What Is Shakespeare?
by Ted van Griethuysen

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At the heart of this book written by the renowned American actor, Ted van Griethuysen, is a fundamental idea: Shakespeare is only what he says and how he says it. How he says it, of course, is poetry, and what poetry is, why we need it, is central to an actor’s study of Shakespeare. An actor must do two things at once (1) honor the poetry, and (2) sound like a human being talking. At the same time. It is for directors and theatre designers as well and for anyone, anywhere, who wants to know Shakespeare and his place in knowing the world and ourselves. What Is Shakespeare? is the accumulation of a remarkable life’s work and offers this standing invitation: read on.

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At eighty-four, Ted van Griethuysen has seen, done, and learned a great deal about Shakespeare. He attended the University of Texas with the legendary B. Iden Payne, the Globe in San Diego, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival; attended LAMDA on a Fulbright scholarship while at the same time was Peter Brook’s assistant on his RSC production of The Tempest with John Gielgud; performed at the Connecticut and New York Shakespeare theaters; and, finally, for thirty-two years, an affiliated artist with Michael Kahn’s Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC. He also managed to find time for twenty-five years Off and On Broadway, and founded a theatre company, the Opposites Company, with his wife, Rebecca Thompson. He has taught at Columbia University, the University of South Carolina, and privately in New York City. Currently, he teaches master classes at Manchester Municipal University in the UK and at the Shakespeare Academy in Stratford, CT. Threading together the years of his life and his work is the Aesthetic Realism approach to the world, art, and oneself. Founded and taught by the poet Eli Siegel, it embodies the idea that “all beauty is the making one of opposites and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves.” Ted has eight Helen Hayes Awards, the Will Award, and the Richard Bauer Award for outstanding contribution to Washington theatre. Most recently, he received the Helen Hayes Lifetime Achievement Award, which was presented by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. This, then, is his book.

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Contributors

Author

Ted van Griethuysen

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