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Shakespeare in the Light

Essays in Honor of Ralph Alan Cohen

Edited by Paul Menzer and Amy R. Cohen - Contributions by Amy R. Cohen; Alan Armstrong; Mary Hill Cole; Matthew Davies; Patrick Dooley; Andrew Gurr; Marlena Hobson; Farah Karim-Cooper; John Harrell; James Keegan; Jeremy Lopez; Russ McDonald; Paul Menzer; Sally Parrish Southall; Patrick Spottiswoode; Tiffany Stern; Evelyn Tribble; Jim Warren and George Walton Williams

Shakespeare in the Light convenes an accomplished group of scholars, actors, and teachers to celebrate the legacy of renowned Shakespearean and co-founder of the American Shakespeare Center, Ralph Alan Cohen. Each contributor pivots off a production at the ASC’s Blackfriars Playhouse to explore Cohen’s abiding passion, the performance of the plays of William Shakespeare under their original theatrical conditions. Whether interested in early modern theatre history, the teaching of Shakespeare to high school students, or the performance of Shakespeare in twenty-first century America, each essay sheds light on the professing of Shakespeare today, whether on the page, on the stage, or in the classroom. Guided by the spirit of “universal lighting” – so central to the aesthetic of the American Shakespeare Center – Shakespeare in the Light illuminates the impact that the ASC and its founder have made upon the teaching, editing, scholarship, and performance of Shakespeare today.

University Press Copublishing Division / Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

Pages: 174 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅛

978-1-68393-164-5 • Hardback • July 2019 • $117.00 • (£90.00)

978-1-68393-165-2 • eBook • July 2019 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

Series: Shakespeare and the Stage

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Shakespeare, Literary Collections / Essays, Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh

Shakespeare in the Light

Essays in Honor of Ralph Alan Cohen

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Shakespeare in the Light convenes an accomplished group of scholars, actors, and teachers to celebrate the legacy of renowned Shakespearean and co-founder of the American Shakespeare Center, Ralph Alan Cohen. Each contributor pivots off a production at the ASC’s Blackfriars Playhouse to explore Cohen’s abiding passion, the performance of the plays of William Shakespeare under their original theatrical conditions. Whether interested in early modern theatre history, the teaching of Shakespeare to high school students, or the performance of Shakespeare in twenty-first century America, each essay sheds light on the professing of Shakespeare today, whether on the page, on the stage, or in the classroom. Guided by the spirit of “universal lighting” – so central to the aesthetic of the American Shakespeare Center – Shakespeare in the Light illuminates the impact that the ASC and its founder have made upon the teaching, editing, scholarship, and performance of Shakespeare today.

Details

University Press Copublishing Division / Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

Pages: 174 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅛

978-1-68393-164-5 • Hardback • July 2019 • $117.00 • (£90.00)

978-1-68393-165-2 • eBook • July 2019 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

Series: Shakespeare and the Stage

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Shakespeare, Literary Collections / Essays, Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh

Author

Amy R. Cohen is professor of classics and theatre at Randolph College. She is director of the Center for Ancient Drama and holds the William Erness Thoresen and Catherine Ehrman Thoresen ’23 Chair of Speech and Theatre.

Paul Menzer is a professor and director of the Mary Baldwin University MLitt/MFA Shakespeare and Performance graduate program.

Table of Contents

Introductions:

Being Ralph Cohen

Paul Menzer

A Runaway American Dream: The Birth of the American Shakespeare Center

Jim Warren

Part 1: In the Library

Actors as Evidence

Alan Armstrong

The Pressures of Immediacy: The Alchemist and Theatrical Magic

Evelyn Tribble

Text as performance as text: the King’s disease in All’s Well that Ends Well

Jeremy Lopez

Reading Lady Macbeth's Line, 3.4.117

George Walton Williams

Blackfriars Then and Now

Tiffany Stern

Taking Our Hats Off to Ralph

Andrew Gurr

Facts Don’t Always Do What We Want Them To

Farah Karim-Cooper

Macbeth and the Power of Poetry

Russ McDonald

Part 2: In the Classroom

Othello: Three Notes for Dr Ralph to Query

Patrick Spottiswoode

“What wouldst thou do now”: The Visionary Impact of Shakespeare on a Small College Town

Mary Hill Cole and Marlena Hobson

Ralph Alan Cohen’s Fearless Teaching: The Language of Shakespeare

Sally Southall

Part 3: On the Stage

Dionysus at Play with Antony and Cleopatra

Amy Cohen

“Change Places”: Playing King Lear with the Blackfriars Audience

James Keegan

The State of the Art

John Harrell

Living With the Lights On

Patrick Dooley

“And practice rhetoric in your common talk”: How Ralph Made Rhetors of us all

Matthew Davies

Index

About the Contributors

About the Editors

Shakespeare in the Light

Essays in Honor of Ralph Alan Cohen

Shakespeare in the Light

Essays in Honor of Ralph Alan Cohen

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