Blog: learning and rehearsing Shakespeare
How to learn lines, read the verse and choose an audition speech.
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Technique
How to memorize a Shakespeare monologue in a week
A day-by-day method for learning a speech in seven days. Read for the argument, anchor on the lines that break the metre, and drill the cue joins.
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Close reading
“To be, or not to be”: what the punctuation tells an actor
The Folio and the Second Quarto point the speech differently, and where you stop changes who Hamlet is. A reading for people who have to say it out loud.
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Auditions
Which Macbeth speech should you audition with?
Six candidates compared on length, how much plot you have to establish first, and how over-used they are. Every row links straight into its scene.
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Technique
Scansion for actors: where the verse tells you to breathe
Iambic pentameter as performance instructions rather than a literary term. Where the line pushes, where it stalls, and what to do about it.
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Behind the scenes
Building a voice partner that reads every other part
What actually happens when you press Rehearse, what cue mode and line masking are doing, and which parts of a session this page does not control.