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Leading from 13 objects into a wider social history, this book takes a look at a Shakespearean theatre through the objects, actors, people, props and plays found inside it. ... Read more

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John Barrymore's Richard III and Hamlet, first seen in New York during the 1919-20 and 1922-23 seasons, stand as high-water marks of twentieth-century Shakespearean interpretation. Michael Morrison reconstructs these historic performances through analysis of the production preparation, audience response, reviews, and memoirs. Tracing the Victorian and Edwardian antecedents of Shakespearean performance, this book situates Barrymore's distinctive contribution in light of past and ensuing tradition. As well, it provides a biographical sketch of one of the most revered and tragic actors of the twentieth century."This young artist, profiting by the lessons of tradition...casts it boldly aside and emerges into the rarefied atmosphere of a new art, greater because it is new, stronger because it is built upon an old foundation." Brooklyn Times, March 9, 1920Amazon.com Review
Toward the end of his life, master actor John Barrymore became an embarrassment: he was aclassic drunken has-been who could neither pull it together nor pack it in. But this unusualbiography spends most of its pages on Barrymore's golden age in the 1920s and 1930s,describing in amazing pre-videotape detail his performances at the height of his powers,playing what may be the 20th century's definitive Hamlet, along with Macbeth and otherclassical roles. Michael Morrison draws on books, memories, reviews, and other material to present painstakingline-by-line recreations of Barrymore's most shining performances. ... Read more

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The Bard and Barrymore made a potent combination for the glory of the Great Profile's Richard III and Hamlet
The bard is the genius of the theatre: William Shakespeare (1564-1616). The Barrymore is John (1862-1942). In the 1920s productions in New York and London of Richard III and Hamlet the player from Philadelphia lightened the Great White Way with his superb impersonations of the hunchbacked Machiavellian and the brooding Dane.
Michael Morrison's excellent theatrical history of those productions
casts the limelight on both the history of Shakespearean production and the emergence of Barrymore.
Barrymore had been known as a light comedian. Yet in Richard III and Hamlet he reached the heights of Shakespearean acting brilliance joining such luminaries as Edwin Booth, Sir Henry Irving and David Garrick in the pantheon of great tragedians.
John Barrymore was a rake who died an early death due to his alcoholism and related problems. He was married four times. Following the Shakespearean plays of the 1920s he went to Hollywood to star in such hits as "Twentieth Century"; "Grand Hotel"; "Romeo and Juliet (in the role of Mercutio): "Counselor At Law" and others. While many films were hits he failed to reach his potential as a Shakespearean actor.
Barrymore is important in the Shakespearean stage history of America because:
a. He served as a transition figure from the gentle Prince Hamlet tradition of the Victorian theatre to a more Freudian psychological approach.
b. He provided audience goers with a more physical and sexual Richard III and Hamlet. John Barrymore seemed to speak the lines as if he had just thought of them for the first time. He added realism to a theatregoers perception of the action on stage.
c. He spoke Shakespeare in a less bombastic style than earlier tragedians. He did, however, at times revert to being a ham on stage.
d. Morrison shows how director Arthur Hopkins and his stage designer Robert Jones effectively used lighting and European concepts of staging to give Shakespeare a more contemporary impact to Shakesperean productions.
e. Barrymore influenced a generation of Shakespeareans who would follow him such as Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and Maurice Evans.
Barrymore studied hard to make his transition from light comedy to Shakespeare. He trained his voice; studied the texts of the plays in g depth and worked hard to sober up and keep physically fit during the run of the plays. He would never again be so great as he was in these 1920s productions of Shakespeare. Once he had created his concept of a role Barrymore disdained the hard work of performing the same play night after night. His was quickly bored and eager to move on to a new challenge.
Michael Morrison examines in depth each of the scenes in the Barrymore plays. To some this will be tedious but as a lover of Shakespeare I found it to be fascinating.
This book cleared up many misconceptions I had about John Barrymore. While clearly a flawed human being he was also a brilliant actor who held his own with the heavyweight actors of his profession. This excellent book deals with the craft of acting and would be a wonderful resource to use in a college classroom devoted to Shakespearean acting.

Hard Work Pays Off
This is one of the best books ever written on the performing arts. By focusing in on Barrymore's Shakespearean acting only, Morrison manages to show how a second-rate light comedian turned himself into a great artist by sheer hard work -- and then, horrifyingly, how an artist transformed himself into a clown through laziness and dissipation. Through the use of the actor's playbooks and impressive research, Morrison does the impossible and brings Barrymore's stage performances as Richard III and Hamlet so vividly alive you'll swear you're in the theater watching them (I was holding my breath at the end of "Hamlet"). Along the way there are vivid portraits of the idealistic, progressive theater in the 1920's and, a decade later, the ancestry of today's poisonous and envious celebrity culture. Once you read this book you'll never look at Barrymore the same way again.

Inspiring & Heartbreaking
Michael Morrison's book fills a much needed gap in the large Barrymore biographical canon: it tells the story of Barrymore the artist.Many of the other great biographies of the man and family (Margot Peter's THE HOUSEOF BARRYMORE, anything by James Kotsilibas-Davis, to name only two of manyexcellent others) understandably short-shrift the details found here, infavor of the fabulous "bon mots" and the large tragic arc of hislife.Morrison, if it's possible to believe, makes that tragedy all themore heartbreaking by detailing the hard work that Barrymore put himselfthrough to transform himself from a light comedian into the greatest tragicactor of his generation - and arguably the last great tragic actor of theAmerican theatre.

The detailed recreations of Barrymore's acting inRICHARD III and HAMLET are facinating.They provide all of us who havecome after some small picture of what it must have been like to actuallysee him on stage.It helps, I suppose, to be familiar with his film work,to have heard at least some of his Shakespearean recordings, in order tofully visualize Barrymore's "flashing, rapier" genius at work -but it's probably not necessary.A must for all Barrymore fans, actors,and theatre lovers, this book is a treasure.But beware, its story couldbreak your heart.

A stunning overview of an American legend.
Michael Morrison has provided us with a stirring portrait of one of America's greatest actors, John Barrymore.His book is a vivid account of Barrymore's innovative approach to Shakespearean acting and subsequent rise to fame. This book is required reading for Shakespearean scholars and Barrymore enthusiasts alike. ... Read more

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Chapters: Royal Shakespeare Company. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 111. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company. Located primarily at Stratford-upon-Avon, with bases also in London and Newcastle upon Tyne, it is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly-funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal National Theatre. The RSC's history dates back to April 23, 1879 when the newly completed Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon staged its first production, Much Ado About Nothing, a title which gave ammunition to several critics. The Memorial, a red brick Gothic cathedral, designed by Dodgshun and Unsworth of Westminster, was unkindly described by Bernard Shaw as an admirable building, adaptable to every purpose except that of a theatre. But from 1919, under the direction of William Bridges-Adams and after a slow start, its resident New Shakespeare Company became one of the most prestigious in Britain. The theatre received a Royal Charter of Incorporation in 1925, which gave it a certain status. But this was short-lived because on the afternoon of 6 March 1926, when a new season was about to commence rehearsals, smoke was seen, then fire broke out and the mass of half-timbering chosen to ornament the interior provided good dry tinder. By the following morning the theatre was a blackened shell. The company transferred its Shakespeare festivals to a converted local cinema, but fund-raising began for the rebuilding of the theatre, with generous donations arriving from philanthropists in America. In January 1928, following an open competition, the 29 year old Elisabeth Scott was appointed architect for the new theatre. The theatre became the first important work erected in this country from the de...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=167785 ... Read more

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Outdoor Drama: Pictorial Guide to Epic Historical Drama, Music Drama, Passion Plays and Shakespearean Theatre in the U.S.A. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! A summer stock theatre is a theatre that generally presents stage productions only in the summer time in the United States. The name combines the seasonal aspect with a tradition of putting on shows with a resident company and reusing stock company scenery and costumes. Some smaller theatres still continue this tradition, and a few summer stock theatres have become highly regarded theatre festivals. Equity status and pay for actors in these theatres varies greatly, sometimes resulting in sub-minimum wage pay for acting "interns." Often viewed as a starting point for professional actors, stock casts are typically young, just out of high school or still in college. Summer stock theatres frequently take advantage of better weather by having their productions outdoors. According to Martha Schmoyer LoMonaco, summer stock consists of "theater companies serving vacationers in largely rural areas of the northeastern United States. The classic summer stock season runs between June and October. Titles change weekly or biweekly. But the stock of scenery, costumes and props, as well as the resident company of actors, gets recycled and reused week after week." ... Read more

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This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Beautiful Illustrations
This seems elementary at first but there is a surprising amount of information here about Elizabethan Theater.The pictures really bring the text to life. ... Read more

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This volume contains 11 new papers on Shakespeare written by members of the Department of English at the University of Copenhagen and other Danish universities plus a few international Shakespeare scholars. They fit into an overall theme and are included because they are about Shakespeare - as text, as theatre, in his age, and through the ages. Beside showing many different ways of thinking and writing about Shakespeare, the eleven articles fall into a pattern if read together in the order they are printed. The papers are varied and wide-ranging: contemporary contexts, tradition, language and style, performance, translation and modern appropriation. ... Read more

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Chapters: List of Shakespearean Characters, List of Historical Figures Dramatised by Shakespeare, Characters in Romeo and Juliet, Characters in Hamlet, List of We Will Rock You Casts, Ghost Character. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 139. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: This article is an index of characters appearing in the plays of William Shakespeare whose names begin with the letters A through K. Characters with names beginning with the letters L through Z may be found here. NOTE: Characters who exist outside Shakespeare are marked "(hist)" where they are historical, and "(myth)" where they are mythical. Where that annotation is a link (e.g. (hist)), it is a link to the page for the historical or mythical figure. The annotation "(fict)" is only used in entries for the English history plays, and indicates a character who is fictional, not historical. Contents: A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Sources | Links Statue of William Shakespeare, who, according to tradition, played Adam in his own play As You Like It. top Théodore Chassériau (18191856), The Ghost of Banquo, 1855 The Death of Cleopatra by Reginald Arthur Desdemona by Frederic Leighton The twin Dromios in a Carmel Shake-speare Festival production at the Forest Theater in Carmel, CA. September, 2008 The historical Edward IV, a character in Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 1, Henry VI, Part 2, and Richard III. Edward IV (Travis Brazil), in a Carmel Shake-speare Festival production of Henry VI, Part 3, 2004 Falstaff by Eduard von Grützner Goneril and Regan by Edwin Austin Abbey Edwin Booth (18331894), as Hamlet, c. 1870. Booth is in the position on the throne where he is said to have begun the monologue: To be or not to be, that is the question. (Hamlet, Act III, S...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=3064546 ... Read more

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ABRIDGED AUDIOTAPE DRAMATIZATION OF SHAKESPEARE'S GREAT TRAGEDY "OTHELLO"--STARRING WALTER HAMPDEN IN THE TITLE ROLE. APPROX. 56 MIN. TIME. ... Read more

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Using evidence from theatrical hand-books, performance practice and drama training, Abigail Rokison provides a new synthesis of academic and theatrical approaches to the Shakespearean text. Her work combines scholarship with practical exploration in the rehearsal room. In looking at theatrical interaction with early printed and modern edited texts, Rokison investigates the potential impact of editorial principles of lineation and punctuation on theatrical delivery. The book alerts editors to ways in which actors may interpret editorial emendations, and theatre practitioners to diverse authorial, editorial and compositional methods. It contains suggestions for a 'theatrical text' which makes clear the metrical structure of a scene whilst also indicating areas of ambiguous lineation. Providing a fresh perspective on Renaissance actors' parts, the book includes detailed analysis of the structural properties of the verse, in particular short lines, shared lines, end-stopping and enjambment in a range of Shakespearean texts. ... Read more

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General Books publication date: 2009Original publication date: 1917Original Publisher: Houghton Mifflin CompanySubjects: TheatersTheaterLondon (England)Drama / ShakespeareLiterary Criticism / DramaLiterary Criticism / ShakespearePerforming Arts / Theater / GeneralPerforming Arts / Theater / History ... Read more