Thesis Abstract Shakespeare in Present-Day British Theatre: Where Text Meets Practice Tobias Andrew Giles Wright

An actor today, beginning rehearsals for a Shakespeare play, is faced with the challenge of diachronically assigning character-based acting techniques to a rich network of dramatic rhetoric. This challenge begins in the early stages of rehearsal work and is carried through to the projected onstage performance of a ‘character’.

The first part of the thesis outlines a specific twentieth century development in character-based techniques, focusing on the director and theorist Konstantin Stanislavski. A revisionist view of Stanislavskian practice is offered, returning to the theorist’s own writings to establish differences with the American Method. The thesis then turns to prominent directors in British theatre (working since the second half of the twentieth century) who have developed discrete post-Stanislavskian techniques that enable actors to address the question of character ‘motivation’. The second part of the thesis centres on an account of workshops that I have conducted with professional actors. These workshops provided the opportunity for practical application of the theories discussed in Part One. In each case the analysis of theories and text was greatly informed by details provided by the actors in the workshop/interview process.

Part One of the thesis offers the following: (i) a revised view of Stanislavski, and redefinition of what might define a post-Stanislavskian practitioner; (ii) a historical account of the late-twentieth century technique of ‘actioning’ – and certain parallel techniques in the actor’s application of an ‘objective’; (iii) a definition of the term ‘dramatic rhetoric’ and an indication of how the rhetoric of Shakespeare’s style (his elocutio) might inform an actor who seeks to apply character ‘objectives’; (iv) an account of approaches made by practitioners at the Royal Shakespeare Company and at Shakespeare’s Globe to interpret the stylistic qualities of Shakespeare for performance. Part Two of the thesis details my programme of practical workshops, based on certain categories of Shakespearean speech that create the greatest challenges for character-based acting techniques. These are: (i) the soliloquy – discussing the question of the addressee and the potential for meta-theatre; (ii) passages of enargeia – that is, rich descriptions of offstage action; (iii) repartee – where rich rhetorical dialogue poses a challenge to present-day naturalistic delivery. As result of this thesis, my primary proposal is the development of a theatre practice that encourages significant features of Shakespearean elocutio to form the basis of inspiration for the application of post-Stanislavskian techniques. In this manner, a close analysis of the elocutio of texts may be transferred into a dramatically engaging performance for a present-day audience.