Thinking Shakespeare

Practical advice on how to make Shakespeare’s words feel spontaneous, passionate, and real, from a leading American director and teacher.

Thinking Shakespeare is based on Barry Edelstein’s thirty-year career directing Shakespeare’s plays. It provides the tools that actors, directors and students need to fully understand and express the power of Shakespeare’s language.

'Barry understands how Shakespeare’s words work, and how his characters think. He makes Shakespeare accessible to the actors who embody the characters and to an audience. He explains things in terms that actors like, concrete terms that an actor can really use. This book captures his voice and his knowledge, and, like him, it’s clear and fun. I recommend it for any actor, or anyone who wants to know more about Shakespeare' Blair Underwood

'Barry Edelstein is a marvel, someone who combines a scholar’s precision with a showman’s sense of delight. This book is simply essential reading for those who are passionate, or even curious, about Shakespeare. Barry is one of America’s most distinguished Shakespeareans, an artist and a scholar, and a beautiful guide to the mystery and power of the greatest writer in the history of the globe. His book is accessible, detailed, loving, learned, and delightful.' Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director, The Public Theater

This revised edition was published by Theatre Communications Group, USA, in July 2018.