In this first substantive study of directing Shakespeare in the USA, Charles Ney compares and contrasts directors working at major companies across the country. Because of the complexities of directing Shakespeare for audiences today, a director's methods, values and biases are more readily perceptible in their work on Shakespeare than in more contemporary work. Directors disclose their interpretation of the text, their management of the various stages of production, how they go about supervising rehearsals and share tactics. This book will be useful to students wanting to develop skills, practitioners who want to learn from what other directors are doing, and scholars and students studying production practice and performance.

This unique and comprehensive study reviews the practice of leading American directors of Shakespeare from the late nineteenth to the end of the twentieth century. Charles Ney examines rehearsal and production records, as well as evidence from diaries, letters, autobiographies, reviews and photographs to consider each director's point of view when approaching Shakespeare and the differing directorial tools and techniques employed in significant productions in their careers. Directors covered include Augustin Daly, David Belasco, Arthur Hopkins, Orson Welles, Margaret Webster, B. Iden Payne, Angus Bowmer, Craig Noel, Jack O'Brien, Tyronne Guthrie, John Houseman, Allen Fletcher, Michael Kahn, Gerald Freedman, Joseph Papp, Stuart Vaughan, A. J. Antoon, JoAnne Akalaitis, Paul Barry, Tina Packer, Barbara Gaines, William Ball, Liviu Ciulei, Garland Wright, Mark Lamos, Ellis Rabb and Julie Taymor. Directing Shakespeare in America: Historical Perspectives offers readers an understanding of the context from which contemporary practitioners operate, the aesthetic philosophies to which they subscribe and a description of their rehearsal methods.

In this first substantive study of directing Shakespeare in the USA, Charles Ney compares and contrasts directors working at major companies across the country. Because of the complexities of directing Shakespeare for audiences today, a director's methods, values and biases are more readily perceptible in their work on Shakespeare than in more contemporary work. Directors disclose their interpretation of the text, their management of the various stages of production, how they go about supervising rehearsals and share tactics. This book will be useful to students wanting to develop skills, practitioners who want to learn from what other directors are doing, and scholars and students studying production practice and performance.