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The search to find engaging and inspiring ways to introduce children and young adults to Shakespeare has resulted in a rich variety of approaches to producing and adapting Shakespeare''s plays and the stories and characters at their heart. Shakespeare for Young People is the only comprehensive overview of such productions and adaptations, and engages with a wide range of genres, including both British and American examples. Abigail Rokison covers stage and screen productions, shortened versions, prose narratives and picture books (including Manga), animations and original novels. The book combines an informative guide to these interpretations of Shakespeare, discussed with critical analysis of their relative strengths. It also includes extensive interviews with directors, actors and writers involved in the projects discussed''.>
List of contents
Introduction 1. Full-scale Stage Productions for Young People - Shakespeare's Globe: 'Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bankd' - Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing and Macbeth 2. Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, Michael Almereyda's Hamlet and Christine Edzard's The Children's A Midsummer Nights Dream 3. 'Shakespeare's Stories': Prose Narratives and Picture Books 4. Shakespeare and the Graphic Novel 5. Cut-down Stage Versions for Young Children 6. Shakespeare: The Animated Tales 7. Novel Adaptations of Shakespeare: Hamlet 8. Original Plays Based on Shakespeare 9. Film Adaptations of Shakespeare - 'Romeo and Juliet the cartoon' and 'High School Dreams' Bibliography Index
Report
Abigail Rokison provides a comprehensive review of some of the many approaches taken by theatre and film directors, publishers and writers to shape the plays to teenagers and provides sharp, pertinent and knowledgeable evaluations of the successes and shortcomings of this body of work ... Rokison's excellent analysis of the plethora of work designed to entice young people into Shakespeare makes this an invaluable book that educators in schools and arts organisations would benefit from reading. Georghia Ellinas, Head of Learning with Globe Education Around the Globe 20130901
