Hamlet's Dresser: A Memoir [Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

Bob Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2003

Bob Smith grew up in a town named for Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford, Connecticut. His troubled childhood was spent in a struggle to help his devastated parents care for his severely retarded sister. But at age ten, Smith stumbled onto a line from The Merchant of Venice and found a window through which to view the world. A few years later, the American Shakespeare Festival moved into Stratford, and Smith became Hamlet’s dresser. As he watched the plays from backstage, his life’s passion took shape. He left home to travel with the Shakespeare Festival, and in the decades since, without a college credit to his name, he has taught the plays in universities and acting schools and prisons. For the past several years, he has probed the texts with thousands of the elderly in senior centers all over Manhattan. Here, in gorgeous, tender, and lyrical prose, Smith tells the story of a life shaped by poetry. Melding tragedy and comedy, he gracefully weaves together the stories of his bittersweet childhood, struggling to help his parents care for his severely retarded sister, his early experience as Hamlet’s dresser for the Shakespeare festival, his poignant experiences teaching Shakespeare to seniors, and dozens of illuminating scenes from Shakespeare’s plays.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Hamlet’s Dresser is a masterpiece. That’s all there is to it." --Frank McCourt, author of Angela’s Ashes

"...this easily hits my top 10 list of best audiobooks ever made." --AudioFile

About the Author

Born in Stratford, Connecticut, Bob Smith first became a painter but would memorize Shakespeare's plays while he worked. He began to teach classes and then went on to directing Shakespeare, mostly in smaller theatres and college campuses. Like Shakespeare, he moved back home to Stratford in his fifties where he still lives. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks; Unabridged edition (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786124008
• ISBN-13: 978-0786124008
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 4.2 x 2.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,535,072 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Poetic and sad, August 15, 2007

By 

keneumey (Bellingham, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hamlet's Dresser: Library Edition (Audio CD)

This memoir that caught my eye at the library and I checked it out to see if it actually has anything to do with Hamlet. It does.

The author (who is the reader) is a Shakespeare aficionado who enjoys reading to old people. (He uses the term "old people" often, never calls them elderly or mature or some other euphemism). He also has a severely retarded younger sister.

The book is so lyrical and he reads it so well that you can see how he makes Shakespeare accessible by reading it aloud. It's a pretty heartbreaking story, but told poetically, with the repetition of phrases and the interspersing of Shakespearean quotes. Maybe some of the language is overly florid, but it works.

I'd like to listen to him read entire plays.

5.0 out of 5 stars Hamlets Dresser, May 6, 2010

By 

Barbara Meltsner - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hamlet's Dresser (Hardcover)

I am one of those old people fortunate enough to be in one of Bob Smith's Shakespeare classes.
He is a genius with a very wry sense of humor.
Shakespeare comes alive in his class along with a wonderful background of English history of the Bards' time.
This book gave me an insight into this authors' personality.