This is a timely and valuable study, for the story of Shakespeare in America is inseparable from that of the nation’s capital. It was in its theaters that President Lincoln went to see, time and again, the greatest Shakespeare actors of his day (and where his assassin knew where to find him). It is there that the Folger Shakespeare Library, the most important hub in the world for early modern scholars, now stands. And it is there that a tradition of staging plays animated by their proximity to power, law-making, and protest, has informed decades of productions, some groundbreaking, others forgettable, at the Folger’s theater and then the Shakespeare Theatre Company, under the leadership of Michael Kahn and his successor, Simon Godwin (both interviewed at length). It’s a fascinating history, with many twists and turns, and Drew Lichtenberg and Deborah C. Payne do a superb job of bringing it to life.

James Shapiro, Professor of English, Columbia University, USA, and author of Shakespeare in a Divided America.

Rarely is a theater’s history redolent of such a rich interplay of political figures and venerable institutions and written with both sharp prose and subtle wit. Lichtenberg and Payne detail the forces that culminate in STC’s rise to preeminence and Shakespeare’s role in forging the character of Washington, DC.

Carla Della Gatta, University of Maryland, USA

Co-authored by the resident dramaturg at Shakespeare Theatre Company and a long-time scholarly consultant, this book chronicles how a small repertory troupe at the Folger Theatre on Capitol Hill became an internationally renowned company performing in a lavish, multi-venue performing arts centre in downtown Washington, D.C. The artistic vision and business acumen of Michael Kahn, the founding Artistic Director, largely catalyzed this transformation, but so too did the forces of neoliberalism and, more recently, globalization and new media. Accordingly, Shakespeare in the Theatre: Shakespeare Theatre Company not only examines directorial decision-making but also 3 decades of social and economic change in the nation’s capital, from the complexities of gentrification to the arts policies of successive administrations. In addition to discussions of directorial practice, this book examines the ambivalence of American theatre artists toward their British cultural inheritance. Analyses of representative productions and interviews with Kahn and his British successor, Simon Godwin, illuminate this complex relationship: one that aspires to a cosmopolitan Anglophilia while positioning classically trained American actors as worthy rivals to their counterparts at the RSC and the National Theatre of Great Britain.
Les mer
This behind-the-scenes account analyzes the evolution of the premier classical theatre company in the U.S. against the changing social and economic landscape of Washington, D.C.
List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsA Note on the TextSeries PrefacePreface by Maureen DowdIntroductionChapter 1. Shakespeare in Washington, D.C.Chapter 2. The Shakespeare Theatre at the Folger, 1986-1991Chapter 3. The Shakespeare Theatre, 1992-2007Chapter 4. Shakespeare Theatre Company, 2007-2019Chapter 5. Interview with Michael KahnChapter 6. STC, 2019-Chapter 7. Interview with Simon GodwinReferencesIndex
Les mer
This is a timely and valuable study, for the story of Shakespeare in America is inseparable from that of the nation’s capital. It was in its theaters that President Lincoln went to see, time and again, the greatest Shakespeare actors of his day (and where his assassin knew where to find him). It is there that the Folger Shakespeare Library, the most important hub in the world for early modern scholars, now stands. And it is there that a tradition of staging plays animated by their proximity to power, law-making, and protest, has informed decades of productions, some groundbreaking, others forgettable, at the Folger’s theater and then the Shakespeare Theatre Company, under the leadership of Michael Kahn and his successor, Simon Godwin (both interviewed at length). It’s a fascinating history, with many twists and turns, and Drew Lichtenberg and Deborah C. Payne do a superb job of bringing it to life.
Les mer
This behind-the-scenes account analyzes the evolution of the premier classical theatre company in the U.S. against the changing social and economic landscape of Washington, D.C.
An account of the flagship classical company in the U.S., this book offers an unprecedented glimpse into high culture during the presidential terms of Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Obama and Trump and analyses the intimate relationship between theatre, economics and politics in the nation’s capital
Les mer
Each volume in the Shakespeare in the Theatre series examines a director or theatre company who has made a significant contribution to Shakespeare production and the aesthetic and socio-political contexts of their work.Pointing to the range of people, artistic practices and cultural phenomena that make meaning in the theatre, the series de-centres Shakespeare from within Shakespeare studies, and provides an unrivalled way of perceiving the performance of his work.
Les mer

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781350352681
Publisert
2024-09-05
Utgiver
Vendor
The Arden Shakespeare
Høyde
198 mm
Bredde
129 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
280

Biographical note

Drew Lichtenberg has been resident dramaturg at the Shakespeare Theatre Company, USA, since 2011. He has worked as a dramaturg, literary manager and translator-adaptor with the Royal National Theatre, Public Theater, Roundabout, La Mama, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, McCarter Theatre Center, Yale Rep and Baltimore Center Stage. As an educator, he has taught courses at Catholic University of America, David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University and Eugene Lang College at the New School. His publications include The Piscatorbühne Century (2021).

Deborah C. Payne is Professor of Literature at American University, USA. She was the Humanities Research Consultant at the Shakespeare Theatre Company from 2000 – 2009, and she has dramaturged for Studio Theatre, Arena Stage, the Kennedy Center, and the Bach Sinfonia. Publications include The Business of English Restoration Theatre, 1660 – 1700 (2023), Revisiting Shakespeare’s Lost Play (2016), Four Restoration Libertine Plays (2005), The Cambridge Companion to English Restoration Theatre (2000) and Cultural Readings of Restoration and Eighteenth-Century English Theatre (1995).