Shakespeare Performance Studies
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 6/26/2014
EAN 9781107055957, ISBN10: 1107055954
Hardcover, 264 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm
Language: English
Taking a 'performance studies' perspective on Shakespearean theatre, W. B. Worthen argues that the theatrical event represents less an inquiry into the presumed meanings of the text than an effort to frame performance as a vehicle of cultural critique. Using contemporary performances as test cases, Worthen explores the interfaces between the origins of Shakespeare's writing as literature and as theatre, the modes of engagement with Shakespeare's plays for readers and spectators, and the function of changing performance technologies on our knowledge of Shakespeare. This book not only provides the material for performance analysis, but places important contemporary Shakespeare productions in dialogue with three influential areas of critical discourse: texts and authorship, the function of character in cognitive theatre studies, and the representation of theatre and performing in the digital humanities. This book will be vital reading for scholars and advanced students of Shakespeare and of performance studies.
1. Shakespeare performance studies
2. Intoxicating rhythms
Shakespeare, literature, and performance
Nature Theater of Oklahoma, Romeo and Juliet
3. 'The written troubles of the brain'
writing, character, and the cognition of performance
Punchdrunk Theatre, Sleep No More
4. Retrotech
writing, theatre, and technologies of performance
Michael Almereyda, Hamlet.