V. Eccentric Essays and Books: Individual Players, Companies, Directors
and Stage Traditions
Beauman, Sally. The Royal Shakespeare Company: A History of Ten Decades.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982. If you are researching a specific
RSC production, this is useful.
Berry, Ralph. On Directing Shakespeare. London: Hamish Hamilton Ltd.,
1989. Interviews with contemporary directors.
Bowmer, Angus L. As I Remember, Adam: An Autobiography of a Festival.
Ashland: Oregon Shakespearean Festival Association, 1975. An early history
of the Ashland festival.
Brockbank, Philip, ed. Players Of Shakespeare I. Cambridge: Cambridge
U.P., 1985. Invaluable collection of essays by individual RSC actors about
specific roles in specific productions, see also volumes II and III in this
outstanding series and Carol Rutter's book.
Findlater, Richard. The Player Kings. New York: Stein and Day, 1971.
Brief biographies of famous actors.
Findlater, Richard. The Player Queens. New York: Taplinger Publishing
Company, 1976. Brief biographies of famous actors.
Granville-Barker, Harley. Prefaces To Shakespeare. Several Volumes.
Princeton: Princeton U. P., 1952 and thereafter. One of the first and most
influential critics of Shakespeare with a production-oriented approach.
Grebanier, Bernard. Then Came Each Actor: Shakespearean Actors, Great
and Otherwise, Including Players and Princes, Rogues, Vagabonds, and Actors
Motley, from Will Kempe to Olivier and Gielgud and After. New York:
David McKay Company, Inc., 1975.
Jackson, Russell and Robert Smallwood. Players of Shakespeare 2.
New York: Cambridge U. P., 1988.
Jackson, Russell, and Robert Smallwood, eds. Players of Shakespeare 3.
Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 1993.
Mac Liammoir, Micheal. Put Money In Thy Purse. London: Columbus Books,
1952 (reprinted in "The Lively Arts" series in 1976). A production
diary of Orson Welles's film of Othello from the actor playing Iago. The
film itself was recently restored and re-released.
Rutter, Carol; with Sinead Cusak et al. Clamorous Voices-Shakespeare's
Women Today. Ed. Faith Evans. New York: Routledge, 1989. An all-female
version of the co-ed "Players of Shakespeare" series, very good.
Sales, Roger, ed. Shakespeare In Perspective, Vol 1. London: Ariel
Books, 1982. An odd collection of essays about Shakespeare by different
British people somehow connected with Shakespeare: sometimes the essays
by actors and actresses are useful, but the series is less consistently
good than the "Players of Shakespeare" series.
Sales, Roger, ed. Shakespeare in Perspective, Vol 2. London: Ariel
Books, 1985.
Speaight, Robert. William Poel and the Elizabethan Revival. London:
William Heinemann Ltd., 1954. Poel was a major figure in Nineteenth century
production, one of the first to advocate presenting the plays as they were
presented in Shakespeare's theater, or at least as Poel understood them
to have been so presented. Speaight's account is standard.
Sprague, Arthur Colby. Shakespeare And The Actors. Cambridge: Harvard
U.P., 1944. A classic, explains the history of stage business in Shakespeare's
plays, much of which has fallen by the wayside. If you are interested in
what actors were doing on-stage as they were (or when they weren't) speaking,
this is invaluable. The notes are a gold mine. Sprague's two later books,
one co-authored with Trewin, are similarly designed and useful.
Sprague, Arthur Colby. Shakespearian Players and Performances. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 1953.
Sprague, Arthur Colby, and J. C. Trewin. Shakespeare's Plays Today: Some
Customs and Conventions of the Stage. Columbia, SC: University of South
Carolina Press, 1970.
Styan, J. C. The Shakespeare Revolution. New York: Cambridge U. P.,
1977. Discusses why Shakespeare in performance in our century is ostensibly
different than before. An extremely useful book that is a wonderful primer
for this subject. It tends, however, to have a bit too much faith in the
progress that has been made since the scenic excesses of the nineteenth
century.
back to table of contents.