Directorless Shakespeare Transformations through collective Embodied Literary Criticism

Prologue. Opening the curtain - Expressing hidden backgrounds, changing the narrative, destabilising hierarchies, empowering the collective

Chapter 1

The Globe: Redistributing power, smashing the mirror up to nature

Chapter 2

“We do it with the lights on”: Actors’ Renaissance Season at the Blackfriars Playhouse

Chapter 3

Anərkē Shakespeare’s Richard II: Devolved authority and decolonising theatrical practice

Chapter 4

Much Ado About Italy: Embracing alterity, Much Ado About Nothing/Molto Rumore Per Nulla, staging Shakespeare’s comedy in Venice, Italy

Chapter 5

Anərkē Shakespeare’s Macbeth: a spectral tragedy, by the graves of Shakespeare and Burbage

Chapter 6

The Rape of Lucrece: “So much grief and not a tongue” - Lucrece’s embodied voice in performance

Epilogue. Tearing the curtain down

Biography

Elena M. Pellone is a graduate of Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (Shakespeare). She has a BA from the University of Melbourne and an MA and PhD from the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham. She is Artistic Facilitator of the V.enice S.hakespeare C.ompany and Anərkē Shakespeare with whom she creates Directorless Shakespeare productions in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States.

“Starting from a radical reconsideration of our assumptions about how theatre operated in Shakespeare’s own time, Elena Pellone develops a fresh and invigorating conception of how classical drama can be created in our own century.  Her monograph not only documents the key artistic staging-posts of the project, but meticulously describes its intellectual foundations.  It is a book that should be read by all theatre makers today, and will remain a seminal text for theatre historians of the future.”

Dr Martin Wiggins, Honorary Fellow, The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, UK

 

“Pellone's ‘directorless’ versions of Richard II and Macbeth were among the most thorough, nuanced and compelling theatrical performances I have seen of either play. This account of her rationale and methodology deserves to be widely read and widely influential.”

Professor Michael Dobson, Director of The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, UK

 

“A pioneering and important book, providing the keys to a directorless theatrical revolution which can empower actors, challenge critical mainstays, and augment equality and inclusivity within the industry. Elena Pellone’s contribution to the field will change the way we view directing and performance forever. Impressive, decisive and inspirational. I cannot recommend it enough to all lovers of Shakespeare, theatre, and the craft of acting.”

Dr Chris Laoutaris, The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, UK, and author of Shakespeare’s Book: The Intertwined Lives Behind the First Folio