Rehearsal
Shakespeare Out Loud Teachers - My cuts, what I call vacuuming, are what one might find in almost all professional productions! I cut deeper on R&J and Much Ado, than others, but they both seem rather perfect for younger grades and productions. I would professionally mount all of them exactly as vacuumed, at about 70%. As I scan the internet to see how others, currently and digitally, approach Shakespeare, I am disappointed to find yet more programs of essays, tests and bite-sized chunks designed to fill class hours with opinions rather than practice. Actors express what they know through their performances and not their powers of pontification! If you teachers actually want your students to learn something of value about Shakespeare, they will need to orally perform his words, experiencing the thoughts and feelings that give birth to them. Just talking about plays is boring and why most kids hate Shakespeare! Don’t talk about the flashy sports car, let them drive it!
As well as my seasons at Stratford, I did my 10,000 hours as a private, mainly Shakespearean, coach, preparing many hundreds of actors for their auditions. My language comes from observing human beings, how they think and what causes them to feel, language you might hear in a professional rehearsal room. Stuff happens, words are spoken, and we think. Thoughts are spawned from other thoughts. When they can’t resolve themselves, we often experience physiological responses, call emotions. Thought first, then emotions, not the other way around. If the thoughts are clear, having sprung from the text, the emotions will appear truthful. Good acting can be exacting or intuitive; there are no real rules, except trying to create a mirror up to nature. So, dig in the words first; find out what they mean. Don’t just decide on emotional products, go through the process of thinking why the words are chosen. Remember that emotions can be as varied of thoughts, from which they have sprung. Telling an actor to have more energy, more emotion, for instance, immediately brands you as an amateur. You are demanding a product without understanding the process. And humans do not try to spend more energy, they try to spend less.
To help develop rich thinking at Stratford, Robin always had a huge dictionary on some table. We were always re-examining words. What we learned would spawn new thoughts and even new emotions. It was all in the words! As actors and characters, we were always listening intently for subtle changes of thoughts from our fellow players. You don’t have to be doing stuff to be an actor, but you do have to be thinking.
Less is more - such nonsense. When we have a deep problem we often become still to spend all our energies towards solving the inner conflict. We don’t move, we just think. So that still actor who becomes riveting gains our respect not by doing less but by experiencing more thought, and likely deeper emotions. He/she does not want to move, sometimes can’t! Audience actually love to watch actors just think, at least the intelligent ones do. We spend our lives observing others think; that is how we survive and prosper! Acting cliches like less is more are practically always wrong! Become a better acting teacher by observing yourself more closely.
So, my intention in creating this series was to encourage young people to practice the 12 vacuumed plays of Shakespeare Out Loud, to experience Shakespeare’s extraordinary characters - their words, thoughts and emotions. This practice and refinement of accessible SOL texts, scripts that would be employed in professional productions, teaches the stories clearly, and allows students to experience some of the most creative dramatic language ever written. SOL thought-verse is constructed as characters think, with no capitals beginning each line and long connected thoughts allowed to go right across the page. At first glance it will be confusing because it is so easy to understand. Why no one else has tried it before now confuses me. Shakespeare - the actual words spoken out loud, does not have to be painful! It needs vacuuming, re-shaping and intelligent noting. I have done 12; there is still 25 to go!
A significant portion of each class should be oral, not just listening to the teacher, but the students, orally playing and refining the text out loud. They cannot do this with unabridged texts. They will also not fully understand even brilliant unabridged readings by professionals. Do you? Sometimes the text is just too dense. Also, rambling on about the complicated parts does not make one a successful teacher of Shakespeare, nor does filling their iPads with blinking vocabulary and plot updates. If you have to judge/grade your students do it with your ears. It will take effort to produce good readings. Judge them on improvement, and if you hear them using antithesis freely in the halls, give Shakespeare and yourself, a pat on the back!
SOL provides texts of both clarity and complexity; there is nothing dumb about them! You can get your class to produce a recording of an SOL script. It will be challenging, but all your little victories might just add up to something quite satisfying for all. Get your tech-kid to record and assemble the play, or good bits, for posterity. Also, perhaps find yourself a stage manager and assistant director in your group - they can be wonderful organizers, with scripts and schedules and such. The Stage manager might also make a sturdy prompt book where good ideas may be recorded. SMs are also, usually, text-police, making sure everyone sticks to the exact words! You will be directing your actors; a respected AD can assist others rehearsing at the same time. If your goal of recording some scenes, or the play, is accepted, everyone should have some role! If you are doing R&J, parts as large as Juliet and Romeo might have to be split up several times. Think all the casting and scheduling through carefully; get your crew to help you. DELEGATE!
Of the hundreds of boomers I have asked about Shakespeare over the years, all of the fond memories were of teachers who could either act, or got the kids acting Shakespeare. This is not debatable. Like good directors, you teachers need to not only motivate, but organize like demons. Nowadays, kids can practice online, for heaven’s sake. Give everyone a goal. In my 30 odd years in the theatre there was always a goal, an opening night! Give your kids one!
Any age can do the Dream and Much Ado, and R&J. All three of those have detailed acting-guides as well, with hundreds of actor-suggestions. Twelfth Night is rather perfect for 11s and 12s, as are the tragedies, and indeed all the plays The texts are also ideal for any productions. In class, assign readings early and regularly so students have time to practice. Cast creatively. As an example, and as suggested in the guide, cast your smallest student as Sampson, in R&J. It is quite hilarious that way. Casting is a director’s most important task; try to serve the play. It is all here on this website, you just need to do some reading, learn some new language, take some chances and work really hard. SOL is always highly interactive instruction. If you are good at this you will learn to speak to one actor, and the whole class, at the same time, because you have ideas about what good acting is. You just need to read the play carefully, and the notes. Rhythm can’t help you, so get used to talking about the thoughts that might create the words. Those answers will provide the vocal colours and perhaps the emotions behind them. The guides are packed and likely unlike anything read to-date.
While I am aware of the powers of modern tablets, I believe that providing paper scripts, so the young actors may jot down, and remember, their notes, helps them build clear and nuanced oral performances. A spiral backbone makes them durable as well, and easily held in one hand, sometimes a good prop. They are not electronic devises and therefore cannot distract young minds. They cannot be broken. They help introduce pencils back to young people, ones with good erasures. When used, practiced with, drawn upon with notes jotted down, scripts become treasured possessions. There are big spaces at the ends of scenes in them, awaiting creativity. They are not for the cloud but for a backpack, a bus-ride, anywhere. Here is my old back cover. “Hey, Julie, let’s try Act 1, Scene 2.” The practicality of these scripts makes a substantial difference to the process. The effort you, or I, must put in is well worth it! You can also get a Printer to produce them, with any cover you want, even colour-coded for your cast/class. Just send me any profit! Make them spiral and durable, and have a supply of pencils. I have never prepared a part any other way. The paper script allows one to think, craft, and most importantly, play! If they never use pens on them, they can be erased and re-used next year. If the kids want to keep them, all the better. If you do print texts, I would include useful resources like insults and compliments, fun warm-ups for any class. While I am sure the tablet can work, too much added literary information on the device distracts from the oral purpose of the scripts. I can name very few figures of speech but you will certainly find me using them all adroitly on my speeches page. I have a thorough list of them, but never think of them while acting. I think the thoughts of the characters! I created this series to be orally performed, not regurgitated. Sure, the kids need to learn the story; more importantly they need to play it! Anyway, the texts work best if the students only use pencils. As a professional actor I would write in my text until the note had become obvious, then erase it. By opening night my text would be clear of pencil, just like first rehearsal. Then I would start again with what I learned from performances. Good actors never stop working on a part while audiences keep arriving. One can always improve a performance!
So, at first, concentrate on why characters say what they do, why they choose each w0rd. You’ll need to read the play carefully first and have some background knowledge as well, but from day one you will be working with your ears and your students’ minds and voices. As your cast reads, then plays, keep refining and orally practicing the thoughts that cause the words, and as their performances mature, the plays will teach themselves. I, personally, give and take reading assignments, interchanging students on the fly, searching for the best casting in the room, letting lots of kids try a troublesome, or fun, section. I encourage the high notes in their voices, the notes of wonder and delight. Productions will block themselves through oral understanding and practice: the feet are easy to organize when the minds are clear.
Also, accept that rhythm is a literary concept rarely discussed and never stressed in professional rehearsals. The English language is built on stressed and unstressed syllables. So what? Iambic pentameter verse mostly allows more ink to be printed on expensive French paper. Besides, skilled actors make their text sound like heightened and invented everyday speech. Maggie Smith certainly did. That is why I formatted the words of Shakespeare not in prose or verse, but in thoughts; and why students and actors play them so readily and naturally. The best verse-speaker that I ever worked with, Nicholas Pennell, told us, “When meeting new verse, write it around the walls of a room using no capitals and no punctuation. Find out what the words mean first!” Once the words are clear, you will want to give your scenes geographies, that make sense with the text - more company-thinking. Robin was a brilliant storyteller. That is actually how you begin your staging, thinking at a table, about the words and the world you are all building. Blocking immediately, is one of the surest signs of a dreadful amateur! Don’t get them on their feet with empty brains; that is what recess is for!
Also, my synopses are all the best, the most accurate, that you will find anywhere. I challenge anyone, except AI, to better any of them. If your kids have questions, the synopsis will likely answer them. I apologize for the bragging, but I have searched some dreadful synopses over time. This teaching of Shakespeare is another big business of nonsense. If you are not creating oral performances of these plays, you are merely filling time with distraction, and the kids hate that. Give them these SOL versions - helping a lot with casting and scheduling - and you give them a doable challenge! That is their test, and how you grade them. Shakespeare will teach them a TON along the way. If you can get an audio recording out of their labours I would love to hear it!
Shall I be honest?
As a long-time professional actor I was blessed with several world class teachers and many world class fellow-actors. I am the only actor who performed with Maggie Smith in all 5 Shakespearean productions directed by the great Robin Phillips at Stratford, Ontario, from 1978 to 1981. I also played Edgar in Peter Ustinov’s King Lear in 1980 and 1981. I was just one actor in a stunning, mainly Canadian, company! All Shakespearean productions were abridged; many were judged world-class. I learned by listening to, and watching, and playing with, the best.
By vacuuming Shakespeare, which happens in all professional productions and films, then formatting what is left as thoughts, the text becomes quickly comprehensible and playable. Young people are less likely to become frustrated by archaic and repetitive vocabulary, or flummoxed by capitals that begin each line of verse, but do not necessarily start sentences. Those capitals confuse almost all young people. Besides, who cares how it is punctuated on a page? SOL encourages young actors to be clear from a stage! In professional theatre no one cares about your opinions, just your performance!
I also contend that weighing down teenagers with too much of what you supposedly know about Elizabethan history and Shakespeare is a waste of time, and can seem like bullying. My resources are filled with information; get your students to read them to you! They can also ask AI anything they like. AI already has a detailed opinion of Shakespeare Out Loud, indeed openly encourages me. Shakespeare wrote stories. He ran a company and never hired a critic, only actors.
Now, if you, as a teacher, lack the confidence to direct readings, I’ll wager that there are students in your class who’d like to try. I have worked with several truly world class directors and they have all been great listeners. They’d listen for, and shape, thought from their actors. They would ask great questions like, “Why did your character choose that word?” They would initially direct just with their ears. Robin Phillips would use at least 1/2 of rehearsal time, sometimes as much as 4 out of 8 weeks, sitting around a table. We stood up when the text made complete sense, when we understood exactly what we were saying and hearing. Sitting for so long, I never heard Maggie Smith, or anybody, complain. By the time we were on our feet our minds were packed with connected thoughts, especially about words - a world to play our play.
You want to be loved and remembered as a teacher of Shakespeare? These texts are legitimate tools; your job is to cast the strengths of your students, demand regular readings and schedule brilliantly. If you have a good class they will teach each other as they grow a performance. I have profited from remarkable peer groups. Don’t let anyone stay silent, and encourage all attempts, especially for students terrified of speaking publicly. Everyone must make sound. Everyone will get better through PRACTICE and encouragement.
You must also learn to demand silence when students are reading or playing aloud. This is essential. We can only hear thought in silence, and silence is how we respect our fellow actors. INSIST ON SILENCE! Robin wouldn’t even let us laugh if we were waiting in the audience for our scene, even if what we were watching was hilarious. Rehearsal was for truths, not guffaws. While working your way though a scene, the class will experience outbursts of delight, and that is great. You must then discipline them to not waste time letting it go on too long. The purpose is to read the play out loud. It is hard to balance the work and the joy. Keep your standards high. Done well, a class of SOL will leave you exhilarated and exhausted. Silence is your first, most important, rule! Making them be exact with the text is the next, and NOT debatable. Shakespeare will take care of the rest.
EVERYTHING that you need as a teacher of Shakespeare is on this site. Read the SOL versions; they work. Then, read them out loud. They work even better! Then play them 0ut loud! If you are still unclear about certain passages, listen to my audio-plays. Read my guides that are packed with hundreds of acting notes. Work hard! Then get used to being that cherished teacher who was so good at bringing Shakespeare to life! Such are remembered through lives, but always for their powers of play.
Dromio from Two Gents, is mistaken for his long-lost identical twin. This speech is certainly far, far to politically incorrect to be included in a Vancouver production, but it is a hoot to play on its own. Will wrote lots of questionable passages! Just choose the right challenges for your kids, then encourage them to practice bits, scenes, speeches, or the resources found on this website. I have created several shows from this material. There is no website like it.
When doing one of the plays, work hard, prepare diligently, if you are unsure listen to my recordings, have a clear goal of an oral performance. Sometimes read aloud as a cast, sometimes, scatter students about the room in scene-groups to practice by themselves, perhaps swap roles, exchange ideas. Let no students remain silent.
Use all your skills, and all those of your students, and if you can actually sell this idea of Shakespeare Out Loud, to everyone, practice is your path to success! Work hard so everyone plays easily.
And, once again, if you can, every cast/class member needs a paper copy of the script. I suppose many could print their own, but everyone needs the same words! The scripts are where their performances begin, and then mature.
I have worked many years creating all this. Your turn.
Rodger Barton