Hey all,

I'm starting preparation for a Shakespeare smorgasbord that is slated to begin in november, and i wanted to see if anyone had any advice, tips or anything online I should read or different ways to start preparing. It's my first time doing shakespeare so I want to do it right and also breakdown the language. A thanks in advance for the replies.

-Matt

Stand on the balls of your feet and tell the truth. Heh.

In all honesty, I'm pretty young too, but the best advice I would have is scan your text, play actions, and really work your voice. Breath lines are important in Shakespeare. If you're looking for a breakdown in the language try All The Words on Stage. It's a book that breaks down all pronunciations in Shakespeare's text. (Conflict of interest note: I was trained by one of the co-authors, so in full disclosure, you can view my opinion as bias).

I found a pretty good book called Speak the Speech which breaks down some of the more famous pieces. I like that one a lot. Hope I helped, hope you do well. Break one.

keep it simple. the words do 80% of the work for you

read playing Shakespeare

so a simple way to put it is to simply just read the words with a little emphasis behind it? I live next door to a library so i definitely will be getting these books, and thanks for the responses you guys.

. . . and 1 more book I recommend is Kristin Linklater's "Freeing Shakespeare's Voice: An Actor's Guide to Talking the Text."

is she related to richard linklater?

Now THAT I do not know. LOL

Hey james, You have a pretty sick website. Who did it?