Speaking the Speech at GRSF

Gale Childs Daly is one of GRSF’s two full time text coaches.

Shakespearean plays are full of language that is rich with image, metaphor, music and action. It is language that was written to be spoken. The actor’s job is to make that language understandable to the audience, the other characters on stage and to himself. I asked some of the GRSF actors how they approach Shakespearean text and how the words help them create a character. The actors I interviewed are Jonathan Gillard Daly, Tara Flanagan, Chris Sheard, Kate Mazzola, Evan Fuller, Stephanie Lambourn, and David Coral.

Gale: Jon, let’s start with you. You have played many roles at GRSF over the last seven years. What is the first thing you do in approaching a role in a Shakespeare play?

Jon: Actually, the first thing I do is not textual. I try to find the ways the character is different from me and how he is the same. For instance, Richard III is a powerful, dangerous man. His words led me to an emotional connection first–he is very sexual, very dark. I had to explore that side of myself in creating the role. I used the discoveries I made this way as a springboard for my work.

Gale: What do you think is the most important thing you get directly from the language?

Jon: The images. Language leads me to image, image to passion, passion to action. Images inflame my passion as the character–the emotion leads me to certain actions that are specific and fueled. Conjuring the brilliant, deft images Shakespeare gives me puts me in the world of the play. For example, the many nature images in THE TEMPEST helped me, as Prospero, to find a huge power in the language that allowed me to find the size and power of the character.

Gale: Evan what is the first thing you do when you get the part?

Evan: I go out and buy all the editions of the play that I can find. I like the Bevington edition best.
I read the play out loud–I don’t look at the notes–I just let the words tell me the story.

Gale: What is the most important thing you do in analyzing the text?

Evan: I define all the words I don’t know and some that I think I do. I want to know everything I’m saying so I can be specific and help the audience understand the play.

Gale: David, you’ve told me you approach the play through music. How does that work?

David: I scan the scenes for rhythm. I look for the stressed words, the notes, if you will, and figure out the melody of the speech. I underline the words that are important to the meaning and they tell me a lot about the character–what his point of view is–what he says and how he says it. It comes down to singing the music so that I communicate in a truthful way with the audience, the other characters on stage and with myself.

Gale: Stephanie, you also mentioned music. How do you analyze the text with music in mind?

Stephanie: I am a musician and melody and rhythm come naturally to me. The play is a song.
I understand the tempo, the time signature of a piece. For instance, in THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, I play the Courtesan with a French accent. She has some delicious sounding words–very melodic and interesting. For example she calls one of the characters a “lunatic.” I just love saying this word with that liquid u and the sharp consonants of the final syllable. It sounds like what it is and it is fun to say.
I don’t want to be general in my work. I try to be very specific with everything I say. In HAMLET, as Ophelia ,the mad scene was a challenge. I didn’t want a general wash of craziness, so I very carefully defined all of the herbs, why I had that particular herb and who did I give it to. My take on the text was very technical in order to find a deep emotion that was specific and honest.

Kate: I start with the musicality of the language too. I approach the work very technically first. I scan the text for stressed and unstressed words in the rhythm I explore the pattern of the language–the metaphors, the antitheses, the alliteration and things like that. In playing Luciana in THE COMEDY OF ERRORS I discovered that her lines are very regular in rhythm, full of rhymed couplets–almost sing-song in the way it is written. That quality in the words has helped me to create the character; she is a little dopey and lives in a child-like fantasy world. But the most important part of text analysis for me is throwing it away. Do the head work, then forget it and just go into rehearsal and find the actions in the moment.

Gale: Action is an important word for Chris Sheard as well. Chris is an apprentice this year with the company and just starting out his career. Chris, how do you approach Shakespeare? As a student did you find any barriers to the work because of the language?

Chris: The first thing I do with the play is listen to the heart-beat. This is the rhythm of the language that is in iambic pentameter. This beat is the closest we have in English to the beat of the human heart.
Once I understand that music, any barriers I have fall down. I find the punctuation very helpful in getting to the meaning of the thought. There are no stage directions in Shakespeare’s plays, but the way the language is phrased can give you clues to action. I think this is the most important thing to understand in any type of acting–what is the character’s action? You find clues to that in the verbs. In TITUS ANDRONICUS, the tyrant, Titus, begins the play with simple, gentle actions–to welcome, to placate, to befriend but as the scene goes on his actions become more commanding and violent–to torture, to sacrifice, to kill. The actions of the character tell the story of the play.

Gale: Tara, so far we have heard a lot about music, action, specificity, patterns of language. What do you do to create some of the different roles you have created over the years. Ariel, for example, was a very physical role and also vocally demanding. How do you approach a role like that?

Tarah: First I read the play to myself. I underline all that the other characters say about me and what I say about myself. This helps me place myself in the world of the play. Then I read all of the play except my part to figure out what my character does. If I remove her from the play, then I know why she is essential.
I then approach the script technically–with scansion, punctuation etc. I try not to take anything for granted. I write the scenes out in my own language (paraphrase) and then put it back into Shakespeare’s language. This helps me deepen my meaning of the words and allows me to communicate them more clearly. Finally, I internally connect the emotions of the character to the external technique and hopefully create a complete, honest human being on stage. All decoding of Shakespeare is a bit of a scavenger hunt for me–but Shakespeare is a great place to dig up all sorts of things! More than any other playwright he gives you so much.

Gale: It seems to me that all of you approach the text in similar ways. Some of you start with the technique and some of you start with emotional connection but both ways lead to the same thing–good storytelling. Creating Shakespeare’s characters is fun, demanding and satisfying.– and it all starts with the language!