About Arlene Schulman Expertise I have loved Shakespeare all my life, and as a Stage Director and Actor for over twenty-five years I have had the opportunity to study his work in intimate detail. I would be happy to share my knowledge of his plays. I can also help with acting Shakespeare, working with blank verse, character development, script analysis and interpretation. I don`t have as much knowledge in the area of his sonnets, but I can help to understand their meaning and language. I also have some knowledge of his life and of the Globe theatre where he performed his plays, as well as the Royal Shakespeare Company and his birthplace of Stratford-upon-Avon, and can point you in the direction of some wonderful websites on the subjects as well.
Experience
Organizations SSDC - associate member The Shakespeare Institute (MA Candidate - "Shakespeare & Theatre)
Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas
The Shakespeare Association of America
Question Could you please tell me the numbers of the audiences who would typically attend Shakespeare's plays in his own time.
I think it may be around 2000 or more, and that's a lot is it not?
Thanks for your help on this.
PS While I'm asking, can you suggest a book that you think is worth a read regarding Shakespeare -- not that I have't read everything I can find in libraries over the last 10 years! (And I have 20 or more of my own including some beauties such as the Holden illustrated biography.)
Thanks again.
Answer Hi Jim,
We know that the Globe Theatre, the open air amphitheatre where Shakespeare's acting company performed, had an audience capacity of over 2,000. So you are right, that is alot. In Shakespeare's day they did not have the sanitation laws or safety codes that we have today, and many people stood in the pit as groundlings and sat in the galleries surrounding the stage. It was a big audience.
Shakespeare's other stage, the smaller, indoor Blackfriars Theatre, which was used for much of the year after 1608, was more exclusive and had a smaller audience capacity.
As for books about Shakespeare... oh my, Jim, there are hundreds of them. And, as you say you have read so many and have your own library of books, I assume that you have read all of the most current books about Shakespeare. Chances are any books that I suggest you will have already read.
Perhaps if you give me a more specific idea of what aspect of Shakespeare you are interested in reading about - his life, his times, his plays, his language, textual issues, authorship, interpretation, adaptation, stage productions, or anything else - I might be able to recommend something for you.
