CHAPTER 13
Session Three
In this session: • End-of-line support • Caesuras • Use the diaphragm • Kick the box • Third assignment
Coach: Let’s begin today by approving the final three monologues. Who’s first?
For Bride, we accept Macbeth, act I, sc v, Lady Macbeth, from “The raven himself . . .” but consider adding more. We look back to “Glamis thou art . . .” then cut six lines from that speech and continue from “Hie thee hither . . .,” cut the Messenger, and continue with “He brings great news” for the bridge to finish the monologue with “Hold, hold!” These lines are added before the “raven” lines to make a monologue of usable length.
Lady Macbeth: Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be
What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature.
It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great,
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it.
[Cut five lines.]
Hie thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear
And chastise with the valor of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
To have thee crowned withal.
He brings great news.
The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood;
Stop up th’ access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose nor keep peace between
Th’ effect and it. Come to my woman’s breasts
And take my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature’s mischief. Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark
To cry ‘Hold, hold!’
Coach: Notice that there are six lines without punctuation in this speech. Tyrone Guthrie used to say that a good actor should be capable of speaking seven lines of blank verse in a large theatre without rushing and without a breath. (All the actors want to try it but we don’t have the time.)
Jerrod chooses Othello, act I, sc iii, Othello, from “Most potent grave and reverend seniors . . .” This doesn’t really work. We discover that he has only read the first four scenes of the play and is unfamiliar with the better speeches in acts three, four, and five. The problem with the “most potent” speech is that it is primarily informative, not active, so it is not a good choice for an audition piece. We decide to read aloud act III, sc iv, from “That handkerchief. . . .” in class, but we also reject that speech. We then look at act IV, sc ii, from “Had it pleased heaven. . . .” We accept this, cutting Desdemona’s line and ending at “never been born.” Jerrod will read the whole play outside of class.
Othello: Had it pleased heaven
To try me with affliction, had they rained
All kinds of sores and shames on my bare head,
Steeped me in poverty to the very lips,
Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes,
I should have found in some place of my soul
A drop of patience. But, alas, to make me
The fixed figure for the time of scorn
To point his slow unmoving finger at!
Yet could I bear that too; well, very well.
But there where I have garnered up my heart,
Where either I must live or bear no life,
The fountain from the which my current runs
Or else dries up—to be discarded thence,
Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads
To knot and gender in—turn thy complexion there,
Patience, thou young and rose-lipped cherubin!
Ay, there look grim as hell!
[Cut 3 lines.]
O thou weed,
Who art so lovely fair, and smell’st so sweet,
That the sense aches at thee, would thou hadst ne’er been born!
For Maggie, we accept A Midsummer Night’s Dream, act I, sc i, Helena, from “Call you me fair?” even though the opening line is a question.
Helena: Call you me fair? That fair again unsay.
Demetrius loves your fair. O happy fair!
Your eyes are lodestars, and your tongue’s sweet air
More tunable than lark to shepherd’s ear
When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.
Sickness is catching. O, were favor so,
Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go;
My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,
My tongue should catch your tongue’s sweet melody.
Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,
The rest I’d give to be to you translated.
O, teach me how you look, and with what art
You sway the motion of Demetrius’ heart.
Coach: Now everyone has a monologue. The next assignment is to type up your monologue triple-spaced, check all punctuation against the Pelican, then make copies for everyone. Bring the copies to the next session, but don’t make any notes on the copies to be passed out. And now you can consult the OED.
Let’s begin on the second skill, even though we’ve already touched on it. The first skill was scansion, which means to mark the feet and stresses of the line, and find the trochees, feminine endings, etc. So after you type your monologue, take your copy and begin marking the scansion. You’ll likely run into problems. There will be some difficult lines, so bring them to our next session and put them on the eraser board. We’ll work out the scansion together. Difficult lines might have eight syllables, or thirteen, and you can’t make them work. We’ll have everyone assist to work them out.
Remember, the very first thing we do—which can be while doing the scansion—is to look up all the words so we know what everything means.
The next skill deals with the structure of blank verse—but this skill can be used in realism as well as blank verse. In blank verse, the end of the line is usually more important than the middle or beginning, and it must be supported. So supporting the end of the line is our next skill. Usually this skill is also true in realism. In modern speech we often don’t hear the last words of a line. The problem is caused by our losing interest in what we’re saying, our running out of breath, our clumping the point of the line into the beginning, or, as is often the case in some film and television, our extreme effort to be “natural” at the expense of language.
If we lose the end of the line in Shakespeare we run into problems. I need a volunteer to read the line. (Kristin volunteers.) We’ve done the scansion on the line “Thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel,” so read it stressing the first half of the line but then run out of breath so we can’t hear the second half clearly. (She does.) What does the line say?
Kristin: You can’t speak.
Coach: That’s all we hear, but is that what the line is about? This line is Romeo speaking to the Friar after the Friar has advised him to forget about marrying this girl, Juliet. Well, obviously the Friar can speak, because he is speaking. Now read both parts of the line. (She does.) Now what do we hear?
Amber: You can’t talk about something you don’t understand.
Coach: Yes. The Friar is supposed to be celibate, isn’t he? How can he advise? Now the line makes sense and both actors have ideas and actions to play. Trying to read the line “naturally,” by allowing the end to fall, totally destroys the meaning of the line.
Amber: You could actually get away with yelling the word “feel,” like we did last time. Maybe using just a little less stress.
Coach: Yes. Isn’t it amazing how far she could go in stressing the word, and still the line works? So you see how important the end of the line is. Speak the next line.
(Kristin reads: “The quality of mercy is not strained;”) Read it as badly as you can. (She does, and it is wonderfully awful.) What happens if you make it entirely emotional? (She does.) What do you hear?
Maggie: All you hear is the emotion, not the words.
Coach: Right. Now do it and let the second half of the line fade away. (She does.) Now what do you hear?
Bride: Something about mercy. I’ve no idea what.
Coach: Do you see how quickly you can lose your audience—and how Shakespeare goes on without you? You see how you can read the lines and the listener has no idea what you’re talking about? Now read both parts of the line. (Kristin does and we all hear the line correctly.) Good. Now start stressing “strained.” (She does until it becomes horrible.) “Strained” won’t take as much stress as “feel” did. How much will it take? (She reads the line until she finds a comfortable stress for “strained.”) Good.
Ryan: How do you know?
Coach: Trust your ear. It will tell you. You’ll know. If you support the end of the line correctly, your common sense will guide you to the proper stress.
Now, here’s a bonus mini-skill. You could have strengthened both of those lines if you had used a bit of a pause in the middle of them. We’ll have more on this when we get to the next skill, which is phrasing, but for now, let’s use the pause to help make sense of the these two lines. This is part of scansion. Write the word “caesura” on the board. (Kristin does.) This is a sense pause. A little pause that you use to set up what you’re going to say or to emphasize what you just said. It’s not a breathing pause. (I speak to the group using a lot of caesuras in my sentences and they quickly understand.) Just like this (pause), you use caesuras (pause) all the time. You set up the listener to hear what you’re going to say. Mark a caesura with two diagonal lines. Look at the “mercy” speech. Where might the little pause come?
Kristin: After “mercy.”
Coach: Right. That tiny pause after “mercy” allows the audience to keep up with you. You say something—“The quality of mercy”—then you tell them what you’re talking about—“is not strained.” Try it. (Kristin does, with a caesura after “mercy.”) Good, but what did you forget to do?
Kristin: I was thinking about the caesura so I forgot to support “strained.”
Coach: Yes. Try again? (She does, and uses both skills.) Everyone hear it?
Alex: Do you mean we have to walk and talk at the same time? (Laughs.)
Coach: And we’ve just started—there are at least ten things you have to do at the same time. (Groans.) We learn them one by one, and as we learn them we apply them to our monologues. We’ll all listen to your monologue the first time to hear whether your scansion is correct and whether you’re supporting the ends of the lines. The first time we won’t be listening for anything else. Does that help? (Mumbles.)
Do you know why you forgot to support the end of the line, even though we just did the exercise?
Kristin: I wasn’t thinking about it?
Coach: Partly that, but mostly because we never support the end of the line in our everyday speech and you were just being natural. To support the end of the line requires muscle work from our diaphragm—a muscle that is as lazy as our other muscles, until you prod it into action. You have to work the muscle, and it’s easier not to. If you’re going to support the end-of-the-verse line, the diaphragm has to kick in. Let’s try it. (We all hold our hand like a claw up against our diaphragm and say the “feel” line, really stressing “feel.” It’s easy to notice how the diaphragm tightens and “kicks in.”)
That’s what you have to do with this kind of language. You have to use the diaphragm and you have to support the end of the line. That’s why untrained actors doing Shakespeare can be really bad—because they aren’t using this simple skill. Heightened text requires vocal energy. The end of the line is an important part of that energy.
You can also use the caesura to set up words. One of you suggested putting a caesura before “strained.” There’s no rule that says you can only have one pause per line. Try it. (Kristin does.)
Emily: Doesn’t seem to work as well as after “mercy.” Seems like too many pauses.
Coach: Yes, your ear is telling you that and you’re probably right. But I liked that we tried it. We need to find out what works. In another line the second pause just might work. You’ll have to test and see.
Now, for your monologue the scansion needs to include marking the feet, marking the stressed and unstressed syllables, and identifying inverted feet or trochees, feminine endings, elisions, and caesuras. Remember, if the stress on a foot doesn’t come out right, you probably have a trochee. Questions? (There are none.) Let’s take a break, then get back on our feet.
Coach: (After the break.) Now we need to kick the box. This exercise will drill into our bodies the need to support the end-of-the-verse line. Let’s spread out into groups of two or three with some distance between you. Here’s a box for each group. (I distribute medium-sized cardboard boxes that have been tightly taped shut.) What we’re doing is using our body to help speak the language and forcing ourselves to support the end of the line.
Take the first line on the board: “Thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel.” You’ll kick the box on the “f” of “feel.” Not earlier and not later. Those who played soccer will find this very easy. So kick the box back and forth. (The actors love doing this. All do it for awhile.) As you continue, a secondary benefit of this exercise is the support it gives you for the entire line. For each group, the ones not kicking check the kicker. Make sure she kicks on the “f” of “feel.” (They do.) Okay, now use the other foot. (We get a lot of laughs as they do this more awkwardly.) Is anyone picking up the benefit to you of doing this exercise?
Amber: It pumps up my juices.
Emily: I use my whole body.
Alicia: I remember doing this with you at another workshop. The prep required to get ready to kick involves the entire body.
Coach: And that’s what is required to handle this language. Just for fun, let’s kick on the wrong words. Some kick on “speak,” some on “that,” and some on “not.” (They do this.) What happens?
Bride: We drop the end of the line. It loses importance.
Emily: On one of those I couldn’t even hear “feel.”
Coach: Now do it without looking at the box. Look at the person you’re speaking to. (All try this, to various degrees of success.) What happens?
Bridgett: I missed the box!
Jerrod: I forgot the line.
Maggie: You lose some confidence, some energy.
Ryan: I kicked too early. I don’t know why.
Coach: Change the kicking to the next line, “The quality of mercy is not strained;” and kick on the “s” of “strained.” (All do this for awhile.) I’m going to try something new. Start with your back to the box. As you speak the line, time your turn so that you are completely in place for the kick, but not too soon or too late. (All try this and eventually all get it.) Sometimes you move and talk at the same time. (Groans.)
Alex: I’m not sure I can do that!
Coach: All find another line—use one from your monologue, and kick on the tenth syllable. What if there is a feminine ending?
Bride: Kick on the tenth syllable, not the feminine ending.
Coach: Right. Try it. (All kick the box using lines from their monologues.) Everybody comfortable with this exercise now? (Lots of mumbles.) Now write down the first two lines of your monologue, unless you already know them. Use one of the dry-eraser boards or just write them on a card you can carry. Check for feminine endings and be sure you have the scansion right. Now kick the box on two lines. You have a real box for the end of the first line, but after you kick it you must imagine it for the end of the second. (All do this for awhile, kicking first the box, then just supporting the end of the second line without the aid of the box.) Once you’re confident with the first two lines, keep going on the entire monologue—do the rest of the lines.
Some do this, others work on the first two lines. It’s very noisy, as all are working at the same time. But that doesn’t matter, as each actor is concentrating on his or her material or helping the partner kick at the right moment. My main job is to get the actors to slow down so that they say every word clearly. They want to rush to the end of the line.
Coach: As you work on the monologue, determine the degree of stress required on the ending. The point of this exercise is not to suggest that the last word of the line is to be smashed. The exercise is to remind us to support, which, you remember, takes making the diaphragm kick in. As with all exercises, you use this to learn the material. Then you move on.
Let’s all lie down on our backs. (We all do.) Let’s say our monologues and keep the ends of the lines supported. Feel the diaphragm. (They do.) Now let’s do them sitting up. Feel the diaphragm. (They do.) Now stand up and do the lines without kicking the box. (They do, and they automatically support the final word of each line.) Let’s do them individually so we can all listen. (They do two lines each for the others to hear.) Do you all hear how the support of line one allows the idea inherent in it to continue to line 2? (We work with the sense of the two lines, noting the idea that moves from line 1 to line 2. I remind them to add some caesuras, which they have forgotten to do. I also point out some of the important words that they must use when they develop the monologue.)
Now, everyone read his or her first two lines standing on one foot. Hold on to your partner, or a box, or the wall or something. After the first foot, try it on the other foot. (All do.) Does it make any difference?
Maggie: None to me.
Coach: Does your focus shift to your feet?
Maggie: No.
Coach: No. Good. You can do your lines from almost any position—even the back of a horse—right? Are there any questions or realizations?
Amber: The exercise helps me find the rhythm of the entire line.
Bride: I just like it.
Coach: I know we’ve just started, but after you do this exercise you’ll see how easy it is to memorize the lines. Now we have a second skill. Next we’ll look at phrasing and breathing. So for next time, apply the first two skills to your monologue. Read the next two chapters. We got a lot done. See you next time.