Product Description

An actor-friendly explanation of the skills necessary to act Shakespeare's texts with precision, sensitivity and power. It is written by director and acting teacher, Wesley Van Tassel, and is designed for professional actors in stage and film, theatre students, and anyone who enjoys acting, directing or reading Shakespeare. It seeks to create a bridge from realism to heightened text, enabling actors to conquer the challenges of Shakespeare through mastery of the language. Extensive exercises move beyond traditional "voice work" to teach the specific skills vital to effective delivery. Detailed explanations and easy-to-follow exercises cover the intricacies of breathing, scansion, phrasing, rhythm, antithesis, imagery, text analysis, acting objectives and more. There is a one-day brush-up section providing solutions for working actors' immediate concerns, and expanded skill practice sections for long-term learning.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1722602 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04-01
• Released on: 2000-04-01
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .81 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

From Library Journal
If Brine and York's book, with its elegant pedigree, is a race horse, Van Tassel's beautifully conceived and executed text is a Clydesdale, a workhorse of a workbook that is purposefully divided to reach manifold audiences: college students and independent workshops, high school students and teachers, and professional actors and coaches, with a final resource section from which everyone can benefit. Through both the instructional narrative and his bountiful exercises, Van Tassel, a director and acting teacher, explicates the basic Shakespearean tenets of scansion, caesura, phrasing, breathing, textual analysis, imagery, structure and rhythm, and antithesis, and he does it gracefully and appropriately for the diverse readers he intends to reach. This is the kind of helpful instructional aid, both detailed and clear, for which both students and teachers constantly clamor. Both works should be acquired for performing arts collections, but Clues to Acting Shakespeare is a no-brainer purchase for acting collections in all libraries.ABarry X. Miller, Austin P.L., TX
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Wesley Van Tassel, a university professor of Shakespeare and theater artistic director, coaches and gives acting workshops from his home base near Seattle.