Dassel, MN Author Publishes Actors Guide to Shakespeare

July 20, 2016 - "Shakespeare: Helping an Actor Prepare," a new book by Mary Braaten, has been released by Dorrance Publishing Co., Inc.

This is a method to help actors prepare Shakespeare. Edith Skinner taught Shakespeare text analysis to the acting students in the Drama Department at Carnegie Mellon University. This book was written in order to pass on her method of teaching Shakespeare for actors.

It teaches how to prepare an actor's worksheet of Shakespeare's monologs and sonnets. You will learn how to do a text analysis: of the sentences, phrases and meter, of adjustments to maintain meter, and of poetic devices such as sounds, figurative and rhetorical language.

It describes how to work with long and complex sentences. You will organize, subordinate and build information using the pitch range of your speaking voice, inflection, phrases and pauses, and stress.

It has monologs and dialogs from Shakespeare to illustrate variations in meter, variations in lines, lines that are meant to include business, and shared and overlapping lines. Each section includes examples from Shakespeare for practicing the techniques that are introduced.

There is a brief discussion of Shakespeare's punctuation and editorial practices.

About the Author:
Mary Braaten received her M.F.A. in Drama from Carnegie Mellon University and has taught in the professional acting training programs at Carnegie Mellon University, North Carolina School of the Arts, Boston University, and as a tenured professor in the Theatre Department at San Francisco State University.

"Shakespeare: Helping an Actor Prepare" is a 114-page plastic coil with a retail price of $17.00. The ISBN is 978-1-4809-2609-7. It was published by Dorrance Publishing Co., Inc of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. For more information, or to request a review copy, please go to our virtual pressroom at www.dorrancepressroom.com or our online bookstore at www.dorrancebookstore.com.