How to Speak Shakespeare

Cal Pritner, Louis Coliaianni

• Publisher: Santa Monica Press
• Year: 2001
• Print ISBN: 9781891661181
• eBook ISBN: 9781595807564
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Theatre

In How to Speak Shakespeare, authors Cal Pritner and Louis Colaianni teach readers how to make sound and sense out of the Bard. Their methods have taught thousands of people—from high school students to English literature and theater arts graduate students, from beginning actors to professional actors—how to understand and effectively communicate the poetry of Shakespeare.In order to make the book user-friendly, the authors have organized it around passages from Romeo and Juliet. The material has been tested successfully with high school students, graduate students, amateur actors, and professional actors. The authors' teaching method is essentially a simple three step process: Test Your Understanding, Stress for Meaning, and Celebrate the Poetry. Classroom and rehearsal-tested exercises are included along with additional background on Shakespeare and his work.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Step One: Test Your Understanding
• Step Two: Stress for Meaning
• Step Three: Celebrate the Poetry
• Let’s Review
• Before We Bring It All Together
• Applying the Three Steps To a Scene
• Acting the Text: Shakespeare’s Demands
• Some Additional Thoughts On Acting Shakespeare
• Selective Bibliography