This accessible and interdisciplinary volume addresses a fundamental need in current education in language, literature and drama. Many of today's students lack the grammatical and linguistic skills to enable them to study Shakespearean and other Renaissance texts as closely as their courses require. This practical guide will help them to understand and use the structures and strategies of written and dramatic language. Eleven short essays on aspects of literary criticism and performance by an eminent team of contributors are followed by a more detailed exploration of the history of language...

Resulting from workshops at Shakespeare's Globe between leading critics, performance theorists and theatre practitioners such as Greg Doran of the RSC, Nicholas Hytner of the Royal National Theatre, Ann Thompson of the Arden Shakespeare and W.B. Worthen of the University of California, Berkeley, Shakespeare Language and the Stage breaks down the invisible barrier between scholar and practitioner.Topics discussed include text and voice, playing and criticism, gesture, language and the body, gesture and audience and multilingualism and marginality. The book provides fresh ways of thinking about...