Bibliography

Modern scholarship and editing afford the actor many fine editions of the plays of Shakespeare. Chief among these are the New Oxford Complete Plays, The Riverside, The Complete Works edited by Bevington, The Complete Works (Royal Shakespeare Company edition) as well as the separate editions of the plays by Arden (Methuen). These, though they have good notes (except for the Oxford), should still be accompanied by a good dictionary.

 

Barton, John. Playing Shakespeare. London: Methuen, 1984. An excellent book, it is actually the “script” of the television series in which John Barton works with well-known actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company on various approaches to Shakespeare’s plays. If possible, the actor should see the TV shows as well.

Lecky, W. Steven. Vox Method: Training the Voice. Montréal: CCDMD, 2007. This is the newest and best vocal training book available.

Berry, Cicely. The Actor and His Text. London: Harrap, 1987. This is arguably the best book of its kind, and it deals with approaches to text, voice, Shakespeare, and understanding scansion.

Callow, Simon. On Being an Actor. London: Penguin, 1988. Simon Callow’s memoir, while remaining highly entertaining, offers much that is useful to the young actor in terms of the real world of the theatre.

Laurie, Rona. Auditioning. London: Garnet Miller, 1985. A very short summary, this handbook offers some insight into the auditioning process.

Perrine, Laurence. Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1969. This is a very sound introduction to poetry and a classic in its field. It offers a fine approach to poetry and its section on scansion is particularly clear and useful.

Poggi, Jack. The Monologue Workshop. New York: Applause, 1990. Jack Poggi is a working actor/teacher who offers good, clear advice on the whole process of auditioning: an excellent general work.

Shurtleff, Michael. Audition. New York: Bantam, 1986. Michael Shurtleff’s experience as a casting director makes his book the most outstanding general work ever written on auditioning. His advice is clear, concise and practical.

Brubaker, E.S. Shakespeare Aloud: A Guide to His Verse on Stage. Lancaster, PA: Published by the author, 1976. This has a more detailed look at scansion, but is still useful to the beginner.

Spain, Delbert. Shakespeare Sounded Soundly: The Verse Structure & the Language. Santa Barbara: Garland-Clarke Editions/Capra Press, 1988. This is a more complex look at scansion.

Hall, Peter. Shakespeare’s Advice to the Players. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2003.Despite enormous practice and prestige, with many great shows behind him, Peter Hall authored a book that remains idiosyncratic and dogmatic on line readings: his way or the highway.

Rodenburg, Patsy. Speaking Shakespeare. New York: Palgrave, 2002.Where Peter Hall tells you the “only way” to say a line, Patsy Rodenburg is agonizingly vague about almost everything. The iambic is a “wave” that sometimes “breaks” and you can be “swept out” before you “bob” or “land on firm ground.” Not only that, but she sometimes scans lines incorrectly, forgetting, for instance that “heaven” can be scanned as a one- or two-syllable word depending on the line.

 

Some background books on Shakespeare and his times:

Ackroyd, Peter. Shakespeare: The Biography. Mississauga, ON: Random House of Canada, 2006.

Bentley, Gerald. The Profession of Dramatist in Shakespeare’s Time, 1590–1642. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1971.

Bevington, David. How to Read a Shakespeare Play. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006.

Boyce, Charles. Critical Companion to William Shakespeare: A Literary Reference to His Life and Works. New York: Facts on File, 2005.

Chambers, E.K. The Elizabethan Stage. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967.

Gibson, Joy. Squeaking Cleopatras: The Elizabethan Boy Players.Stroud: Sutton, 2000.

Gurr, Andrew. The Shakespearean Stage 1574–1642. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Gurr, Andrew. Staging in Shakespeare’s Theatres.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Hodges, C. Walter. Enter the Whole Army: A Pictorial Study of Shakespearean Staging 1576–1616.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Holland, Peter, and Stephen Orgel, eds. From Script to Stage in Early Modern England. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2004.

Honan, Park. Shakespeare: A Life.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Kermode, Frank. The Age of Shakespeare. New York: Modern Library, 2004.

McConnell, Louise. Dictionary of Shakespeare. Teddington, Middlesex: Peter Collin, 2000.

McMurtry, J. Understanding Shakespeare’s England: A Companion for the American Reader.Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1989.

Nolen, S. Shakespeare’s Face.Toronto: A. A. Knopf, 2002.

Onions, T. Shakespeare’s England: An Account of the Life and Manners of His Age. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966.

Pritchard, R.E. Shakespeare’s England: Life in Elizabethan and Jacobean Times. Phoenix Mill, Thrupp, Stroud: Sutton, 2001.

Riley, Dick, and P. McAllister. The Bedside, Bathtub and Armchair Companion to Shakespeare.New York: Continuum, 2001.
Rowse, A.L. The England of Elizabeth: The Structure of Society. London: MacMillan, 1950.

Shakespeare, William. The First Folio of Shakespeare.New York: W.W. Norton; O. Hamlyn, London, 1968.

Shakespeare, William. The Applause First Folio of Shakespeare in Modern Type.New York: Applause, 2001.

Shapiro, James. A Year in the Life of Shakespeare: 1599.New York: Harper Collins, 2005.

Southworth, John. Shakespeare the Player: A Life in the Theatre.Stroud: Sutton, 2000.

Wood, Michael. Shakespeare. New York: Basic Books, 2003.