New Book STAGING SHAKESPEARE'S VIOLENCE Released

Staging Shakespeare's Violence is the first book of its kind to provide an in-depth examination of how the greatest playwright in the English language employed not only psychological brutality but also physical violence throughout his works.

My Cue to Fight - Volume One: Domestic Fury

Written for theatrical stage directors, fight directors, intimacy consultants, actors, and Shakespeare enthusiasts.

This provides a technical scene-by-scene breakdown in staging combat for productions of these plays.

Violence is integral to Shakespeare's plays, but there has never been a guidebook to staging all of the fights - both explicit and implicit - until now. This book provides a comprehensive index of actual and potential violence broken down both scene by scene as well as by number of participants.

Volume One tracks the works set in the United Kingdom, mostly of civil unrest and warfare amongst the Plantagenets and Tudors, as well as the nearby kingdoms of France, Denmark, and Austria.

A technical guide this exhaustive could easily become clinical, so the book offers readers a rehearsal-room feel by allowing the authors to debate with one another in competing asides. For example:

Imagine a senile and emotionally unstable old ruler, who cares about only one of his children, wastes taxpayer dollars going around the room asking everyone to declare how much they love him, and then proceeds to tear his country to pieces.

We may be writing this book in the United States in 2020, but the tyrant to whom we allude is a mythological king dating back three millennia, and his name is Lear.

Undoubtedly the greatest of Shakespeare's achievements [Jared: You're thinking of Chapter 3 - Hamlet.] [Seth: I can assure you I am not.] [Jared: Not even close to the brilliance of A Midsummer Night's Dream either!] [Seth: The one where they drug a bunch of kids, and psychosexually manipulate them? Oh, yeah. Real brilliance. Surprised Polanski hasn't directed it yet.], this play contains tripping, stabbing, eye-gouging, myocardial infarction, poisoning, hanging, and is the perfect way for us to begin our adventure, staging Shakespeare's violence.

About the Authors

Seth Duerr is the Founder and Artistic Director of The York Shakespeare Company, and has appeared in and/or directed 34 productions of Shakespeare. He is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association, SAG-AFTRA, the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, and serves on the Advisory Board of Wingspan Arts.

Jared Kirby is the Fight Director of The York Shakespeare Company and has been involved in Western Martial Arts and Combat for Stage & Screen for 25 years. He teaches in New York City and is a Master of Arms (Maestro d'Armi) through the Martinez Academy of Arms. He is the president of CombatCon in Las Vegas and teaches workshops around the world. As a fight director, Jared has choreographed stars such as Peter Sarsgaard, Steve Guttenberg and Cameron Douglas and choreographed fights Off-Broadway, nationally, and internationally in London and Sydney. In addition to this book, Jared is the editor of A Gentleman's Guide to Duelling by Vincentio Saviolo and The School of Fencing by Domenico Angelo and annotated by Maestro Jeannette Acosta-Martínez.

For more information:

https://www.amazon.com/Staging-Shakespeares-Violence-Fight-Domestic/dp/1526762404