United States, and has roots going back to the early 1900s.
Seth Gilliam is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayals of Ellis Carver on The Wire, Clayton Hughes on Oz, Detective Daniels on Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2007–2008), Dr. Alan Deaton on Teen Wolf, Father Gabriel Stokes on The Walking Dead, and Sugar Watkins in the movie Starship Troopers.
"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears" is the first line of a speech by Mark Antony in the play Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare. Occurring in Act III, scene II, it is one of the most famous lines in all of Shakespeare's works.
The Illinois Shakespeare Festival (ISF) is held in Bloomington, Illinois, United States at Ewing Theatre and in Normal, Illinois, United States at the Center for Performing Arts Theatre at Illinois State University. The Festival began in 1978 and will celebrate its 43nd season in the summer of 2021. The Festival usually presents three pieces by "The Bard" as a revolving rep, though occasionally the third piece is from a contemporaneous playwright.
The False One is a late Jacobean stage play by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger, though formerly placed in the Beaumont and Fletcher canon. It was first published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647.
Charmion, alternatively Charmian, was a trusted servant and advisor to Cleopatra VII of Egypt. Contrary to what is generally believed, Plutarch, in his Parallel Lives biography of Mark Antony, writes that Charmion managed the principal affairs of Cleopatra's government; therefore, she held an important position in Cleopatra's trusted circle.
Thousands of performances of William Shakespeare's plays have been staged since the end of the 16th century. While Shakespeare was alive, many of his greatest plays were performed by the Lord Chamberlain's Men and King's Men acting companies at the Globe and Blackfriars Theatres. Among the actors of these original performances were Richard Burbage, Richard Cowley, and William Kempe.
Women in Shakespeare is a topic within the especially general discussion of Shakespeare's dramatic and poetic works. Main characters such as Dark Lady of the sonnets have elicited a substantial amount of criticism, which received added impetus during the second-wave feminism of the 1960s. A considerable number of book-length studies and academic articles investigate the topic, and several moons of Uranus are named after women in Shakespeare.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the life and legacy of William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor who lived during the 17th century. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon".
Katy Stephens is a British actress and former children's presenter. She has appeared in leading roles with Shakespeare's Globe and the Royal Shakespeare Company with whom she is an Associate Artist. She played Nicky in London's Burning, and was a co-presenter on The Fun Song Factory in the 1990s.
Race-reversed casting, also called photo negative casting, is a form of non-traditional casting in acting. The concept revolves around reversing the race of characters being played. The concept was intended as a way to open up non-traditional character roles to more actors but has received complaints that it waters down racial differences.
