ABOUT THIS BOOK

A comprehensive treatment of Shakespeare’s plays, The Practical Shakespeare: The Plays in Practice and on the Page illuminates for a general audience how and why the plays work so well.

Noting in detail the practical and physical limitations the Bard faced as he worked out the logistics of his plays, Colin Butler demonstrates how Shakespeare incorporated those limitations and turned them to his advantage: his management of entrances and exits; his characterization techniques; his handling of scenes off-stage; his control of audience responses; his organization of major scenes; and his use of prologues and choruses. A different aspect of the plays is covered in each chapter.

Butler draws most of his examples from mainstream plays, such as Macbeth, Othello, and Much Ado about Nothing. He brings special focus to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which is treated as one of Shakespeare’s most important plays. Butler supports his major points with quotations, so readers can understand an issue even if they are unfamiliar with the particular play being discussed. The author also cross-references the use of dramatic devices in the plays, increasing the reader’s enjoyment and understanding of Shakespeare’s achievements.

Clear, jargon-free, easy-to-use, and comprehensive, The Practical Shakespeare looks at stagecraft and playwriting as conduits for students, teachers, and general audiences to engage with, understand, and appreciate the genius of Shakespeare.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Colin Butler, for many years the head of the English department at a British grammar school, lives in Canterbury, England, where he writes on literary subjects.

REVIEWS

"A resource for high school teachers and their advanced students, for undergraduate faculty and their students in survey courses that include some of the Bard’s plays, and for the occasional theatergoer. The Practical Shakespeare is highly readable, informative, and thought-provoking."—Ronald Salomone, coeditor of Teaching Shakespeare into the Twenty-first Century

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents
Preface	000
1. First Steps: Writing for Performance; Using the Physical Features of the Playhouses; Sound 
Effects and Music; Writing with Specific Actors in Mind; "The Purpose of Playing"	000
2. Entrances and Early Words	000
3. Exits	000
4. Characterization	000
5. Scenes Not Shown	000
6. Controlling the Audience's Responses (I): Places; Times of Day and Night; The Bible	000
7. Controlling the Audience's Responses (II): Long Plot Lines; Setting Up Situations Early; Risk 
Management; Two Storms	000
8. Untruthful Behavior: Telling and Acting Lies in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Romeo and 
Juliet, Much Ado about Nothing, All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, King Lear, 
Cymbeline, and The Winter's Tale	000
9. Staging Decisive Moments: The Letter Scene in Twelfth Night, The Observation Scene in Troilus 
and Cressida, and Leontes' Denunciation of Hermione to Camillo in The Winter's Tale	000
10. Prologues and Choruses	000
Notes	000
Bibliography	000
Index	000