Dramatic Adventures in Rhetoric: A Guide for Actors, Directors and Playwrights (The Actor's Toolkit) - Softcover

Philip Wilson; Giles Taylor

9781849434911: Dramatic Adventures in Rhetoric: A Guide for Actors, Directors and Playwrights (The Actor's Toolkit)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1849434913 ISBN 13: 9781849434911

Publisher: Oberon Books Ltd, 2015

A practical, accessible and thorough guide to identifying and using rhetorical devices in drama, using examples from both classical and contemporary plays. An unprecedented reference and handbook for actors, directors, playwrights and teachers; written by practitioners for practitioners. Little has been written about how dramatists draw on rhetorical devices, and how a study of these can unlock a text for a performer or director, or indeed inspire contemporary playwrights. This book addresses in detail yet in straightforward terms the many different rhetorical forms used in drama, and enables the reader to identify and analyse them. Dramatic Adventures in Rhetoric may be read cover to cover, or it may be dipped into; it is both an analytic tool and a reference aid for use in the classroom or rehearsal room, revealing how careful study of language is one of the best ways of accessing the richness of texts both classical and contemporary.

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Product Description:

Dramatic Adventures in Rhetoric

Review:

We don't always know why we say what we say, or write what we write but invariably, the Greeks have a word for it. Packed with memorable and quotable examples from sources ancient and modern, this witty and well-organised handbook offers a lexicon for our efforts, terms for our art. For any teacher, actor or writer, a useful and fascinating guide. --Hilary Mantel, author

This wonderful book a history, guide and manual in one is well-titled. It promises us adventures, and delivers them. Well-armed actors should make rhetoric part of their arsenal. Dramatic Adventures in Rhetoric will train your eyes, your mouth, and (perhaps most usefully for actors) your ears. I like this book extremely. I'll use it. Fun but never foolish, precise but never pedantic, exhaustive but never exhausting, it deserves a place on every actor's, director's and playwright's shelf. --Samuel West, actor and director

This is an incredibly revealing and insightful book, through which the authors guide us with generosity and wit. Surprisingly entertaining, it is packed full of funny and moving examples of the best dramatic writing, both classical and contemporary. Naming and explaining the devices that playwrights use (consciously or otherwise) can further our understanding of dramatic writing, and our confidence when working with it. I can imagine having it on my desk in rehearsal for problem-solving, or dipping into it lazily for amusement and inspiration.' --Jeremy Herrin, director

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