On Voice | Episode 1 Performing Shakespearean Verse

Summary

In the first episode of 'On Voice' by Sydney Theatre Company, the focus is on performing Shakespearean verse. The discussion begins by differentiating verse and prose, and explains how one can identify verse by its meter and structure on the page. Key tips are provided, such as reading the last word of each line to uncover the plot and analyzing the meter to understand a character's state of mind. The host emphasizes the importance of looking up unfamiliar words to capture the authentic meaning of the text. Additionally, they encourage embracing the performative nature of Shakespeare's work and suggest finding resources or other performances to better grasp the material. The overall aim is to demystify and enjoy performing Shakespeare by understanding it was written as popular entertainment.

Highlights

• Learn to identify Shakespearean verse by its iambic pentameter and structured format. 📚
• Read the last word of each line for a quick plot outline—discover the juicy bits! 🍇
• Meter reveals emotions: Regular meters imply calm, irregular ones indicate inner chaos. 🎭
• Don’t be afraid to research difficult words to fully understand your lines. 📖
• Explore recorded performances to grasp the flow and emotions intended in Shakespeare's plays. 🎬

Key Takeaways

• Verse vs Prose: Identifying verse through its meter and structure. Easy peasy! 🎶
• Juicy Plot: The last word of each line holds the plot. Yummy! 📖
• Meter Matters: Analyze meter to understand characters' emotions and states. 💓
• Research is Key: Look up unfamiliar words to nail the pronunciation and meaning. 🔍
• Performance First: Shakespeare’s work was made to be enjoyed as performances. Bring it to life! 🎭

Overview

In this engaging episode, the Sydney Theatre Company delves into performing Shakespearean verse with clarity and enthusiasm. The host breaks down the core difference between verse and prose, emphasizing how carefully structured verse can be identified through its meter, like iambic pentameter, and structured outlines on a page. This ancient rhythm is what sets Shakespeare apart, yet can mystify many performers at first glance.

Key pointers are made about appreciating the structure of Shakespeare’s writing, especially by focusing on details such as reading the last words of lines which often unveil the plot twists and key emotions of the characters. Meter is heavily discussed, showcasing how it can signal whether a character is calm or teetering on the edge of chaos through a disrupted rhythmic pattern. To dive deeper, performers are encouraged to look up tricky terms and feel free to seek other interpretations and performances for better insight.

Reiterating Shakespeare as a master who wrote for performance, this episode reassures performers that unlocks the mystery of his verse is less daunting with practice, knowledge, and a playful exploration of language. It’s all about getting comfortable with these historic scripts and embracing their intended role as crowd-pleasing theatrics. The viewer leaves feeling equipped to sprinkle some Shakespearean magic into their performances.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Shakespearean Verse This chapter introduces the concept of Shakespearean verse, focusing on its relevance for classical monologues, particularly in auditions for drama schools. It discusses the fundamental differences between verse and prose, emphasizing the significance of meter in verse.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Identifying Verse and Prose This chapter focuses on distinguishing between verse and prose in English literature. Verse is characterized by its rhythm and structure, such as iambic pentameter which follows a ten-syllable pattern with a specific meter. Typically, verse appears left-justified with a ragged right edge. In contrast, prose lacks such formal structure and meter, flowing in complete sentences that are both left and right justified. The chapter discusses these elements to aid in identifying verse and prose in texts.
• 01:00 - 02:00: Analyzing Line Endings The chapter 'Analyzing Line Endings' focuses on a strategy to understand Shakespeare's works by examining the last word of each line in a monologue or scene. This method is suggested as a way to uncover the plot, as Shakespeare is known for placing significant information and 'juicy' elements there.
• 02:00 - 03:00: Meter and Character Insight The chapter opens with an observation that the words starting each line on the left-hand side of the page often seem uninteresting and mundane, such as basic pronouns and conjunctions like 'it's', 'as', 'when', 'I', 'but', and 'who'. The author emphasizes the importance of focusing on the ends of lines within language, particularly in poetry or dramatic works. They note that in certain accents, like Australian or British, there is a tendency for the ends of sentences to be less pronounced, leading to potential loss of impact in verbal communication. The chapter likely explores strategies for overcoming this issue, enhancing character delivery and maintaining audience engagement through intentional emphasis on line endings. This involves understanding meter and the natural rhythm of speech to add clarity and interest to the spoken language.
• 03:00 - 04:00: Shakespeare as an Actor The chapter discusses the importance of not dropping intonation at the ends of sentences when performing Shakespeare, as the ending words often carry significant meaning. It emphasizes the need to serve the final words, especially since the right-hand side of the page in Shakespeare's texts often contains key elements. Furthermore, examining these final words can help actors determine if their character is speaking in a regular meter.
• 04:00 - 05:00: Character and Meter Analysis This chapter focuses on analyzing the character and meter, particularly irregular meter in poetry or prose. It uses the example of 'Hamlet' to illustrate the concept, examining a line such as 'to be or not to be.' The chapter explains how to determine if a line is regular, with ten syllables, or irregular, as in eleven syllables.
• 05:00 - 06:00: Looking up Unfamiliar Words The chapter titled 'Looking up Unfamiliar Words' discusses how to identify and understand unfamiliar words within Shakespearean verse. It highlights how the structure of words, such as strong and weak syllable patterns, can provide clues into their pronunciation and meaning. The chapter emphasizes Shakespeare's background as an actor, suggesting that his writing style is deeply connected to his practical experience in performance.
• 06:00 - 07:00: Understanding Plot and Context The chapter 'Understanding Plot and Context' discusses the challenges faced by actors in periods where rehearsal time was limited or non-existent. Actors often received only their lines and cues. Rehearsals were typically rough, involving a quick run-through of scenes, dances, and fights, piecing together elements from different plays such as 'As You Like It' and 'Macbeth'.
• 07:00 - 08:00: Bringing Shakespeare to Life The chapter explores the intense schedule and adaptability required of actors during Shakespearean times. They often performed multiple plays in a single day, like "Julius Caesar" in the afternoon and "Macbeth" in the evening. Shakespeare, being familiar with acting, crafted his plays to aid actors in quickly understanding their roles and scenes, often using the meter to convey character insights.

On Voice | Episode 1 Performing Shakespearean Verse Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 let's talk about how to work with a classical monologue in verse maybe written by someone like ah william shakespeare comes to mind this is often something that comes up for a general audition or an audition for a drama school and let's talk first of all about what is the difference between verse and prose how do you know on the page just a quick look whether you're working with verse or prose verse is uh it's a form of text that has a meter to it so a
• 00:30 - 01:00 rhythm like iambic pentameter remember that term so they dumped a dump dump de dum 10 syllables of iambic pentameter it has that kind of structure all of the way through and the easiest way to spot it is that it will be left justified and then ragged on the right edge whereas prose has no meter to it none of that kind of formal structure and it runs like regular sentences and it will be left and right justified so if you're working with verse hooray much more fun
• 01:00 - 01:30 the first thing i recommend that you do if you want to have any idea what's going on in that particular speech or that particular scene here's my hot tip read down the right hand side of the page read the last word of every line that's where the plot is so if you have a look at a monologue just grab one in front of you right now as we talk together and read the last word of each line so not the last word in the sentence but the last word in each line it's always going to be juicy in shakespeare every single time whereas
• 01:30 - 02:00 if you have a look at the words that start each line on the left hand side of the page boring they tend to be pretty dull it's it as when i but who needs it what we need to do when we're working with this kind of language is make sure that we're supporting the ends of the lines so if you have an australian accent or an english sort of heritage or you've grown up in a country that has the tendency to drop away at the ends of sentences
• 02:00 - 02:30 i said drop away at the ends of sentences then that doesn't work well with shakespeare because if you're looking at the right hand side of the page and we know that that's where the juice is if you're dropping away at the end of the line then we're really not going to hear the best part of this we can't be doing that we have to serve those final words my next tip as you're interrogating those final words on the right hand side of the page that can immediately help you to start to figure out whether your character is speaking with a regular meter or an
• 02:30 - 03:00 irregular meter so if you have a word for example let's think of someone who has quite a lot going on maybe i don't know hamlet so if you're looking at something like to be or not to be all you really need to do is to look at the right hand side of the page and you have a word like question at the end of his first line to be or not to be that is the question you could beat that whole line out to figure out whether it's regular that would be ten syllables or irregular in this case eleven
• 03:00 - 03:30 but if you have a look at that final word of the line question well you wouldn't say question probably it's question so you immediately know wait a minute that's a strong syllable followed by a weak syllable so that's starting to potentially indicate that this might not be a regular line what does that mean well i think one of the really really important things to remember when you're working with shakespearean verse is that shakespeare was an actor we think of him as a writer but he was
• 03:30 - 04:00 an actor working in a time where you had very little time to rehearse if you ever had any kind of rehearsal at all often people just we think often people would just be given their lines with their cues they would kind of have a rough rehearsal where you do okay we'll do this scene and then we might do that dance that we did and as you like it that would be followed by the fight that we did in uh in maybe macbeth and then piece all of that together and
• 04:00 - 04:30 then they kind of get up and do the show and they were running through shows not doing a whole run like we might do with six seven weeks of performances but they might do julius caesar in the afternoon and macbeth in the evening so they're churning through that material actors needed to be able to figure out very quickly what's going on in a scene and in their speeches shakespeare knew this he was an actor himself and he's trying to tell you what is going on with your character through the meter so if you have a character who's really
• 04:30 - 05:00 in control they're calm they've they're collected they've got it all going on then just like a regular heartbeat the meter will be beating away in a fairly predictable way now let's think of someone like oh hamlet who really isn't in the best frame of mind no spoilers he immediately in that speech starts to break up his thoughts they start to run over the edges of lines they start to run from one line into the next
• 05:00 - 05:30 there's chaos in that meter you can see it on the page but more importantly you can feel it when you start to embody that language so to be or not to be that is the quest that's where a regular line would finish but to be or not to be that is the question whether tis nobler in the mind to suff no i'm spilling over again to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous for
• 05:30 - 06:00 fortune i'm spilling over three lines in a row i spill over my allocated dump dump so something's going on with him and if you want to know what you can just read the plot down the right hand side of the page the next thing i implore you to do if you're if you're working with a shakespearean speech or any text of any kind is look up any word you don't know so i can't tell you the number of times i've sat on an audition panel and
• 06:00 - 06:30 someone has done hopefully a really humorous mispronunciation but sometimes you know you're run-of-the-mill mispronunciation and you think okay they're not prepared they don't really care about this audition it's how it feels if you just haven't done that little bit of research to figure out what's going on with your character and to also look up and i'm they're almost guaranteed to be words in shakespeare that you don't know that's okay but you can look it up similarly if you don't know what's happening in the plot or you reach a
• 06:30 - 07:00 part of the speech that feels really difficult to understand it's okay to look for other resources to to perhaps read through notes that somebody else has written about the speech or to watch and hear someone else say the speech for you don't forget this material was never intended to be read not by you 400 years later it was intended to be heard by audiences so if that's the way that you can best access this this type of text to figure
• 07:00 - 07:30 out what's going on go for it do it find that access that you need to start to bring this back to life we can feel really intimidated when we start to work with shakespearean text but it was never intended to be like that it was popular entertainment in its time and remember that shakespeare is an actor who's trying to whisper to you a fellow performer what's going on with your character in that moment all of that information is there for you in the verse so start to pull it apart
• 07:30 - 08:00 put it back together bring it to life and enjoy