Secrets of Acting Shakespeare, The Original Approach,
Patrick Tucker, Routledge, 2002
This is the
book that started it all. In these pages Tucker talks about how he “discovered”
(used in the loosest sense) unrehearsed Shakespeare. He details some of the
performances, what worked for him and the Original Shakespeare Company and what
did not. Everyone of whom I am aware that works in this style has roots in what
Tucker sets forth in this book. It is the best source for starting your
exploration of this technique.
Shakespeare in Parts, Simon Palfrey and Tiffany
Stern, Oxford, 2007
At the
moment, this award winning study is my bible and greatest influence. Tiffany
Stern is Patrick Tucker’s niece, and with him ran the Original Shakespeare
Company. This is a much more involved study of the style and is intended for
academics as much as it is for theatre practitioners. Parts of it can be wordy,
and it is a long read at 490+ pages, but it is a gold mine. Stern details
brilliantly how the cues contain just as much important information for an
actor as his own text. She has some very astutely observed and detailed
accounts of how the technique influences characters. This is a must read for
anyone with any interest in the subject.
Acting from Shakespeare’s First Folio, Theory, Text and
Performance, by Don Weingust, Routledge, 2006
The title
sounds like a thesis paper, and the book almost reads as one. Wiengust was a
party to the Original Shakespeare Company’s productions at the Globe Theatre in
London during its first three years in operation. He gives good, thorough
reasons for the use of the technique as opposed to the New Bibliography
movement that for a long time has held sway over the editing of Shakespeare’s
texts. It is rather dry, but it should be read at least to get another
perspective on the technique from someone who was not directly involved with
Tucker’s productions.
The following books are not on the Unrehearsed Cue Script
Technique, but will be of interest to any scholar or actor who has a passion
for Shakespeare.
Playing Shakespeare, An Actor’s Guide, by John Barton,
Anchor Books, 1984
The only
thing better than the book is the television series from which this book is
made. I cannot recommend that series enough. It is brilliant to see so many
famous British actors relatively early in their careers sitting literally at
the feet of John Barton, and seeing them going through the same steps as every
young actor takes when learning how to perform Shakespeare. At this point, this
book is most likely required reading for every Shakespeare class for actors,
but in truth, everyone should read it – or even better, see it.
The Shakespeare Wars, Clashing Scholars, Public Fiascoes,
Palace Coups, by Ron Rosenbaum, Random House, 2006
This is a
wonderful book in which Rosenbaum, inspired by Peter Brook’s famous production
of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, sets
out to discover what makes Shakespeare Shakespearean. He talks with scholars,
editors, theatre practitioners getting conflicting views on just about every
aspect of the Bard from authorship to attribution, performance style to editing
texts. This book raises more questions than it seeks to answer and gives a
great picture in the variety of Shakespeare scholarship. It’s a big book at
500+ pages, but rewarding.
A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, 1599, by
James Shapiro, Harper Perennial, 2005
This is my
favorite book regarding Shakespearean biography. Rather than taking the usual
approach of reading Shakespeare’s texts and attempting to extrapolate
biographical details (from works of fiction – don’t get me started), Shapiro
looks at the facts and actual events surrounding London in 1599, then looks at
the texts to see how these events influenced the writing. 1599 was a particular
busy year for Shakespeare: amidst the drama of constructing The Globe, the Bard
finished Henry V, wrote Julius Cæsar, and As You Like It, as well as completed a draft of Hamlet. It was also a busy year for
England: the Spanish Armada, the Irish Rebellion, the beginning of the East
India Company, and the Queen was aging without settling on a successor. Shapiro
paints a wonderful picture of the time, and how Shakespeare incorporated the
themes of his contemporary life into his plays.
Becoming Shakespeare, the Unlikely Afterlife That Turned
a Provincial Playwright into the Bard, by Jack Lynch, Walker, 2007
I love this
book because it shows how subsequent generations built the pedestal upon which
so many now place Shakespeare. So many people point out how they want to get
back to what the playwright originally intended, or to some approximation. Lynch
shows how the changes imposed upon the plays over the past 400 years have made
that a near impossibility. This is a great antidote to the terminal Bardology
that many suffer from today. It lets us know that Shakespeare was a playwright.
Whatever else we see him as today is our own construction.
-Andy Kirtland
The Unrehearsed Shakespeare Project
