Learning from Shakespeare

Someone that I’m following on Twitter recently asked THIS question:

Do you think it’s possible to learn *almost* everything you need just by working on Shakespeare? Is the greatest playwright enough?

I think we should start with the simple answer, it is a NO. Working on Shakespeare cannot teach you anywhere near the things you need to know as an actor. In a blog a while back, I discussed the vital importance of Hamlet’s advice to the players.

Shakespeare cannot teach the very basics of the actor’s craft, there is no technique there, but there is a philosophy of performance.

However, there is a lot that we can learn. Shakespeare can teach us about imagery, he can help us to discover how to bring that imagery to life.

He can also teach us about pacing, when to go quickly, when to go slowly, and to pay attention to the punctuation for his own advice on rhythm and pacing. Quite often an actor will take a breath break or even a sense break in the middle of a line of modern text, but the breath comes at the punctuation points, otherwise you are breaking the sense in order to impose your own kind of sense on it.

Unlike any other writer in the genre of dramatic literature, Shakespeare can speak to us hundreds of years after his own hay-days. He is a dramatist that captures the essence of human experience puts it down in poetic form. We can still learn from Shakespeare.

Of course, his characters are complex and psychologically real. It requires of the actor the absolute most physically, emotionally and psychologically. It is the biggest test an actor can face. There’s nothing like playing Hamlet or Lady Macbeth. It is entirely exacting.

Developing your ear for language helps us to appreciate the words of other writers too. If you grow unafraid of Shakespeare’s beautiful, challenging language, then you can enrich yourself with the words and language of others. The more aware you become of the rhythm and cadence of Shakespeare, the more you recognise it in the works of others.

Can Shakespeare teach us everything we need to know? Probably not, no. But it will prepare you for many of the challenges that you would face as an actor and it’s not a bad starting place to learn your trade.

I've recently written a brand new eBook APPROACHING SHAKESPEARE that will help you thrive in your Shakespeare Monologues at Drama School and College Acting Auditions. It's going to be released really soon. 

To You, The Best

COACH