Shakespeare in Action

Questions about Shakespearean Theatre

- How do actors prepare a script of a Shakespeare play for performance?

- Where do directors begin?

- What do Shakespeare's plays offer a designer or choreographer?

- How do the cast and creative team work together in rehearsals?

With Shakespeare in Action, Jaq Bessell presents thirty interviews with theatre practitioners from some of the larger producing theatres in the UK and the US, exploring the various processes which bring Shakespeare's plays to the stage. Actors, designers, directors and choreographers, including Eve Best, Bunny Christie, Gregory Doran and Lindsay Kemp, share their collective wisdom and experience, and reveal how training and practice informs productions of Shakespeare plays. These first-hand accounts provide students of Shakespeare in performance and practitioners with a critical toolkit with which to study the plays in performance.