This woman is my hero!
Last week I posted a video featuring Dame Judi Dench reciting a sonnet. Today I was directed to this youtube video wherein she and her co-author, Brendan O’Hea, discuss her new book, “Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent” available on Amazon. I resonate so much with what she says in this interview because, like her, I do not approach Shakespeare from an academic perspective. Rather, and quite unbelievably, she points out her organic, on-the-spot way of making performance choices, how less is more, how any given detail – enacted or overlooked – could impact an audience member, how any character can be played in many different ways depending on the reality base of the actor. Drawing from her own vast experience of performing Shakespeare’s female roles, she describes her favorites, looking at the action of the play through their eyes, seeing the story as they see it, and guiding us through an analysis that is not plot, climax, and denouement, but a depiction of the human experience and emotion which is what Shakespeare excelled at, without a doubt. Her book is a resource every theatre program should have as a reference, and my book, “Performance Approaches to Shakespeare” would be a perfect curricular accompaniment on how to implement the points she makes.
Click the image below to view and purchase her book:
Click the image below to view and purchase my book:
Performance Approaches to Shakespeare 