ABSTRACT
Shakespeare was primarily an actor writing for other actors in his company, in a hard-working theatre that had few rehearsals, and no director to help or hinder the performances of his plays. So he wrote clear, unequivocal ‘directions’ so that scenes would be played in the way that he wished, helping actors to speak the lines through the musicality and imagery of his verse and prose, supporting them in leading and minor roles, by giving a clear dynamic to each speech, scene and act in the same way that a composer creates an opera with appropriate lyric passages, climaxes and dramatic tensions.
