With exercises, improvisations, and coaching points, Acting Shakespeare is Outrageous! from Focal Press helps actors use the words Shakespeare wrote as a tool to perform and to create exciting and moving performances.

Performing the work of William Shakespeare can be daunting to new actors. Author Herb Parker posits that his work is played easier if actors think of the plays as happening out of outrageous situations and remember just how non-realistic and presentational Shakespeare's plays were meant to be performed. The plays are driven by language and the spoken word, and the themes and plots are absolutely out of the ordinary and fantastic: the very definition of outrageous.

Herb Parker is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Performance, Theatre and Dance, with East Tennessee State University. Directing credits at ETSU include Othello, Race, The Trojan Women, Six Characters in Search of an Author (KCACTF "Excellence in Directing" Meritorious Achievement Award), Caesar 2012 (his adaptation of Julius Caesar), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, As You Like It, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream (KCACTF "Excellence in Directing" Meritorious Achievement Award), and Little Shop of Horrors (also a KCACTF "Excellence in Directing" Meritorious Achievement Award recipient). Professor Parker is a long-time member of the Actors Equity Association. He is also the author of A Monologue is an Outrageous Situation! How to Survive the 60-Second Audition.