Moliere on Stage: What's So Funny?

Description

'Moliere on Stage' takes the reader onstage, backstage and into the audience of Moliere's plays, analyzing the performance of his works in both his own time and in ours. Written by a professional stage director with over fifty years' experience directing and translating Moliere, this text explores how the playwright strove to create a communal experience of shared laughter, and investigates four key topics relating to this achievement: Moliere's early experiences that lead to his later theater experiences; his central great plays of love and lust; his comedic genius and his passion for the stage; and the final words and performances of his life.

Robert W. Goldsby is a retired professor and chairman emeritus at the Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies, University of California, Berkeley.

"Goldsby has filled a significant need in Moliere studies, and has done so in an accessible and entertaining manner. Fans as well as serious students of Moliere now have a new and exciting resource, and actors and directors of the French comic master should reap great benefits as well." - Michael Schwartz, stagemagazine.org "In this compelling analysis of exceptional French and American productions, including some of his own, Goldsby draws on personal experience gained from 50 years of studying, translating, and directing Moliere. He pays homage to both world-renowned directors - Copeau, Jouvet, Mnouchkine - and less familiar professionals, e.g., Robert Falls and Ron Leibman. By revealing the pure gold found in live theater, Goldsby proves that time does not diminish the laughter of true comedy. Summing Up: Essential" -C. B. Kerr, Vassar College, "Choice" "[T]his is a book for the theatre practitioners and for anyone looking to understand why Moliere is one of the top classic playwrights-one who deserves the kinds of staging that Goldsby shows us." -Felicia Hardison Londre, "Theatre History Studies"