Directing Shakespeare

"An impossible question from a Chinese actor - "Why is Shakespeare eternal?"--Drove Sidney Homan after fifty years in the theater to ponder just what makes Shakespeare ... well, Shakespeare. The result, Directing Shakespeare, reflects the two worlds in which Homan operates - as a scholar and teacher on campus, and as a director and actor in professional and university theaters." "Professor Sidney Homan's concern is the entire process, beginning in the lonely period when the director develops a concept, and moving into increasingly larger realms: interaction with designers; rehearsals; and performances in which the audience's response further shapes the play." "Professor Homan recounts the experience of staging King Lear accompanied by a musical score for piano, violin, and cello played live onstage. He discusses the challenge of making and trying to justify cuts in Hamlet. The chapter on The Comedy of Errors shows the ways in which scholarly and critical writings can contribute to a director's decisions on everything from casting to acting styles. A casual remark from an actress leads to a feminist production of a Midsummer Night's Dream. He describes the delicate collaboration between director and performer as he works with actors preparing for The Merchant of Venice, King Lear, and Hamlet. Other chapters treat a set designer's bold red drapes that influenced the director's concept for Julius Caesar, and the cross-influence of back-to-back runs of Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Hamlet."--Jacket.