Alan Rickman on Jaques (Shakespeare On Stage)

Alan Rickman discusses playing Jaques in Shakespeare's As You Like It, 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 leads 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, Alan Rickman re-evaluates the melancholic Jaques, a role he played in the Royal Shakespeare Company's 1985 production of As You Like It directed by Adrian Noble. This interview, together with the others in the series (with actors such as Ian McKellen, 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.

Alan Rickman was an English actor and director known for playing a variety of roles on stage and on screen. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, performing in modern and classical theatre productions, as well as gaining wider notice for his film performances as Hans Gruber in Die Hard and Severus Snape in the Harry Potter film series.