THE SHAKESPEARE SESSIONS

Featuring KEVIN KLINE, DUSTIN HOFFMAN, DAVID HYDE PIERCE, CYNTHIA NIXON, LIEV SCHREIBER, CHARLES S. DUTTON & HARRIET WALTER

Focusing on language as the way into Shakespeare's magical world, Barton guides his all-star American cast through intimate workshops where some of the Bard's most famous characters are brought to life.--Playbill

"With all those luminaries executing his bidding, it's impossible not to be won over by this absent-minded professor's Yoda-like passion." – AMERICAN THEATRE

Legendary directors and founders of the Royal Shakespeare Company JOHN BARTON and SIR PETER HALL travel to America to work with some of today's brightest stars.

Among the topics covered by the Barton/Hall workshops:

• Creating a World with Words
• The Clues Are in the Text
• Play the Story
• Changing Gears: Prose to Verse
• The Questions Reveal the Character
• Handling Emotion
• Setting Word against Word
• Connecting with the Audience

It is very hard today to make an audience listen to and understand Shakespeare,begins Barton. The man Peter O'Toole dubbed ?em>our Shakespeare swami?proceeds to do just that, breaking down the seemingly impenetrable language, analyzing the emotional syntax of each scene, and focusing actors on the practical clues Shakespeare offers in the text. Oren Jacoby's film also shows Sir Peter Hall in rehearsal with Dustin Hoffman for their Broadway production of The Merchant of Venice. Under the watchful eyes of these two master directors of Shakespeare, the actors translate the literary text into living stagecraft.

Other actors include Patrick Stewart, Janet Suzman, Lynn Collins, Peter Francis James, and Mia Tagano.

"This well-crafted documentary reveals the acting secrets that make Shakespeare accessible to modern audiences. Viewers experience the transformation of words and dialogue into living characters." --Library Journal

"Barton has been acclaimed as 'the Shakespeare swami' by threee generations of great RSC actors, from Peter O'Toole to Ian McKellan and Judy Dench to Harriet Walter (who appears in the film). Focusing on language as the way into Shakespeare's magical world, Barton guides his all-star American cast in intimate workshops where some of the Bard's most famous characters are brought to life."---------Playbill

"John Barton and Sir Peter Hall, both legendary directors of the classics, traveled to New York City to work with an all-star American cast, on what has traditionally been viewed as a British protectorate: Shakespeare's Stage. This workshop reveals a rare behind-the-scenes analysis of how Shakespeare's plays actually work on stage and on the page.

" Barton's hands-on, gloves-off, intellectual approach is an ideal companion to the visceral liberation and vocal experiments of Cicely Berry's Working Shakespeare, hosted by Jeremy Irons. Indeed Barton and Berry have been complementing each other's text and voice work on the same RSC productions for over 30 years.Shakespeare Sessions records these intimate workshops as Barton combines scholarship with stagecraft, drawing out an actor's own textual speculations in performance, sometimes through a lively examination of a single word.

"Words are no blunt instruments in Barton's capable hands, and in this historic revelation of an actor's process, his students learn to wield words with a new respect for their power." - Shaksper, The Global Shakespeare Conference

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