Text
Work with Shakespeare’s text is central to classes at the ACA across the curriculum, whether it is a voice, acting, mask or academic seminar. Additional focused text classes provide the foundation and tools for that work. Iambic pentameter and Shakespeare’s particular use of it, one of the fundamentals of text work, is explored in depth and detail in the first term. Scansion begins as a technical skill supporting clarity and ease with the verse, but becomes a resource for character and situation as well. In preparation for the spring Jacobean work, we return to scansion and meter, exploring both the evolution of Shakespeare’s verse in the late plays and the verse tactics of the major Jacobean playwrights.
Rhetoric is another fundamental, one far more central to Elizabethan and Jacobean speech than it is to our daily language. In Shakespeare, rhetoric is a mode of thought, not simply decorative language. Therefore mastering the rhetoric enables us both to articulate complex thoughts with clarity and to experience the way Shakespeare’s characters think. Figures of rhetoric thus provide a wealth of character information and ultimately become tools for the character to pursue his or her objective. Shakespeare’s prose, though it lacks meter, has its own rhythm, in part defined by its rhetorical shape. Finding that rhythm of thought is essential to the clarity and life of the prose. With prose, as with meter, rhetoric, and imagery, we approach the work through both brain and body: balancing analytical and physical techniques for understanding and harnessing the dynamics of Shakespeare’s language. The resulting agility with text provides a firm foundation for confident performance of classical roles. |
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