Description: This work examines the careers, talents, and styles of three women who were acknowledged, each in her time, as the greatest interpreter of Shakespeare's heroines: Sarah Siddons, Ellen Terry, and Judi Dench.
Brief description: RUSS McDONALD is Bank of America Excellence Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His many books include such studies as Shakespeare and the Arts of Language and Shakespeare: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory, 1945-2000, as well as a number of editions of Shakespeare's plays. Among other honors, he was named Case/Carnegie Professor of the Year for North Carolina in 2003 and has served as a Trustee of the Shakespeare Association of America.
Review Quotes:
Actors are always talking about traditions, looking back to the great actors of the past and working out who has inherited their mantle. McDonald's wonderful new book traces the line of descent that links three of the greatest actresses ever: Sarah Siddons, Ellen Terry, and Judi Dench. With a superb and unusual combination of great scholarship and real panache, he makes us understand what that rare quality was that each possessed, that special unquantifiable something that so powerfully affected their audiences. Always a delight to read, Look to the Lady is a brilliant contribution to theater history, making us aware afresh of why each was so mesmerizing as Lady Macbeth and helping us make sense of what makes a star in the world of theater.
--Peter Holland "McMeel Family Professor of Shakespeare Studies, University of Notre Dame"