Overview

Since its opening in the late 1990s, the reconstructed Shakespeares Globe Theatre has made an indelible impression on the contemporary British theatre scene. This book explores the theatres first decade of productions under the pioneering leadership of Sir Mark Rylance. Drawing upon an extensive range of material from the theatres archive, interviews with Globe practitioners, and Rylances own personal archive, this book argues that the Rylance era was a ground-breaking and important period of recent theatre history. It concludes with an in-depth interview with Rylance himself. The book gives a unique insight into Rylances practice and impact, and will be of interest to anyone studying Shakespeare in performance. Stephen Purcell is Associate Professor of English at the University of Warwick. His research focuses on the performance of the work of Shakespeare and his contemporaries on the modern stage and screen, and his publications include the books Popular Shakespeare and Shakespeare and Audience in Practice. He also directs for the open-air theatre company The Pantaloons. Series Editors: Bridget Escolme, Queen Mary University of London, UK, Peter Holland, University of Notre Dame, USA and Farah Karim-Cooper, Shakespeares Globe, London ,UK.