Books
Below you’ll find a diverse variety of books that comprehensively cover topics such as Shakespeare in translation, useful glossaries, and complete works of Shakespeare, as well as the nuances of theatre interpreting. Take the opportunity to start building your own personal Shakespeare interpreting library today.
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by Rachel Sutton-Spence and Fernanda de Araujo Machado
This book describes creative sign language in deaf literature. To showcase the exciting developments in Latin American deaf literature, the authors focus upon creative Libras as it is used by the Brazilian deaf community, while emphasising aspects of Libras literature that can be seen in similar productions and performances in sign language literatures around the world. Throughout the Element, the authors refer to examples of Libras poems and stories to give readers a practical experience of appreciating works of creative sign language. They describe Libras literature within its historical and social contexts and consider questions of performance, filming and editing and the potential for written Libras literature. Drawing on anthologies of Libras poems, jokes and stories, they use close-reading techniques to show how the literary effects are created, while reminding the reader that sign language literature cannot be separated from the deaf community.
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by Mark Rigney
The 1957 classic American musical West Side Story has been staged by countless community and school theater groups, but none more ambitious than the 2000 production by MacMurray College, a small school in Jacksonville, Illinois. Diane Brewer, the new drama head at the college, determined to add an extra element to the usual demands of putting on a show by having deaf students perform half of the parts. Deaf Side Story presents a fascinating narrative of Brewer and the cast's efforts to mount this challenging play.
Brewer turned to the Illinois School for the Deaf (ISD) to cast the Sharks, the Puerto Rican gang at odds with the Anglo Jets in this musical version of Romeo and Juliet set in the slums of New York. Hearing performers auditioned to be the Jets, and once Brewer had cast her hearing Tony and deaf Maria, then came the challenge of teaching them all to sing/sign and dance the riveting show numbers for which the musical is renowned. She also had to manage a series of sensitive issues, from ensuring the seamless incorporation of American Sign Language into the play to reassuring ISD administrators and students that the production would not be symbolic of any conflict between Deaf and hearing people.
Author Mark Rigney portrays superbly the progress of the production, including the frustrations and triumphs of the leads, the labyrinthine campus and community politics, and the inevitable clashes between the deaf high school cast members and their hearing college counterparts. His representations of the many individuals involved are real and distinguished. The ultimate success of the MacMurray production reverberates in Deaf Side Story as a keen depiction of how several distinct individuals from as many cultures could cooperate to perform a classic American art form brilliantly together.
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by Dr Helen Julia Minors
Explores the roles that translation plays in a musical context, questioning the transference of sense between music and text.
Expanding the notion of translation, this book specifically focuses on the transferences between music and text. The concept of translation' is often limited solely to language transfer. It is, however, a process occurring within and around most forms of artistic expression. Music, considered a language in its own right, often refers to text discourse and other art forms. In translation, this referential relationship must be translated too.How is music affected by text translation? How does music influence the translation of the text it sets? How is the sense of both the text and the music transferred in the translation process?Combining theory with practice, the book questions the process and role translation has to play in a musical context. It provides a range of case studies across interdisciplinary fields. It is the first collection on music in translation that is not restricted to one discipline, including explorations of opera libretti, surtitling, art song, musicals, poetry, painting, sculpture and biography, alongside looking at issues of accessibility. -
by John Bell
With humour, wit and a lifetime of experience this is a fascinating backstage pass to the life and plays of the Bard from Australia's best-known Shakespearean actor and director, John Bell. It's Shakespeare and his world as you've never read before.
'So I'm sitting here backstage, waiting for my entrance, caked in fake blood and taking part in a play that is brutal, nihilistic and offensive according to all criteria of 'good taste'. And it's thrilling.'
Did Shakespeare really write all those plays? Why do you do Shakespeare in modern dress? How do you prepare a role? What's it like doing a long run? Did he believe in ghosts? Was he a subversive .?
Every day, after every performance, around the world, theatregoers ask these sorts of questions. And in On Shakespeare, John Bell, actor and director, a man who thinks, breathes and interprets Shakespeare's canon every day of his life, gives his response based on experience and reflection.
After many years of reading, performing and directing Shakespeare, in the UK and in Australia with the Bell Shakespeare Company, John Bell offers us a unique 'backstage pass' to the histories, tragedies, comedies and romances and a memorable insight into the sonnets.
John Bell's passionate relationship with Shakespeare informs and deepens our understanding of the man and his works. On Shakespeare is vivid, accessible and fascinating-a book that confirms Shakespeare's enduring relevance to our lives. -
by David & Ben Crystal
The Oxford Illustrated Shakespeare Dictionary is the first of its kind, a brand new illustrated alphabetical dictionary of all the words and meanings students of Shakespeare need to know. Every word has an example sentence selected from the twelve most studied plays, including Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Henry V. Usage notes and theatre notes provide additional background to Shakespearean times and the performance of his plays. Further support is provided by language panels on select topics like the humours, swearing, and stage directions, and full-colour illustrated thematic spreads on special feature topics from clothes and armour to music and recreation. The dictionary is easy to use with its clear signposting, accessible design, and expertly levelled contemporary look and feel. It is the perfect support for a full understanding of Shakespeare, created by renowned authors Professor David Crystal and actor Ben Crystal, a father and son team who combine for the first time the academic and the theatre, bringing together language, literature, and lexicography in this unique Shakespeare dictionary of global appeal.
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by Ton Hownselaars (editor)
Shakespeare's international status as a literary icon is largely based on his masterful use of the English language, yet beyond Britain his plays and poems are read and performed mainly in translation. Shakespeare and the Language of Translation addresses this apparent contradiction and is the first major survey of its kind.
Covering the many ways in which the translation of Shakespeare's works is practised and studied from Bulgaria to Japan, South Africa to Germany, it also discusses the translation of Macbeth into Scots and of Romeo and Juliet into British Sign Language. The collection places renderings of Shakespeare's works aimed at the page and the stage in their multiple cultural contexts, including gender, race and nation, as well as personal and postcolonial politics. Shakespeare's impact on nations and cultures all around the world is increasingly a focus for study and debate. As a result, the international performance of Shakespeare and Shakespeare in translation have become areas of growing popularity for both under- and post-graduate study, for which this book provides a valuable companion.
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by Susan Bennett (Editor)
Tackling vital issues of politics, identity and experience in performance, this book asks what Shakespeare's plays mean when extended beyond the English language. From April to June 2012 the Globe to Globe Festival offered the unprecedented opportunity to see all of Shakespeare's plays performed in many different world languages. Thirty-eight productions from around the globe were presented in six weeks as part of the World Shakespeare Festival, which formed a cornerstone of the Cultural Olympics. This book provides the only complete critical record of that event, drawing together an internationally renowned group of scholars of Shakespeare and world theatre with a selection of the UK's most celebrated Shakespearean actors. Featuring a foreword by Artistic Director Dominic Dromgoole and an interview with the Festival Director Tom Bird, this volume highlights the energy and dedication that was necessary to mount this extraordinary cultural experiment. -
by Ben and David Crystal
A vital resource for scholars, students and actors, this book contains glosses and quotes for over 14,000 words that could be misunderstood by or are unknown to a modern audience. Displayed panels look at such areas of Shakespeare's language as greetings, swear-words and terms of address. Plot summaries are included for all Shakespeare's plays and on the facing page is a unique diagramatic representation of the relationships within each play.
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by Julie Gebron
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Edited by Silvia Bigliazzi, Paola Ambrosi, Peter Kofler
This volume focuses on the highly debated topic of theatrical translation, one brought on by a renewed interest in the idea of performance and translation as a cooperative effort on the part of the translator, the director, and the actors. Exploring the role and function of the translator as co-subject of the performance, it addresses current issues concerning the role of the translator for the stage, as opposed to the one for the editorial market, within a multifarious cultural context. The current debate has shown a growing tendency to downplay and challenge the notion of translational accuracy in favor of a recreational and post-dramatic attitude, underlying the role of the director and playwright instead. This book discusses the delicate balance between translating and directing from an intercultural, semiotic, aesthetic, and interlingual perspective, taking a critical stance on approaches that belittle translation for the theatre or equate it to an editorial practice focused on literality. Chapters emphasize the idea of dramatic translation as a particular and extremely challenging type of performance, while consistently exploring its various textual, intertextual, intertranslational, contextual, cultural, and intercultural facets. The notion of performance is applied to textual interpretation as performance, interlingual versus intersemiotic performance, and (inter)cultural performance in the adaptation of translated texts for the stage, providing a wide-ranging discussion from an international group of contributors, directors, and translators.
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A new edition of the bestselling Complete Works of Shakespeare from the Royal Shakespeare Company. New features include a stunning new design, colour photographs of key performances, innovative Stage Notes illustrating RSC staging choices, and a foreword from RSC Artistic Director Gregory Doran.
"The text of any Shakespeare play is a living negotiable entity- scholarship and theatre practice work together to keep the plays alive and vividly present." Gregory Doran, RSC Artistic Director
Developed in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company, this Complete Works of William Shakespeare combines exemplary textual scholarship with beautiful design. Curated by expert editors Sir Jonathan Bate and Professor Eric Rasmussen, the text in this collection is based on the iconic 1623 First Folio- the first and original Complete Works lovingly assembled by Shakespeare's fellow actors, and the version of Shakespeare's text preferred by many actors and directors today.
This stunning revised edition goes further to present Shakespeare's plays as they were originally intended as living theatre to be enjoyed and performed on stage. Along with new colour photographs from a vibrant range of RSC productions, a new Stage Notes feature documenting the staging choices in 100 RSC productions showcases the myriad ways in which Shakespeare's plays can be brought to life.
Now featuring the entire range of Shakespeare's plays, poems and sonnets, this edition is expanded to include both The Passionate Pilgrim and A Lover's Complaint. Along with Bate's excellent general introduction and short essays, this collection includes a range of aids to the reader such as on-page notes explaining unfamiliar terms and key facts boxes providing plot summaries and additional helpful context. A Complete Works for the 21st century, this versatile and highly collectable edition will inspire students, theatre practitioners and lovers of Shakespeare everywhere. -
All the big ideas, simply explained - an innovative and accessible guide to the complete works of Shakespeare
\"All the world's a stage\", William Shakespeare wrote, \"And all the men and women merely players.\" Sit back as the curtain goes up on the dramas, sonnets, and life of one of greatest writers in the English language.
Shakespeare wrote or contributed to more than 40 plays, ranging from romantic comedies to the profound tragedy King Lear, as well as 154 sonnets. The Shakespeare Book has visual plot summaries of each one, with diagrams to show the intricate web of relationships in plays such as A Midsummer's Night Dream. Commentaries explain Shakespeare's sources and set each drama in context, revealing, for instance, how the warring Protestants and Catholics of his day are mirrored in Romeo and Juliet's Montagues and Capulets.
Written in plain English and packed with graphics and illustrations, The Shakespeare Book illumines the Bard's world - his marriage, businesses, and friends - and explains how his works became an enduring phenomenon.
Whether you need a guide through complex plots and unfamiliar language, or you're looking for a fresh perspective on his well-loved plays and sonnets, this indispensable guide will help you fully appreciate Shakespeare, the man and the writer. -
by David Crystal and Ben Crystal
An upbeat exploration of Shakespeare's life and times covers a wide range of topics, from descriptions of his educational studies and discussions about his lost plays to the reasons behind the Globe fire and the difference between a Folio and a Quarto. Co-written by the author of The Stories of English.
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by Emma Smith
A revelatory new look at Shakespeare, from 'one of the stars of her generation of Shakespeare scholars' Eric Rasmussen
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
'An outstanding book ... lively, curious and passionate' Literary Review
Why should you read a book about Shakespeare and his plays?
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