Open-air Shakespeare
Subtitle: under Australian skies
By: Rosemary Gaby, Senior Lecturer, University of Tasmania, Australia
Series: Global Shakespeares; Palgrave pivot
Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 123
ISBN-13: 9781137426857; 9781137426871; 9781137426864
Subjects: Appreciation; Stage history; Theater, Open-air; Theater; History; LITERARY CRITICISM / Australian & Oceanian; LITERARY CRITICISM / Drama; LITERARY CRITICISM / Shakespeare
Description: "Many people today first encounter staged Shakespeare in an open-air setting. In Australia, picnic Shakespeares seem particularly suited to the predilections of contemporary audiences and the plays have been performed in a remarkably varied range of sites. Shakespeare has been transported to gardens, parks, caves, mountains and beaches all over the country, in a place that for Shakespeare and his contemporaries was completely unknown. Why does the anomaly of performing Shakespeare in Australian space exert such a strong appeal? This book traces the history of open-air Shakespeare production in Australia from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day and suggests that the industry reflects important changes in the ways contemporary Australians relate to both their environment and to Shakespeare. It provides striking evidence of the diversity of localised responses to Shakespeare that exist outside Britain, and contributes to our understanding of Shakespeare's changing global impact"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 112-117) and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note:; title: List of illustrationsAcknowledgementsIntroduction: Open-air Shakespeare, Space, Place and Performance1.Early Experiments: Pastoral and Elizabethan Staging2.Pageants and Festivals: Shakespeare in the Street3.Glenn Elston and the Rise of Picnic Shakespeares 4.From Local Park to National Park: After the 1980sConclusionBibliographyIndex.