Teaching Shakespeare Oral Communication Skills

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Silence & Time

Coloring- the ability to vocalize a richly imagined text

Fresh-Minting- the ability to make the words seem invented like everyday speech

Good actors invent or discover their language as we do in real life. Iambic pentameter verse looks like a repetitive poem and usually causes students to sound predictable. The thought-verse formatting of Shakespeare Out Loud encourages fresh-minting because line lengths are now determined by the connectivity of the thoughts not a repeating rhythm.

Encourage students to invent their language, choose their words and communicate in the same spirit of unbridled creativity in which Shakespeare wrote. That is, after all, what people do in real life - improvise as they go along and build on what they have just said or thought.

This fresh-minting of language which is so valuable in bringing Shakespeare's characters to life is also a very valuable technique in holding an audience's attention on any subject. Re-living and re-coining events and thought processes is much more interesting than just stating facts.

Stressing and Coloring Antithesis

Shakespeare had an antithetical mind. His most basic story is that we are all born into this beautiful world and someday we all must die. He regarded life and nature as complex and he constantly opposed, or at least compared, thoughts, ideas, emotions and actions: e.g. To be or not to be. Much clarity can be gained reading Shakespeare aloud by identifying, stressing and coloring the antithesis found in Shakespeare's texts.

Antithesis is at the heart of most humor. Comparison is at the heart of most argument. Orally
practising the antithesis and comparison found in Shakespeare's plays develops humorous oral communicators with good debating skills.

High Notes in Actors' Voices

Society encourages us all to use the low notes in our everyday speech so we may sound authoritative, as though we know what we are talking about. In the plays of Shakespeare, characters are constantly surprised, or delighted, or filled with wonder about their thoughts or revelations. Many of these thoughts are best related through the upper notes of the voice. When I have difficulty getting a young actor or student to contemplate how new or extraordinary a thought or word may be, I simply ask him to put that word on a higher note, and the newness of the thought becomes clear.

Our media, so focused on sports and combat in general, is creating male heroes who use only low notes to communicate. The nightly TV hockey player clips for instance are always on the low notes and usually regurgitated cliches. New thoughts and new ideas (real leadership) require high notes in the voice. Pierre Elliot Trudeau used them constantly as do most world class actresses like Maggie Smith. Surprise, delight, wonder, a good punch line and inventiveness of many kinds best reveal themselves through high notes in our voices. Convincing young males to utilize their high notes and think the associated thoughts is a major challenge today when teaching oral communication skills.

The Emotion of Wonder

Emotions are physiological responses to thoughts; my experience has been, the clearer the thought, the deeper the emotion. Shakespeare's language is often so surprising, or perfect, or contrary, or colorful, characters can't help but experience the emotion of wonder as they invent it or listen to it. I often imagine Shakespeare himself, experiencing wonder at his own invention.

Direct with Your Ears

Since so much of modern entertainment is visual, young actors will want to stand up and gesture before they know what they are saying. Don't let them. Getting actors "on their feet" is vastly overrated. Keeping them seated and focused on the power and beauty they can create just with their voices and minds can be truly thrilling. The skills of becoming orally persuasive and accurate that reading Shakespeare Out Loud will teach them, will prove far more valuable than cliched Shakespearean posturing.

What do Teachers Need?

Scripts:  An open layout with a foldable spine like the Shakespeare Out Loud series, that allows students to read the words while holding the script in one hand, is very helpful.

Pencils: Professional actors always use pencils when writing in their scripts - never, ever pens. Notes are taken learned and then erased. My scripts are clean by opening night although they may have been written over many times in rehearsal. When teachers give notes, students should jot them down so as to be practised and remembered for the next reading.

That is how a performance is built - writing, practising, remembering and then erasing notes. Extra pencils should always be available. For schools where the texts will be used over and over again, a public hanging is a suitable punishment for anyone found writing in pen.

What do Teachers Need to do?

Listen and suggest. The process of teaching Shakespeare Out Loud or oral communication of any kind involves listening, giving suggestions and then listening some more.

Always let the students read a scene aloud before working on it. If it is a new scene, basic information will be gathered. If the scene is being revisited, teachers will learn what the students have thought up on their own. Jot down ideas as the scene is read. Many teachers new to this process either don't trust what they hear, don't want to be critical, or believe they will remember ideas without writing them down. Eventually note-taking becomes automatic, concise and unobtrusive. Don't trust your memory or try to be polite; you might forget your best idea.

As the play is read, worked and re-read, understanding is gained and skills are acquired. Working the scene (stopping-and-starting) is the teacher's most creative time. If teachers encourage coloring, fresh-minting, the high notes in the voice, and the stressing of antithesis and verbs, all should go well. Some students like suggestions and try them readily, others might ponder a bit before attempting them. Every student/actor will be different.

Demand silence, encourage thought, listen carefully, suggest kindly and enjoy.

A Word About Speed

Use All Talents