Clues to Acting Shakespeare (3rd ed) Read online

  Praise for Clues to Acting Shakespeare

  “A workhorse of a book! Beautifully conceived and executed. Clues to Acting Shakespeare is a no-brainer purchase for acting collections in all libraries.”

  —Library Journal

  “The accessibility of Van Tassel’s text is testimony to the absolute clarity of the book’s structure and language, and the fact that he spent many years doing Shakespeare before writing about it.”

  —Tacoma, Washington, The News Tribune

  “Van Tassel lists and examines ten basic skills required for playing Shakespeare, and clearly defines terms for the actor.”

  —American Theatre

  “When concerned with performing Shakespeare for the 21st Century stage, see Wesley Van Tassel’s superbly professional Clues to Acting Shakespeare.”

  —The Baltimore Sun

  “The scope and quality of this book boggle the mind! It will be an excellent addition to the field.”

  —Sandy Robbins, Head, Professional Theatre Training Program, University of Delaware

  “Clues to Acting Shakespeare, published by Allworth Press, is outstanding. It will provide you with all the answers and examples you’ll need in a training program for some time to come.”

  —Bruce Miller, Head, Actor Training Program, University of Miami

  “Van Tassel pinpoints the difficulties actors and directors have with Shakespeare and is clear and precise in specifying how these difficulties may be overcome. This is a splendid and enlightening book.”

  —Tim Harris, Drama Faculty of International Studies, Ueno Gakuen University, Japan

  “Shakespeare has to be fun and accessible in order for kids to engage in the text, and Clues to Acting Shakespeare has exercises for breathing, scansion, and phrasing that are indispensable in making this happen.”

  —Laurie Kash, Secondary English and Drama, Oregon

  “Clues to Acting Shakespeare will be an invaluable tool for my advanced drama classes.”

  —Clint Pozzi, Secondary English and Drama, Seattle

  Copyright © 2018 by Wesley Van Tassel

  All rights reserved. Copyright under Berne Copyright Convention, Universal Copyright Convention, and Pan American Copyright Convention. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Allworth Press, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

  Allworth Press books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Allworth Press, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or [email protected].

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  Published by Allworth Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018. Allworth Press® is a registered trademark of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.®, a Delaware corporation.

  www.allworth.com

  Cover design by Mary Ann Smith

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

  Print ISBN: 978-1-62153-662-8

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-62153-663-5

  Printed in the United States of America

  In America, the struggle for media success often reduces the art of acting to the act of marketing.

  “Nothing will come of nothing . . . ,”

  Lear observes suspiciously.

  Playing Shakespeare has nothing to do with marketing and everything to do with the art of acting.

  FOR DUDE

  who is so very good at this!

  THIS BOOK HAS SIX PARTS:

  1. For Actors in Training: Acting Shakespeare

  Part one is designed for college classes or independent workshops and includes a complete study of ten basic skills required to play Shakespeare’s language truthfully. This section is designed for a training period of twenty to thirty weeks meeting four to eight hours per week. Actors may also use this material to self-teach.

  2. A Demonstration of Teaching and Learning Skills

  Part two is the diary of a workshop in which the author teaches the skills. A group of ten actors participate in the forty-hour, twenty-session workshop. Their questions are included, along with the author’s teaching strategy.

  3. For Community Theatre Actors and Directors

  Part three is a diary of the author teaching eight of the skills to community theatre actors. Five workshops are offered as pre-rehearsal training for work on a community theatre Shakespearean production.

  4. For Secondary Schools and Reading Shakespeare Aloud

  In part four, some of the skills from part one are condensed for high school English or drama teachers and their students and are also useful for reading groups.

  5. For Professional Actors and Coaches: The One-Day Brush Up

  For the actor preparing an audition or a role—or the coach or director brushing up—part five is a quick review of four essential skills.

  6. Resources

  A collection of exercises, an annotated list of selected successful and not-so-successful film and video performances, a bibliography of some excellent books, a glossary of terms, and the index.

  Bait the hook well! This fish will bite.

  MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, II, iii

  Contents

  Preface to the Third Edition

  Preface to the Second Edition

  Introduction

  Part One: For Actors in Training: Acting Shakespeare

  Chapter 1: Common Understandings

  Emphasis in Actor Training

  The Realistic Actor

  The Classical Actor

  The Film Actor

  Are These Skills Difficult to Learn?

  Know Thyself

  Identifying Common Mistakes

  The Big “Character” Mistake

  What Goes Wrong?

  Why the British Seem Better at This

  Two Approaches to Training

  Better Training

  What Are the Special Skills?

  What About Meaning?

  What If These Skills Are Too Difficult?

  To Summarize

  Chapter 2: The Basic Skill Set for Working with Heightened Language

  Ten Basic Skills

  Required Text

  What is Blank Verse?

  What is a Regular Blank Verse Line?

  What Are Feminine Endings and Elision?

  What is a Short or Shared Line?

  What is a Rhymed Couplet?

  What Are Scansion and Stresses?

  How Do I Select the Breathing Points?

  What is a Caesura?

  Text Study Seems Academic: Does It Matter?

  Chapter 3: Scansion, Phrasing, and Caesura

  Scansion

  Phrasing

  The Caesura

  Chapter 4: Support the Line and Thought

  Kick That Box!

  Exercises for Kicking the Box

  More Values from Kicking the Box

  Supporting Realistic Dialogue

  Chapter 5: Practice the Breathing Skill

  You’ve Got to Breathe!

  Chapter 6: Practice the Speaking Skill

  Say What You Think When You Think It

  Working with Subtext

  Achieve Your Objective

  Chapter 7: Working with Structure and Rhythm

  Speech Structure

&
nbsp; Breaking the Rhythm

  Chapter 8: Practice Identifying Antithesis

  Antithesis: The Actor’s Friend

  Chapter 9: Text Analysis

  Chapter 10: Love the Imagery

  Part Two: A Demonstration of Teaching and Learning Skills

  Chapter 11: Session One

  Procedure

  Selecting monologues and sonnets

  The OED Questions and answers

  Subtext

  Verse or realism

  Shakespeare’s limited appeal

  Rhythm of blank verse

  Chapter 12: Session Two

  Blank verse structure

  Creating blank verse

  Irregular feet

  Scansion

  Elision

  Feminine endings

  Trochees

  Selecting monologues

  Chapter 13: Session Three

  End of line support

  Caesuras

  Use the diaphragm

  Kick the box

  Chapter 14: Session Four

  Review

  Using the skills in realism

  Lines that are questions

  Phrasing

  Phrases within phrases

  Punctuation marks

  Next assignment

  Selecting sonnets

  Scanning difficult lines

  Short lines

  More on the OED

  Chapter 15: Session Five

  Breathing

  Lowering the voice

  More scanning of difficult lines

  First breathing exercise

  Chapter 16: Session Six

  Breathing work

  Second breathing exercise

  Third breathing exercise

  Chapter 17: Session Seven

  Circling phrases

  Phrasing exercise

  Impulse to speak

  Supporting the end of the phrase

  Combining breathing and phrasing exercises

  Questions on “character”

  Combining more skills

  Subtext

  Playing what the role requires

  Subtext exercise

  Imposing “attitudes”

  Chapter 18: Session Eight

  Review of skills

  First application of skills to monologues

  Technique for giving notes

  Exposing weaknesses

  Problems from realistic actor training

  Chapter 19: Session Nine

  Checking more monologues for skills

  Descriptive words

  More on OED

  Enhancing the verbs

  Acting difficult or unclear words

  Structure of a sonnet

  Structure of a monologue

  Breaking the meter, trochees

  Chapter 20: Session Ten

  Antithesis

  Chapter 21: Session Eleven

  Running the monologues

  Checking word definitions

  Transitions

  Breaking the “attitude” habit

  Chapter 22: Session Twelve

  Listening to ourselves

  Questions about the plays

  Summary list of skills

  Short lines

  Text analysis

  Checking scholarly sources

  “Natural talent”

  Chapter 23: Session Thirteen

  Running the monologues

  Applying structure and text analysis

  Chapter 24: Session Fourteen

  Imagery

  Imagery exercise

  Chapter 25: Session Fifteen

  Imagery exercises

  Chapter 26: Session Sixteen

  Imagery exercise

  Falling behind

  Actor questions

  Finding the images in text

  Intentions and actions

  Active and passive choices

  Chapter 27: Session Seventeen

  Character

  The actor’s job

  Being specific

  Defining character intentions

  More enhancing verbs

  Active intentions

  Using the skills unconsciously

  More listening to ourselves

  Becoming natural

  Chapter 28: Session Eighteen

  Knowing your character

  Character questions

  More listening to ourselves

  Physicalization

  Chapter 29: Session Nineteen

  Achieving your intention

  Loving your words

  Adding a monologue partner

  Blocking suggestions

  Actor reactions to partners

  Rhetorical questions

  Prepare for performance

  Chapter 30: Session Twenty—The Final Session

  Performance

  Summary

  Actor comments about the workshop

  Part Three: For Community Theatre Actors and Directors

  Chapter 31: Working with Amateur Actors and Session One

  What is blank verse?

  Scansion of regular and irregular lines

  Feminine endings

  Walking the rhythm

  Beating out the rhythm

  Reading lines incorrectly

  Caesura

  End-of-line support: kicking the box

  Scansion practice

  Chapter 32: Session Two

  Applying first skills

  Working hard lines

  Oxford English Dictionary (OED)

  Punctuation

  Breathing

  Breathing exercises

  Chapter 33: Session Three

  Breathing and phrasing

  Marking phrases

  Chair exercises

  Memorization

  Caesuras

  Back-to-back hearing exercises

  Antithesis

  Chapter 34: Session Four

  Applying the skills

  Running the rehearsal speeches

  Listening and giving notes

  Preparing for transition

  Chapter 35: Session Five—The Last Session

  Transition day

  Working speeches with all skills

  Running speeches without concentration on skills

  Pronouns

  The right voice

  Lowering the voice

  Nervousness

  Final evaluations

  Actors’ comments

  Coach’s Notes

  Part Four: For Secondary Schools and Reading Shakespeare Aloud

  Chapter 36: Reading Shakespeare Aloud

  Preparation

  Four Simple Skills

  More Advanced Study

  Chapter 37: Worksheets

  Skill Worksheet 1: Support the Final Word of Each Line (“Kick the Box”)

  Skill Worksheet 2: Scansion—Emphasize the Stressed Words or Syllables

  Skill Worksheet 3: Phrasing—Separate the Thoughts

  Skill Worksheet 4: Breathe Only at the Punctuation Marks

  More Advanced Study Worksheets

  Skill Worksheet 5: Antithesis

  Skill Worksheet 6: Elision

  Chapter 38: Scenes and Monologues

  Part Five: For Professional Actors and Coaches: The One-Day Brush Up

  Chapter 39: The Morning Session

  Early Character Choices

  Four Basic Skills

  First New Skill: Scansion

  First Usual Problem: Scansion is Irregular

  Second Usual Problem: Too Many Syllables

  Second New Skill: Break It Up

  Chapter 40: The Afternoon Session

  Antithesis

  Phrasing Exercise

  Chapter 41: The Evening Session

  Third New Skill: Kick the Box

  The Kick-Box Exercise

  Revisiting a Familiar Skill: Breathe!

  Character

  Part Six: Resources

  Chapter 42: More Exercises
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  Chapter 43: Bibliography

  Selected Video and Film Performances

  Books for Further Study

  Books on Acting Shakespeare

  Books on Acting Realism

  Chapter 44: Glossary of Terms

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Index

  I will arm me, being thus forewarned.

  HENRY THE SIXTH, PART 3, IV, i

  Preface to the Third Edition

  Ten years after the second edition was published, ideas to make the book more useful led to this third edition. The entire second edition was retained, except for corrections and revising. But I realized that techniques for training community theatre actors had been omitted from the second edition. This third edition corrects that omission.

  The skills required to speak Shakespeare’s language don’t change, but the theatres and actors who need these skills are changing and the need for training is increasing. There are now 7,000+ community theatres in America. Trained actors and directors, including AEA professionals, are participating in these productions and in community college productions. Sometimes they want to do Shakespeare.

  The actors’ union (Actors’ Equity Association or AEA) frowns on this involvement, but all actors, AEA or not, involved in the 1,700 “professional” theatres across America, with many more around the globe, realize that few theatres offer year-round employment and the chance to make a living at acting. Thousands of actors seek the very few available full-time jobs, and even the lucky ones usually settle for “jobbing in” for a show. At some point, trained actors and directors will take what they call a “real job” but will still wish to participate in their chosen profession.

  My wife, Dude (an AEA member for forty years), and I both urge the actors’ union to create a special waiver for its members to participate as volunteers in community theatre productions, with no fee arrangements, particularly in areas that have no equity theatres nearby. Theatre artists need to participate in their craft. Nobody benefits from the current practice of forcing artists to work undercover.

  Certain events allowed us to address the community theatre need and to produce this third edition. Prior to 2010 we had both retired, Dude from acting and teaching and I from directing and teaching. In 2014, we made the decision to spend our sunset years near our granddaughters, who live in Casper, Wyoming. We sold our home near Seattle and moved to Wyoming. Here, we found three community theatres, one of which was for children, another for a community college (Casper College), and the last for high school drama programs. The nearest professional theatre was a five-hour drive to Denver.

  By attending the local theatre productions, I realized that few of these actors had actor training, and almost none had language training. I also realized that I had never, over the past thirty years, taught any community theatre actors (except high school drama teachers) the skills of reading Shakespeare’s language. I wondered how that experience would differ from teaching acting students or pros.