CHAPTER 39

The Morning Session

Prepare thy battle early in the morning.

RICHARD III, V, iii

YOU ARE A realistic actor. An opportunity arises to play Shakespeare, Molière, or another “classical” writer. You must read for the role. What do you do? How do you prepare this audition?

Here let us breathe

And haply institute a course of learning.

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, I, i

EARLY CHARACTER CHOICES

Before beginning on the skills, here are some procedures to keep in mind. Try not to think about the character you plan to read. Shocking advice, I suppose. You want to dig out the subtext and the character choices and play those. But if you can wait on those choices, it will pay off handsomely.

Forcing a preconceived character, action, or method of “How one is supposed to play Shakespeare” on Shakespeare’s language is one of the worst mistakes you can make. Forcing means you begin rehearsal knowing how you want to play the character before you have thoroughly mastered what the text is saying.

On the other hand, it is not forcing to have studied the text, perhaps seen a few productions of the play, and determined how you might play a specific role if given the opportunity. But be patient and, for the moment, forget “character.” There are more important things to do first. We’ll get to “character” later on.

Here are some of those “more important things”:

• When playing realism, your job as an actor is to find your action and play it. Use a strong and clear voice, and play your action. “Play your action” refers to the things you do to achieve your objective.

• When playing Shakespeare, do the same thing. All you need to add are a few skills to handle the language. If playing realism is like walking, then playing Shakespeare is like dancing. You simply need to add a few “moves” to a process you already know and find the correct rhythm.

But it is also true that if you play Shakespeare without mastering these skills, your work will be as uninteresting and painful to the audience and your fellow actors as the ill-trained dancer is to the beholder and the partner.

This thought may be helpful: If you can hear the tune of a Beethoven sonata in your mind and you desire to pass this pleasure to the audience through the piano, your fingers must have the skills to play the notes. In playing Shakespeare, the skills you are about to learn are the composer’s directions to you, like musical notations, and your voice is the instrument.

The four skills outlined below are as easy to learn as baseball and can be used at various levels of training and success. But to not use them is like playing baseball with your glove on the wrong hand. Not only does this blunder cause you to be a poor fielder, it also forces you to throw with the wrong arm. In both cases, you have crippled your own ability and won’t be effective.

Little joy have I

To breathe this news; yet what I say is true.

RICHARD II, III, iv

Among other benefits, these skills will enable you to allow Shakespeare’s language to be understood and heard clearly by the audience (or the director at your audition). Most American directors haven’t spent much time analyzing Shakespeare’s language. The directing jobs are elsewhere—for example, modern realistic plays, musicals, video, film—in a ratio of about 300:1. There is nothing that you, the actor, can do about this. When auditioning with Shakespeare, remember that casting agents and producers have even less background than directors, so let their lack of preparation motivate you to be vocally strong and very clear.

Or—not to crack the wind of the poor phrase.

HAMLET, I, iii

Regarding your voice, say what you mean, and say it loud and clear. Try to use your best voice—not some selected “character” voice. If saying what you mean involves subtext, use it. But don’t indulge or rely on subtext when speaking Shakespeare, as problems (discussed in detail in part one) will surely arise. And, strong voice or weak voice, don’t waver from getting what you want from the person to whom you are speaking.

Another vocal clue: say what you think as you think it, and don’t “reflect” on the thought before you speak. Don’t think, then talk. Talk and think at the same time. Act on the words, not between the words. If you want to study this skill in more detail, refer to chapter 6 in part one of this book.

Above all, avoid asking, “How am I going to play this role?” If you speak clearly what you mean and pursue your intention in whatever way is necessary to achieve it, you will automatically discover a character. Let this discovery come to you through those actions.

Don’t impose a character on this language. Rather, know the language, and you will discover the character who uses it. Be brave. Let the language guide you. It will show you “how” to play the role.

In summary, even if you know how you want to play a Shakespearean character, it won’t help you one bit unless you know what the language is doing. Your character will be ineffective if what you are saying is unclear to the listener. At your audition, the director needs to hear if you can handle the language. Can you be understood? Are you believable?

We have to start here.

A double spirit

Of teaching and of learning instantly.

HENRY VI, PART I, V, ii

FOUR BASIC SKILLS

If you use four basic skills, the director at your audition will listen to you and understand what you are saying. These skills work, even if you don’t understand what you’re saying—as, perhaps, at a cold reading.

The four skills are scansion, phrasing, end support, and breathing.

You might wonder about analysis of text, which won’t receive much attention in this one-day lesson. But once the phrasing is correct, the actor will be very close to truthful line readings. Analysis also includes playing the antithetical words, phrases, or thoughts, which we will study. Complete chapters on antithesis and analysis are also included in part one of this book.

Don’t forget word meanings. Take the time to open the dictionary (the OED if it’s available) and check every word that may have had a different meaning in the year 1600. Write down that meaning.

You might also ask about subtext. When you set out to examine the emotional and psychological state of your character, it is difficult to ignore subtext. On the other hand, you can’t really explore the character until you are certain what the character is doing. In Shakespeare, that action is discovered more through the text than the subtext. In this one-day lesson, we are concerned with the skills required to discover what the character is actually saying and doing. The actor can decide later what subtext, if any, is needed.

Think of Shakespeare’s language this way:

Scan it • Break it up • Kick the box • Breathe!

FIRST NEW SKILL: SCANSION

To begin, select the passage or section that you are preparing for your audition, or sections of the play from which you will be reading. You are probably looking at blank verse. (If, by chance, you are reading a prose section—i.e., the language looks ordinary and without verse form—skip scansion and review the other three skills.) As you proceed, if you want more detailed explanations or examples for any definition or concept, the index will guide you to other sections of the book.

Blank verse is not poetry. It can be poetic, but in itself, it is merely a form of writing the English language. It was first used in the mid-six-teenth century and then perfected by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. It should not cause you any insecurity, because you actually speak blank verse all the time. (“Let’s go to town and buy an ice cream cone” is blank verse!) A regular blank verse line consists of ten syllables, with a stress placed on every second syllable. The form is called iambic pentameter, with a rhythm that goes “dee dum dee dum dee dum dee dum dee dum.”

This concept of “stresses” is valuable for actors, because it guides you to both the important words in the line and the author’s intention. Marking the soft and stressed syllables in a blank verse line is called scanning the line, or scansion.

Let’s do one. We’ll break a line into “feet” of two syllables each for a total of five feet and ten syllables, then mark the stresses.

Let’s go to town and buy an ice cream cone.

Break the line into feet:

Let’s go / to town / and buy / an ice / cream cone.

Now mark the stresses: for unstressed, for stressed.

Here’s a better line from Romeo and Juliet:

Romeo: But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? (II, ii)*

But soft! / What light / through yon / der win / dow breaks?

When you read the line, place emphasis on the stressed syllables: “soft,” “light,” “yon,” “win,” “breaks.” With your hand, beat out these stressed words or syllables on the table or chair. Read the line a few times by beating out and over-stressing the five stressed words or syllables. Then forget the scansion, and read the line naturally.

If you’ve beat out the rhythm with your hand and emphasized the stressed syllables, you will discover that when you “forget” scansion and read the line more naturally, you automatically give a slight emphasis to the stressed words. You will achieve naturalness and honesty, and do so by stressing the correct words.

For the Shakespearean line to be truthful, it is necessary to play the correct stresses. Let’s test this idea by reading a line incorrectly. Here’s the opening line from The Merchant of Venice:

Antonio: In sooth I know not why I am so sad. (I, i)

If we follow the scansion, the stresses are “sooth,” “know,” “why,” “am,” “sad.” Read the line instead by stressing “In,” “I,” “not,” “I,” “so,” and see what you get. That’s probably not what you want for your audition!

For anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing.

HAMLET, III, ii

Now you need a pencil, not a pen. Put this book down for thirty minutes, and select ten or twelve lines from your audition material. Mark the scansion. This will pay off handsomely later.

After marking the scansion on your ten or twelve lines, read them aloud a few times, hitting the stressed syllables. Overdo it. Pound it out. You can pull back to naturalism later. By overdoing, you discover meaning and “problems.” Are there “problems?” Likely there are, so let’s find them. For example, is there a stress that seems wrong? Or is there a line that won’t scan to ten syllables? No, you’re not miscounting, and, yes, trust your common sense. You’ve found an irregular line. Shakespeare obtains much of his effect by inverting stresses, which changes the rhythm of a line. Instead of “dee dum,” a foot might be scanned “dum dee.” He will also write eleven-syllable lines and, on some occasions, lines of twelve to fourteen syllables. On the following page are examples of these two variations.

Before continuing, if you need to brush up on the following terms, check the glossary or index for the following items:

• blank verse and regular line

• irregular blank verse line

• feminine ending

• short or shared line

• rhymed couplet

• caesura

• elision

• iambic pentameter

Now we shall know some answer.

TITUS ANDRONICUS, III, iv

FIRST USUAL PROBLEM: SCANSION IS IRREGULAR

Here is an example from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. (Refer to pages 18 and 190 for an example from Romeo and Juliet.)

Oberon: There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,

Lulled in these flowers with dances and delight;

And there the snake throws her enamelled skin,

Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in. (II, i)

Look at line 3. You may have one or more similar lines in your material.

And there / the snake / throws her / enam / elled skin,

Using regular scansion, in the third foot of the line, the word “throws” would not be stressed. The line would scan incorrectly like this:

For the sense of the line, however, your common sense tells you that the verb “throws” is more important than the pronoun “her.” And you are correct. So the third foot in the line is irregular and is called a trochee (pronounced tro’ kee) or trochaic foot—which has the first syllable stressed and the second unstressed and scans like this:

“Throws” is an action verb, and actors look for words like this. You would not want to leave it unstressed. This is a typical example of how Shakespeare changes the rhythm of the line and how you, as an actor, play “throws.” In fact, for added emphasis, take a little sense pause just before you say it. That little pause is called a caesura—pronounced si-zhoor´-ə. It is not a breath pause, just a sense pause.

You discover changes in the rhythm by applying scansion and trusting your common sense. When rhythm changes, play it.

Take fifteen minutes, and circle all words in your speech that break the rhythm.

It is not enough to speak, but to speak true.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, V, i

SECOND USUAL PROBLEM: TOO MANY SYLLABLES

Here is an example from Hamlet:

Hamlet: To be, or not to be—that is the question: (III, i)

Here we have eleven syllables, with the eleventh (“tion”) hanging on the end by itself. That syllable is called a feminine ending. It creates a soft ending, because in a regular blank verse line, the tenth and final syllable is stressed. Shakespeare uses the feminine ending frequently. You may have some feminine endings in the material you are preparing. Just let these lines end without placing stress on the final syllable. Feminine endings are often “tion,” “ing,” “eth,” “er,” and “en.”

If you count eleven or twelve syllables in a blank verse line and note that the final syllable must be stressed, you cannot use the feminine ending. In this case, use elision, and contract two words or syllables into one—“I will” becomes “I’ll.” In the following line, Shakespeare has already elided a two-syllable words into one syllable to create an eleven-syllable line; but the actor must elide another word, as “man” is stressed and would not make a feminine ending.

Hamlet: Horatio, thou art e’en as just a man (III, ii)

Note “even” is already elided to “e’en” and pronounced as one syllable. The reader must elide “Horatio” to “Horat’o,” pronounced as three syllables. Now the line can be spoken in ten syllables with correct rhythm.

That’s a brief explanation of scansion. Before moving on to “break it up,” be sure that you have clearly scanned the material you are preparing, marked the stresses, and circled all words that break the rhythm.

That matter is answered directly.

JULIUS CAESAR, III, iii

SECOND NEW SKILL: BREAK IT UP

We’re talking about phrasing. According to Webster, a “phrase” may be a group of words that create a thought on which the mind can focus momentarily and which can be preceded or followed by a pause.

If you take any Shakespearean speech or sonnet, many of the phrases are separated by punctuation. Because it is easier to mark the phrases than it is to handle them vocally, you probably have some work to do before your audition.

In this example from Henry IV, Part 1, many phrases are clearly marked by punctuation. Here the King demands that Prince Hal explain his unprincely behavior.

King: Lords, give us leave: the Prince of Wales and I (1)

Must have some private conference; but be near at hand, (2)

For we shall presently have need of you. (They exit.) (3)

I know not whether God will have it so (4)

For some displeasing service I have done; (5)

That, in his secret doom, out of my blood (6)

He’ll breed revengement and a scourge for me; (7)

But thou dost in thy passages of life (8)

Make me believe that thou art only marked (9)

For the hot vengeance and the rod of heaven (10)

To punish my misreadings. Tell me else, (11)

Could such inordinate and low desires, (12)

Such poor, such bare, such lewd, such mean attempts, (13)

Such barren pleasures, rude society, (14)

As thou art matched withal and grafted to, (15)

Accompany the greatness of thy blood (16)

And hold their level with thy princely heart? (III, ii) (17)

In lines 8–11, there are phrases not separated by punctuation, but notice how many are easily identified.

What about phrases that aren’t defined by punctuation? Here are lines 4–11 with caesuras (//) inserted to mark the phrases. (Some actors prefer to circle phrases.)

King: I know not whether God will have it so // (4)

For some displeasing service // I have done; (5)

That, in his secret doom, out of my blood // (6)

He’ll breed revengement // and a scourge for me; (7)

But thou dost // in thy passages of life // (8)

Make me believe // that thou art only marked // (9)

For the hot vengeance // and the rod of heaven // (10)

To punish my misreadings. Tell me else, (etc.) (11)

Why bother to mark the phrases? Your goal is to know the phrasing of the line so that you can (1) separate the thoughts, (2) play one phrase against another, (3) allow a thought to continue to the next line, as needed, and (4) identify your breathing spots, just like singing.

The caesuras are inserted only to mark the phrasing for rehearsal purposes. Once your phrasing is clear, remove most of the pauses, and speak from breathing point to breathing point. You don’t want to impose pauses similar to those in realistic dialogue on the rhythm of blank verse. That technique simply makes your acting indulgent. Use non-breathing-point pauses only when they are absolutely necessary for clarity.

Take fifteen minutes, and circle or mark the phrases in your material. You should already have looked up all words, marked the scansion and circled the words that break the rhythm. Pause here before you continue to “antithesis.”

END MORNING SESSION: LUNCH TIME

You have deserved

High commendation, true applause, and love.

AS YOU LIKE IT, I, ii

*All Shakespeare quotations are taken from The Complete Pelican Shakespeare, Viking Penguin, 1977.