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Series:   Elements in Shakespeare Performance

This Distracted Globe

Attending to Distraction in Shakespeare's Theatre

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2023

Jennifer J. Edwards
Jennifer J. Edwards
Affiliation:
The Queen's College, Oxford

Summary

This Element attends to attention drawn away. That the Globe is a 'distracted' space is a sentiment common to both Hamlet's original audience and attendees at the reconstructed theatre on London's Bankside. But what role does distraction play in this modern performance space? What do attitudes to 'distraction' reveal about how this theatre space asks and invites us to pay attention? Drawing on scholarly research, artist experience, and audience behaviour, This Distracted Globe considers the disruptive, affective, phenomenological, and generative potential of distraction in contemporary performance at the Globe.
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Keywords

attentiondistractionShakespeareperformancetheatreaffect
Type
Element
Information
Series: Elements in Shakespeare Performance
Online ISBN: 9781108979986
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 25 May 2023

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