Preface to the Second Edition

Since the first edition of Clues to Acting Shakespeare was published, I’ve been asked hundreds of questions about techniques for teaching specific skills. Questions like, “How do you get the actors to apply all of these skills at once?” and “Is this the best order in which to teach the skills?” The simple and most useful way to answer the questions is with this second edition.

Part two is a completely new section for the second edition. In the fall of 2005 I taught a forty-hour, twenty-session workshop to ten actors and recorded it. The actors, all in their twenties, had four to ten years of experience with realism or musical theatre, but almost no background in acting heightened text. Our agonies and triumphs are all recorded here, as are all of their questions and my answers.

Every one of these skills is designed to prepare the actor for rehearsal. The techniques used here illustrate one way to teach the skills, but certainly not the only way. This works for me, and some of it may work for you. Use what you can; ignore the rest!