For professional actors

Chapter 34

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 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

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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, modem 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

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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 1) 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 1 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.

Continues…

A double spirit

Of teaching and of learning instantly.

HENRY VI, PART I, V, ii