Michael Pennington

As good a guide to Twelfth Night as you can getRichard EyreThis serious yet lively book offers an intensely practical account of the way Twelfth Night actually works on stage.Drawing both on his inside knowledge as a director of the play and on his lifelong experience as a Shakespearian actor, Pennington takes the reader through Twelfth Night scene by detailed scene.He is sharply intelligent, scrupulously careful, hugely knowledgeable and above all, wonderfully readablePeter Holland, The Shakespeare Institute

An intensely practical account of the way Hamlet actually works on stage.Writing with the benefit of inside experience of many productions, actor and director Michael Pennington takes us through Hamlet scene by scene, and character by character. He also gives a personal account of his own encounters with the play, and of its staging through the ages.A wonderful bookRonald HarwoodRacy, vivid, well informed, and continuously entertainingStanley WellsAn insiders guide par excellenceSimon Callow

How do you prepare for your first day on the set? Why might a bad audition lead to a good job offer? How should you research? Whats the effect of a long tour on your love-life? Can you have a glass of wine before a matinee? Whats the difference between transitive and intransitive corpsing? What is stage fright? In Michael Penningtons highly personal guide and memoir there are sections on rehearsals, on television then and now, on who does what on a film set, on the disciplines and rewards of musical theatre, and five directors discuss why the scenery is better on radio. Disability and racial bias in the theatre are discussed and we sometimes hear from other, younger voices who are following parallel paths. Infectiously enthusiastic, both conversational and profound, Let Me Play the Lion Too draws on the authors fifty years of experience to celebrate the deadly serious, sometimes hilarious, often misunderstood but infinitely enriching life of a professional actor.

The Nick Hern Books Page to Stage series highly accessible guides to the worlds best-known plays, written by established theatre professionals to show how the plays come to life on the stage.Actor Michael Pennington conducts us scene by scene through the action of Chekhovs Three Sisters, analysing moment by moment what is actually said and done, and how the staging of these moments affects our understanding of them.Also included in this volume: a concise introduction to Chekhov and the historical background of the play; discussions of the plays themes and of Chekhovs playwriting technique; and individual studies of each of the plays characters.Ideal for anyone studying, teaching or performing Three Sisters, as well as anyone interested in how the play works on stage.

An intensely practical account of how A Midsummer Nights Dream actually works on stage.A scene-by-scene guide to Shakespeares best loved comedy, from the well-know actor Michael Pennington, drawing on his own experience of directing A Midsummer Nights Dream at the famous Open Air Theatre in Regents Park, London, in 2003 - described by London critics as a captivating Shakespearian experience (Guardian) and riotously funny and genuinely touching (Telegraph).Praise for Michael Penningtons Users Guides:An insiders guide par excellenceSimon Callow He is sharply intelligent, scrupulously careful, hugely knowledgeable and, above all, wonderfully readablePeter Holland, The Shakespeare InstituteIt is his range of knowledge - along with a gift for writing clearly and memorably - that makes him such a fine guideTLS

Michael Penningtons solo show about Shakespeare, Sweet William, has been acclaimed throughout Europe and in the US as a unique blend of showmanship and scholarship. In this book, he deepens his exploration of Shakespeares life and work - and the connection between the two - that lies at its heart.It is illuminated throughout by the unrivalled insights into the plays that Pennington has gained from the twenty thousand hours he has spent working on them as a leading actor, an artistic director and a director - and as the author of three previous books on individual Shakespeare plays.With practical analysis, wonderfully detailed and entertaining interpretations of characters and scenes, and vivid reflections on Shakespeares theatre and ours, the result is a masterclass of the most enjoyable kind for theatregoers, professionals, students and anyone interested in Shakespeare.This book was published in hardback as Sweet William: Twenty Thousand Hours With Shakespeare.A brilliant and intimate insiders guide to Shakespeare from one of our greatest classical actors Gregory DoranMichael Pennington is a great Shakespearian actor who writes with the authority of an academic. His book analyses the plays, the characters and the playwrights life. It will intrigue, entertain and challenge students, actors and their audiences Ian McKellenRich and informative, and something that will be mined for many years to come by anyone interested in Shakespeare and in British theatre Professor James ShapiroShakespeare comes wonderfully to life in Michaels beautifully written book Rupert EverettIrresistibly readable Peter Brook

Michael Pennington discusses playing Timon of Athens, in this ebook taken from Shakespeare On Stage: Volume 2 - Twelve Leading Actors on Twelve Key Roles.In each volume of the Shakespeare On Stage series, a leading actor takes us behind the scenes of a landmark Shakespearean production, recreating in detail their memorable performance in a major role. They lead us through the choices they made in rehearsal, and how the character works in performance, shedding new light on some of the most challenging roles in the canon. The result is a series of individual masterclasses that will be invaluable for other actors and directors, as well as students of Shakespeare and fascinating for audiences of the plays.In this volume, Michael Pennington discusses stepping in at the eleventh hour to play Timon of Athens in the 1999 Royal Shakespeare Company production, directed by Gregory Doran.This interview, together with the others in the series (with actors such as Alan Rickman, Simon Russell Beale, Patrick Stewart and Harriet Walter), is also available in the collection Shakespeare On Stage: Volume 2 - Twelve Leading Actors on Twelve Key Roles by Julian Curry, with a foreword by Nicholas Hytner.