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Six Companies in Search of Shakespeare: Rehearsal, Performance, and Management Practices by The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Stratford Shakespeare Festival, The Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare and Company, Shakespeare’s Globe and The Ame

Blasenak, Andrew Michael
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1354047834

Abstract Details

2012, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Theatre.
This dissertation examines the artistic and managerial visions of six "non-profit" theatre companies which have been dedicated to the revitalization of Shakespeare’s plays in performance from 1935 to 2012. These six companies were The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, The Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare & Company, Shakespeare’s Globe and The American Shakespeare Center. The following questions are considered in the eight chapters of this study:1) Did the re-staging of Shakespeare's plays in six "non-profit" theatre companies introduce new stagecraft and managerial strategies to these companies? 2) To what degree did the directors who re-staged Shakespeare's plays in these six "non-profit" theatre companies successfully integrate the audience in the performance? 3) How important was the coaching of actors in these six "non-profit" theatre companies for stimulating rewarding rehearsals, quality performances, and actor loyalty to the company? 4) Was "ensemble acting" in these six "non-profit" theatre companies detrimental to the professional and emotional well-being of the actors? 5) To what degree were rehearsal patterns in these six "non-profit" theatre companies influenced by the relationship established between actor and audiences during performance? Extensive on-site research that included interviews with actors, directors, coaches, and managers, as well as published and unpublished accounts of the rehearsal and management practices of the companies, yielded a wealth of data that indicate the following: the dedication to re-staging Shakespeare’s plays encouraged innovation in stagecraft, casting, and new play development. These six companies produced Shakespeare’s plays not to recover the theatrical past, but to invent techniques for the future of theatrical performance. Elizabethan-inspired thrust stages encouraged actors and directors to integrate the audience in the performance, but it was the individual directors and actors who chose to integrate or to ignore the audience. Voice, text, and movement coaches marginally increased the quality of the productions. However, they contributed to the satisfaction and loyalty of the actors who used coaches. Ensemble acting benefited the emotional and professional well-being of those actors who disliked the practices of the commercial theatre, but those actors who expected that their employment would make the same demands of the commercial theatre disliked ensemble acting. The level of collaboration between actors and directors in rehearsal reflected the level of integration of the audience in performance. ‬‬
Stratos Constantinidis (Advisor)
Nena Couch (Committee Member)
Beth Kattelman (Committee Member)
358 p.
Theater
theatre; theater; Shakespeare; Shakespeare company; actor training; ensemble; rehearsal; performance

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Blasenak, A. M. (2012). Six Companies in Search of Shakespeare: Rehearsal, Performance, and Management Practices by The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Stratford Shakespeare Festival, The Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare and Company, Shakespeare’s Globe and The Ame [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1354047834

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Blasenak, Andrew. Six Companies in Search of Shakespeare: Rehearsal, Performance, and Management Practices by The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Stratford Shakespeare Festival, The Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare and Company, Shakespeare’s Globe and The Ame. 2012. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1354047834.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Blasenak, Andrew. "Six Companies in Search of Shakespeare: Rehearsal, Performance, and Management Practices by The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Stratford Shakespeare Festival, The Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare and Company, Shakespeare’s Globe and The Ame." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1354047834

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.