Shakespeare and Amateur Performance: A Cultural History

Description

From the Hamlet acted on a galleon off Africa to the countless outdoor productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream that now defy each English summer, Shakespeare and Amateur Performance explores the unsung achievements of those outside the theatrical profession who have been determined to do Shakespeare themselves. Based on extensive research in previously unexplored archives, this generously illustrated and lively work of theatre history enriches our understanding of how and why Shakespeare's plays have mattered to generations of rude mechanicals and aristocratic dilettantes alike: from the days of the Theatres Royal to those of the Little Theatre Movement, from the pioneering Winter's Tale performed in eighteenth-century Salisbury to the Merchant of Venice performed by Allied prisoners for their Nazi captors, and from the how-to book which transforms Mercutio into Yankee Doodle to the Napoleonic counterspy who used Richard III as a tool of surveillance.

Michael Dobson is Director of the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham. He comments regularly on Shakespeare for the BBC, The London Review of Books and for other publications, and he has written programme notes for the RSC, Shakespeare's Globe, the Old Vic, the Sheffield Crucible and Peter Stein. His books include The Making of the National Poet (1992), The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare (with Stanley Wells, 2001, winner of the Bainton Prize in 2002), England's Elizabeth: An Afterlife in Fame and Fantasy (with Nicola Watson, 2002) and Performing Shakespeare's Tragedies Today (2006). Between 1999 and 2007 he reviewed every major production of a Shakespeare play for Shakespeare Survey.

'... brilliantly researched and written with clarity and verve. A scholarly work by a man who obviously loves the theatre, it will make fascinating reading for both professional and amateur performers alike.' Wendy Craig, actress 'A groundbreaking and utterly fascinating study ... Nobody understands the history of Shakespeare in performance - or how deeply four centuries of amateur productions have shaped our culture - better than Michael Dobson.' James Shapiro, Columbia University '[A] generous and fascinating study.' The Guardian 'Never patronising, Dobson writes movingly and wittily, stressing the slipperiness of the category of 'amateur' ... He offers a fascinating alternative history of Shakespeare ... Dobson's is a loving book, not in the obsequious manner of professional Bardolators, but in a way Nick Bottom the weaver would understand: 'A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a merry'.' The Times Higher Education Supplement 'Groundbreaking.' Around the Globe 'Michael Dobson has opened the lid of a treasure chest of gems.' Literary Review 'Readable, entertaining and provocative.' The Times Literary Supplement ' ... [the author's] new book ... breaks unfamiliar and entertaining ground ... an enjoyable book ...' The Oxford Magazine '... [a] thoroughly enjoyable book ... Dobson's study is compendious ... [His] enthusiasm for his subject is infectious, and this book is not only a 'cultural history' of how Shakespeare's plays spread across England and continents, and what roles they performed as they spread, but also a very affectionate evocation of summers of Shakespeare under the chestnut trees.' Jessica Munns, Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Theatre Research 'This is indeed a groundbreaking monograph, which effectively ushers in a new field of research on amateur stagings, making up for its marginalization in academic studies.' Rosy Colombo, Memori Di Shakespeare