Thought-Verse
The plays need cutting - both prose and verse. What is left becomes a visual jumble. I put it all back on the page as the character thinks, with the length of the lines determined by the connectivity of the thoughts and the width of the page. Occasionally, I even kerned (scrunched) letters across the page in the longest of connected thoughts. Sometimes, three short lines, or separate thoughts, are one on top of another. The words are still Shakespeare's; just fewer of them and put on the page as a modern actor might think and phrase them.

As for iambic pentameter verse, it was never mentioned during my 7 years with the Canadian Stratford Festival; Maggie Smith certainly ignored it, as did Peter Ustinov, Martha Henry or Bill Hutt. All actors tried to make their text sound like heightened, everyday speech. Brian Bedford was the best at inventing his text, so he played most of the big leads. A chanter-of-rhythm would not be cast in a second season. So, to help younger actors, I put the words left, back on the page, as they are thought/played by the character/actor. Who cares what it looks like on the page; how is it thought, how does it sound from the stage? The 40 monologues on my speeches page are all examples of me attempting to fresh-mint my text. They are not prose or verse to me, they are just invented, connected thoughts, that often cause a host of emotions and other thoughts. It is called acting; it always changes. It is not recitation, which doesn’t.

The pdfs for the speeches page are often written in verse and thought verse for you to compare. Which form, of the same words, helps you as an actor? Listen to a few. The kids love inventing Shakespeare too! They don’t want to chant him. And, anyone who wants to argue with me about this, you have to support your theories with excellent performance. Blah, blah, blah no longer counts - let me hear it! Do one of my speeches letting rhythm rule you, and we can compare.