William Macready summary

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Below is the article summary. For the full article, see William Charles Macready.

William Macready, (born March 3, 1793, London, Eng.—died April 27, 1873, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire), English actor-manager. He made his debut in 1810, and by 1820 he was famous for his performances as Hamlet, Lear, and Macbeth. As theatre manager of London’s Covent Garden (1837–39) and Drury Lane (1841–43), he introduced reforms such as full rehearsals, historically accurate costumes and sets, and a reversion to the original Shakespeare texts. He toured the U.S. in 1826, 1843, and 1848–49; his last tour ended with the Astor Place riot, caused by partisans of Edwin Forrest. He retired from the stage in 1851. His diary provides a view of 19th-century theatrical life.

directing Summary

Directing, the craft of controlling the evolution of a performance out of material composed or assembled by an author. The performance may be live, as in a theatre and in some broadcasts, or it may be recorded, as in motion pictures and the majority of broadcast material. The term is also used in

acting Summary

Acting, the performing art in which movement, gesture, and intonation are used to realize a fictional character for the stage, for motion pictures, or for television. (Read Lee Strasberg’s 1959 Britannica essay on acting.) Acting is generally agreed to be a matter less of mimicry, exhibitionism, or

William Shakespeare Summary

William Shakespeare was a poet, dramatist, and actor often called the English national poet. He is considered by many to be the greatest dramatist of all time. Shakespeare occupies a position unique in world literature. Other poets, such as Homer and Dante, and novelists, such as Leo Tolstoy and