Description
Book SynopsisIn this inspirational new manual, Andy Hinds shares what he has learnt over thirty years of teaching the speaking and acting of Shakespeare’s texts. In simple steps he brings the reader to a full understanding of how Shakespeare’s language ‘works’, lucidly outlines a number of practical guidelines, and provides simple, test-proven exercises to put each guideline into practice.
Key points include: Acting Solo Speeches Pronunciation Imagery and imagistic language Acting Shakespeare’s Verse Acting Shakespeare’s Prose Breathing The essential guide for all actors, students, teachers or directors tackling Shakespeare’s plays or speeches and wishing to release the full dramatic power of his words.
Trade ReviewIt is to this book's enormous credit that it focuses in depth on the nuts and bolts of getting lips and heads around the intricacies of verse-speaking without either shirking the difficulties or becoming stilted and dull... I wish I'd had this book when I was acting - I'm delighted to have encountered it as a teacher. * Teaching Drama *
Even highly experienced and knowledgeable readers will encounter new ideas or practices throughout the entirety of the book... a major practical tool for actors, directors, students, teachers and Shakespeare aficionados... this book could be considered a primary source of knowledge and practice in Shakespearean performance. Highly recommended. * Marc Silberschatz, Scottish Journal of Performance *
Andy Hinds offers a rich and detailed path towards a precise contact with the challenge of speaking and inhabiting Shakespeare's language. This book is an immensely useful resource for anyone teaching, speaking and acting Shakespeare. * Ralph Fiennes *
Brilliantly practical and precise in exploring the ways students/actors (young and old) can get to grips with the extraordinary language of Shakespeare in a real way. * Ciaran Hinds, Actor *
The complete "Acting Shakespeare" toolkit. Ideal for any actor or student preparing speeches for auditions. * Joely Richardson, Actor *
"Acting Shakespeare's Language" is having your own personal acting coach at your fingertips. This book is an essential. * Kenneth Noel Mitchell, Tisch School of the Arts at NYU *
This is an immensely useful book. * Geoff Bullen, Associate Director at RADA *
Ideal for lone study, for coaching one to one,or teaching in a class or group. * Colm Hefferon, Lecturer in Drama Education at Dublin City University *
Especially interesting on the shifts in language in Shakespeare's plays and what they signify...an accessible, thorough book * Susan Elkin, The Stage *
Table of ContentsContents: SECTION ONE: THE FOUNDATION - FEEDING OFF THE ENVIRONMENT 1 - Introduction 2 - When you speak - 'ask', 'explain' or 'command'. 3 - Objectives - Understand the objective of speech or utterance - Act with practical purpose. 4 - Addressees - Open fresh line of communication each time the addressee changes. 5 - Outward Visual Connection - Eyes at all times outwardly and actively connected. 6 - Action Not Feeling - 'yin' and' yang' - achieving the balance. 7 - Realize, Discover, See the light. 8 - Being in the moment - Thinking on the line; the thought is the line; the line is the thought. 9 - Standing over one's utterances - 'Containing' the accumulated energy. 10 - Asides - different types of Asides and how to play them. 11 - Transitions - how to make transitions within a speech. SECTION TWO: WHAT THE VERSE, POETRY AND RHETORIC OFFERS YOU AND ASKS OF YOU 1 - The Iambic Pentameter - What is it? 2 - Making it sound 'natural' - How would you instinctively say it?... How honouring and working the verse makes it sound 'natural'. 3 - Finding the beats - 'Skidding over the beats'... 'Missing the beats'... 'Over emphasising the beats'. 4 - 'Reciting' - When 'honouring' the verse takes over from clear communication. 5 - Being in the active, creative present of the line. 6 - Don't 'sign off' - How not to throw away the energy one has built up during a speech or line. 7 - 'No subtext' - Committing to the surface meaning of the line. 8 - Imagery - Making the concrete surface of the image clear. 9 - Personifications - Speak to the 'personification' as if it is alive and human. 10 - Oppositions - Give appropriate pointing to the 'a's' and the 'b's'. 11 - Parentheses - Separating the 'spine of sentence' from the 'parentheses'. 12 - Adjectives and Adverbs - Making them 'necessary'. 13 - Caesurae - What is a 'caesura'? Identifying it, and using it to advantage. 14 - Rhetorical 'lists'. SECTION THREE: SOLILOQUIES AND 'BIG SPEECHES' All that has gone before will apply to soliloquies - usually more so. But there are specific considerations. 1 - 'Objectives' - Feeding off and talking to the imagined environment, the audience, the universe. 2 - 'Who am I talking to?' - Identifying and addressing oneself to the most useful of the possible addresses. 3 - 'Eyes' - Where do I Iook? 4 - 'Signing off' - Containing and not throwing away the energy at the end of the speech. 5 - 'Soliloquy as primarily a process of enlightment' - Identifying the different place the character has arrived at by the end. 6 - 'Transitions' - identifying and playing the transitions within the speech for to achieve clarity and the building of energy. 7 - 'Building' the speech.
