Title
Early Modern Liveness: Mediating Presence in Text, Stage and Screen
Files
Document Type
Book
Publisher
The Arden Shakespeare
Year
2023
ISBN
9781350318472
Description
What does it mean for early modern theatre to be 'live'? And how have audiences over time experienced a sense of 'liveness'? This collection extends discussions of 'liveness' to works from the 16th and 17th century, both in their initial incarnations and contemporary adaptations. Drawing on media theory, this study uses the concept of 'liveness' to consider how the early modern theatre - including non-Western and non-traditional performance practices - employs embodiment, materiality, temporality and perception to impress on its audience a sensation of presence. The volume's contributors adopt varying approaches and cover a range of topics from material textual studies, to early modern rehearsal methods, to the legacy of Shakespearean performance in global theatrical repertoires. This collection looks to both early modern and contemporary performance practices to challenge our understanding of 'live' performance. Productions and adaptions discussed include the Royal Shakespeare Company's The Winter's Tale and the National Theatre's Romeo and Juliet (2021), Kit Monkman's Macbeth and Vishal Bhardwaj's Haider. Early Modern Liveness looks beyond theatrical events as primary sites of interpretive authority and examines the intimate and ephemeral experience of encountering early modern theatre in its diverse manifestations.
Recommended Citation
Rosvally, Danielle and Sherman, Donovan, "Early Modern Liveness: Mediating Presence in Text, Stage and Screen" (2023). Seton Hall University Faculty Publications. 41.
https://scholarship.shu.edu/faculty-publications/41
