Product Description

Up until now, facts about theatrical rehearsal have been considered irrecoverable. But in this groundbreaking new study, Tiffany Stern gathers together two centuries' worth of historical material which shows how actors received and responded to their parts, and how rehearsal affected the creation and revision of plays. Plotting theatrical change over time, from the mid-sixteenth to the late eighteenth century, this book will revolutionize the fields of textual and theatre history alike.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2173123 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Alison Shell, Times Literary Supplement
"It deserves to become a long-lived reference work."

Review
As Tiffany Stern demonstrates in her remarkable Rehearsal from Shakespeare to Sheridan, it may be possible to know more about the preparations for an early modern performance than about the performance itself. Assembling a truly daunting number of instances from archives and from references embedded in playtexts themselves, Stern offers a wonderful three-dimensional look into the process of preparing and performing plays between 1567 and 1780. This encyclopaedic study is indispensable for those interested in the conditions of England¹s early modern theatre. (Seventeenth-Century News )

One of the outstanding features of Tiffany Stern's highly original monograph is the amount of research that has gone into its preparation...The persuasive and intelligently constructed argument is its second outstanding feature. (Notes and Queries )

The book goes well beyond the limitations of its title, providing a comprehensive survey of the whole process of theatre work, form the first consideration of a text to the first night and beyond...Provides a rich repository of newly assembled information for theatre historians. At the same time it offers an unsentimental account of the life in the theatre during 200 formative years, from which actors and directors in "the business" can draw both fun and profit. (Essays in Criticism )

It deserves to become a long-lived reference work.... This is a mature book, one based on a reassuringly large and diverse body of evidence, moving from Shakespeare's to Garrick's theatre with no sense of strain, and elegantly written throughout, with several good new stories for connoisseurs of theatrical anecdote.... Its wide range makes it of especial use for Restoration and eighteenth-century material. (Times Literary Supplement )

Customer Reviews

Shakespeare's players come to life
Tiffany Stern's groundbreaking book will revolutionise your view of Shakespeare in a fascinating discussion of day to day life in the theatre. Read how actors had copies only of their own parts - many didn't know the story of the whole play until performance. Learn about ad libbing clowns and heroines who fall in love, literally, on cue. The Shakespearean sections combine ingenious archival research (from coal bills to prompt books) with sensitive textual analysis. The Restoration and seventeenth century sections are alive with comic anecdote and original insight, not to mention Garrick's mechanical wig. This book will change your perceptions of drama in the past, but will also raise questions about theatrical practice today. Invaluable to all who love the theatre.