LESLEY WADE SOULE is Lecturer in Drama at the University of Exeter, where she teaches directing, acting, theatre history, and the staging of Shakespeare. She has published translations of Slovenian plays, as well as scholarly articles on medieval and Elizabethan drama. She is coeditor of the journal Studies in Theatre and Performance.

"This is a refreshingly original book, one which invites the reader to look again at the relationship between dramatic 'characters' and the actors who play them. As Lesley Soule shows, the debate about the paradox of acting is much older than Diderot. Where does the actor go when the character is in motion? Did the original audiences of As You Like It see Rosaling or the boy who player her? or both? With a dexterity that is, by any reckoning, extraordinary, Lesley Soule contrives to enhance our appreciation of dramatic literature by inviting us to read it with the eyes of a performer. The outcome is not a devaluing but a revisioning of plays. At the heart of this challenging book is a rare sensitivity of the arts and crafts of performance." Peter Thompson, author of Shakespeare's Theatre and Shakespeare's Professional Career.

• PrefaceIntroductionDionysusDionysus DomesticatedThe DevilThe Devil's DescendantsThe Boy RosalindEpilogue: "Purged from Barbarism"Appendix: "A Rosalind to Love"Works CitedIndex

LESLEY WADE SOULE is Lecturer in Drama at the University of Exeter, where she teaches directing, acting, theatre history, and the staging of Shakespeare. She has published translations of Slovenian plays, as well as scholarly articles on medieval and Elizabethan drama. She is coeditor of the journal Studies in Theatre and Performance.

"This is a refreshingly original book, one which invites the reader to look again at the relationship between dramatic 'characters' and the actors who play them. As Lesley Soule shows, the debate about the paradox of acting is much older than Diderot. Where does the actor go when the character is in motion? Did the original audiences of As You Like It see Rosaling or the boy who player her? or both? With a dexterity that is, by any reckoning, extraordinary, Lesley Soule contrives to enhance our appreciation of dramatic literature by inviting us to read it with the eyes of a performer. The outcome is not a devaluing but a revisioning of plays. At the heart of this challenging book is a rare sensitivity of the arts and crafts of performance." Peter Thompson, author of Shakespeare's Theatre and Shakespeare's Professional Career.

• PrefaceIntroductionDionysusDionysus DomesticatedThe DevilThe Devil's DescendantsThe Boy RosalindEpilogue: "Purged from Barbarism"Appendix: "A Rosalind to Love"Works CitedIndex