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? What's the effect of a long tour on your love-life? Can you have a glass of wine before a matinee? What's the difference between transitive and intransitive corpsing? What is stage fright?In Michael Pennington's 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 an...

Michael Pennington's solo show about Shakespeare, Sweet William, was acclaimed throughout Europe and in the US as a unique blend of showmanship and scholarship. In this book, he deepens his exploration of Shakespeare's 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 gained from the twenty thousand hours he spent working on them as a leading actor, an artistic ...

' As good a guide to Twelfth Night as you can get' Richard 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, scrupu...

The Nick Hern Books Page to Stage series – highly accessible guides to the world's 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 Chekhov's 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 conci...

Michael Pennington has been working as a professional actor and director for the past 57 years. He has performed in every kind of play -- Chekhov, Shakespeare, Pinter, Ibsen, Stoppard, and many others -- as well as in television, radio and film. He has appeared at the National Theatre, in the West End of London, and in theatres throughout the world. From 1986 to 1992 he ran his own company, the English Shakespeare Company. He is an Honorary Associate Artist of the Royal Shakes...

Jessica and Michael's odyssey unfolds among the stars, ancient sanctuaries, and eldritch realms. As spectral adversaries challenge them, they strive to awaken celestial dragons, battling darkness with the help of mystics. Their quest, laden with forbidden knowledge and personal stakes, is a tale of cosmic awakening where destiny's call is perilous yet compelling. In a twilight world at the edge of doom, an unlikely fellowship seeks mythical guardians to fight an encroaching darkness. Haunt...

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 book' Ronald Harwood'Racy, vivid, well informed, and continuou...

An intensely practical account of how A Midsummer Night's Dream actually works on stage.A scene-by-scene guide to Shakespeare's best loved comedy, from the well-know actor Michael Pennington, drawing on his own experience of directing A Midsummer Night's Dream at the famous Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park, London, in 2003 - described by London critics as 'a captivating Shakespearian experience' ( Guardian) and 'riotously funny and genuinely touching' ( ...

What is King Lear really thinking of? What does his mysterious Fool dream about? What are the secret reasons for his daughters’ revenge on their father? What really lies behind the most famous lines in Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy?Michael Pennington’s performance as Lear in New York in 2014 was considered to be the equal of those of Paul Scofield and John Gielgud. This book - part memoir, part analysis, part adventure story - lights up the familiar text and the unique production ...

First published in hardback in 2003, Are You There Crocodile? is now available in paperback. Michael Pennington’s work on his solo show about Anton Chekhov has taken London’s ‘Russian Actor’ from the Trans-Siberian Railway to Soviet and post-Soviet Moscow, into the repertoires of the National Theatre and the Old Vic and across Europe.Are You There, Crocodile? also includes accounts of his work on Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Tolstoy’s Strider and other Russian projects, as we...

Jessica and Michael's odyssey unfolds among the stars, ancient sanctuaries, and eldritch realms. As spectral adversaries challenge them, they strive to awaken celestial dragons, battling darkness with the help of mystics. Their quest, laden with forbidden knowledge and personal stakes, is a tale of cosmic awakening where destiny's call is perilous yet compelling. In a twilight world at the edge of doom, an unlikely fellowship seeks mythical guardians to fight an encroaching darkness. Haunt...

A fascinating foray into British military history revealing the life of the British soldier at war. From the Roman invasion of Britain to the retreat from Dunkirk, from the horrors of Culloden to the courage of Rourke’s Drift, we experience first-hand the stories behind the triumphs and tragedies that make up the history of the British Army. Told entirely in the words of those who were therePerformed by an outstanding company of award-winning actors including Dame Eileen Atkins, Ch...