‘Merely players’: Actor-led Shakespeare

Abstract

This article argues that a return to actor-led theatre without a director is the most important, and radical, form of Original Practice (OP) possible today. This involves a critique of the now-established OP theories of minimal rehearsal time and cue-script techniques of acting practice, which have concomitantly needed to posit or invent a director of sorts, in the form of the book-keeper, theatrical manager, or the playwright himself, to preserve theoretical coherence. The theory of no group rehearsal, cue scripts isolated to single actors who know nothing of the play, and a putative director, to ensure a theatrical coherence, go hand-in-hand.