Shakespeare Speak

One of the most fascinating voice lessons I had was with the voice over artist and actor James Hagen in Sydney, Australia. One day he asked me to bring in my favourite Shakespeare play for a lesson, which confused me as I was learning to read news scripts and voice over announcements, not improve my acting abilities. But it soon became clear why Shakespeare had become involved - my lesson was all about learning to, as James put it, love words and love language, to feel its beat and rhythm.

What better way to do that than to look at a little Shakespeare.

I brought in A Midsummer Night's Dream and James taught me about iambic pentameter and caesura and something wonderful happened. I started to feel how magical the written word could be when it is written to be spoken. It was an exercise that helped me feel the key words in a news script - rather than just speak those words with no sense of how to relay them to a listener.

The lesson took place at a time when I had just started out in radio. I had developed a rather annoying sing-songy sound to my scripts when I read them which suggested I didn't really know what I was doing.

James also rather horrifyingly would mimic my news reading which showed me how unnatural I was sounding. A rather necessary, but confronting part of our lessons!

Exercise 1:

Grab your favourite Shakespeare play and a pencil (not a pen - you may not want to mark your copy permanently!).

In Shakespeare, the rules of Iambic pentameter state that there are five beats to every line - and it's true!

Read out the first line of the stanza (paragraph) from the Shakespeare play you've chosen.

Then read it again, but put in a stroke (/) after every second syllable, even if that stroke happens twice in one word, stick to the rule - put a line in after every second syllable.

You should find that you have 5 marks across every line in the paragraph - and this will happen in every line without fail!

Here's an example from A Midsummer Night's Dream:

The fair/yland/ buys not/ the child/ of me/

That beat is hitting every second syllable, and there will always be 5 beats per line. Magic!

Here's more examples:
And ne/ver, since/ the mid/dle su/mmer's spring/,
Met we /on hill/, in dale/, forest/ or mead/

Exercise 2

Now the weak/strong rule:

Every first syllable will be a 'weak' syllable, and every second syllable will be a strong one. That's because in the rhythm of Shakespeare, the beat lands just after the second syllable. You'll notice when you read it out loud and clap the beats - the second syllable between every beat is stronger than the first.

Try reading this and clapping when ever the syllable is in capitals:

The FAIR/yLAND/ buys NOT/ the CHILD/ of ME/


And NE/ver, SINCE/ the MID/dle SU/mmer's SPRING/

Met WE/ on HILL/, in DALE/, forEST/ or MEAD/

You should be starting to feel the the consistent rhythm in every line.

Exercise 3:

Caesura:

This is the word that stands out the most in every line of Shakespeare.

I would say the Caesura of the first line of Shakespeare above is the word not. That's what seems to stand out the most.

The FAIR/yLAND/ buys NOT/ the CHILD/ of ME/

With the same lines of Shakespeare that you've marked in the beats, circle what you think is the Caesura - the word that seems to stand out the most.

Mark in both the beats and the Caesura in a few more lines of your Shakespeare play until you're comfortable with how it works, making sure you say each line out loud so you can hear where the Syllables* are, then saying the line out loud again and circling the Caesura.

Don't forget  - once you've marked in the beats say the line again feeling the weak strong syllables. You do this by clapping in the beats at the same time.

Exercise 4


Back to the script:

Now put your Shakespeare play aside, and pick up your script or whatever you've been working on and do the SAME thing with your script.

Mark in a beat at every second syllable. Of course there won't be 5 beats per line because presumably your script won't be written to the rules of Iambic pentameter.

The Prime /Minis/ter has /resigned /after /admitt/ing to /an af/fair with/ a fel/low pol/iti/cian/.

Now read that script with the beats in, getting that sense of each second syllable being strong, and the first being weak, clap at each second syllable (beat) to help.

Then circle what you think is the Caesura of each sentence, the word that stands out the most. I would say the word resigned stands out the most here.

The Prime /Minis/ter has /resigned /after /admitt/ing to /an af/fair with/ a fel/low pol/iti/cian/.

Now, after doing this to your script - read the script naturally, as you normally would. Record a before and after, one recording before you tried the exercise, and one after. You should hear a difference for the better, one that gets you reading naturally and articulating as well.

Doing this exercise is a great way to develop a deeper appreciation for the words in your script and what goes into making those words and sentences in the English language. It also gets you on the path of hearing and  feeling what words stand out and are important, rather than artificially trying to mark them.

These sets of exercises may seem a bit of an indulgence when you're working on perhaps more pertinent things such as articulation - but it can really help to give you a deeper appreciation of the English language when it is written to be spoken aloud. It really transformed my presenting technique.


*Having trouble with Syllables? Not everyone is great at hearing them in words. The trick is to clap in time with the word. So clap as you say each part of the word and each clap will be on a Syllable  Eg: jour-na-li-sm. Without clapping, hearing where one syllable begins and the other ends can be tricky.