Stage Directions and Shakespearean Theatre

Description

What do 'stage directions' do in early modern drama? Who or what are they directing: action on the stage, or imagination via the page? Is the label 'stage direction' helpful or misleading? Do these 'directions' provide evidence of Renaissance playhouse practice? What happens when we put them at the centre of literary close readings of early modern plays? Stage Directions and Shakespearean Theatre investigates these problems through innovative research by a range of international experts. This collection of essays examines the creative possibilities of stage directions and and their implications for actors and audiences, readers and editors, historians and contemporary critics. Looking at the different ways stage directions make meaning, this volume provides new insights into a range of Renaissance plays.

Sarah Dustagheer is Lecturer in Early Modern Literature at the University of Kent, UK. Gillian Woods is Lecturer in Renaissance Literature and Theatre at Birkbeck College, University of London, UK.

A collection that puts under new scrutiny the textual expression of the early modern theater's original practices. Essays do an admirable job of estranging an overfamiliar form... * Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 * The essays in this collection provide a foundation for the 'rethinking' of stage directions promised by the editors' introduction ... The variety of viewpoints and methodologies offered here ultimately attests to the evolving nature of the conversation around the function of stage directions in early modern plays. * Notes and Queries *