THIS BOOK HAS SIX PARTS:

1. For Actors in Training: Acting Shakespeare

Part one is designed for college classes or independent workshops and includes a complete study of ten basic skills required to play Shakespeare’s language truthfully. This section is designed for a training period of twenty to thirty weeks meeting four to eight hours per week. Actors may also use this material to self-teach.

2. A Demonstration of Teaching and Learning Skills

Part two is the diary of a workshop in which the author teaches the skills. A group of ten actors participate in the forty-hour, twenty-session workshop. Their questions are included, along with the author’s teaching strategy.

3. For Community Theatre Actors and Directors

Part three is a diary of the author teaching eight of the skills to community theatre actors. Five workshops are offered as pre-rehearsal training for work on a community theatre Shakespearean production.

4. For Secondary Schools and Reading Shakespeare Aloud

In part four, some of the skills from part one are condensed for high school English or drama teachers and their students and are also useful for reading groups.

5. For Professional Actors and Coaches: The One-Day Brush Up

For the actor preparing an audition or a role—or the coach or director brushing up—part five is a quick review of four essential skills.

6. Resources

A collection of exercises, an annotated list of selected successful and not-so-successful film and video performances, a bibliography of some excellent books, a glossary of terms, and the index.

Bait the hook well! This fish will bite.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, II, iii