The Study and Practice of Shakespeare Production

Summary

I have chosen such a large subject because I have only one point to make with regard to it: that the study of Shakespeare production from then to now in England has too little acquaintance with the professional practice of Shakespeare production today. In some other countries this statement would not be true, but I am sure that English scholars are neglecting an important task.

Few would deny that scholarship should try to make the literature of the past alive in the present, as fully, and as accurately, as possible; and yet it is on these grounds that I would argue that we have left a great part of our work undone. The themes, meaning, relevance, art and artifice of Shakespeare have been studied; the printed text has been improved rather than ravaged with time; the Elizabethan theatres and their practices have been minutely studied; later productions, including those of today, have been recorded and evaluated: but this is insufficient. Shakespeare's plays live in the theatre, and it seems to me that scholars should ensure by active and practical assistance that they do so as fully and as accurately as possible. Of course many who write about Shakespeare hope that their work will be read by professional directors and actors; but the wish does not ensure the deed; nor that what is read is helpful. In the seventeen annual volumes of Shakespeare Survey since it was founded in 1948 there have been reviews and reports of productions; but among the more than two hundred articles that represent the original work of scholars throughout the world those in which a knowledge of Shakespeare's text or of the past is brought directly to bear upon the practical problems of staging the plays today number only five.