How Can Paraphrasing Sharpen Your Shakespeare?
As a young actor, my greatest lessons in how to effectively play Shakespeare's text came through working alongside seasoned pros on stages across the country. Masters of their craft. Journeymen actors, putting in the work, week after week, season after season. And each performance, a masterclass. For those of us paying attention, anyway.
To distill all the lessons learned from a couple decades treading the boards with the big dogs would take an eternity, but I think it's always valuable to pass on some nuggets of wisdom when one can. Here, I'll be sharing some tips I've picked up from the old guard on how to not only play Shakespeare, but to do it well.
Know What You're Saying
You'd think this would be obvious, but if I've seen it once, I've seen it a million times. An actor, unsure of the meaning of his next few lines, turns up the volume and cranks the throttle, blasting his way through the words until he reaches something he's more comfortable with. And when it's over, the audience is left wondering, "What did he just say?"
But there's an easy way to avoid this. Well, I say easy, but there must be a reason why so many actors don't bother to do it. Paraphrasing. You may hear this come up time and again, especially from more seasoned pros. It's a vital, life-saving tool to help actors avoid the pitfalls of not understanding the text. Here's how it works:
Take a line of text:
To be or not to be, that is the question.
Then, paraphrase that line into your own words. Be as specific as possible, and don't gloss over anything. Specificity is our friend, here. So, with this particular line, the paraphrasing might look like:
To continue living, or to take my own life, that's what's tearing me apart.
Now, this paraphrasing can always be changed, adjusted, sharpened, whatever you want, as long as it gets more and more specific. Because now, when you are giving the soliloquy, you can clearly convey the gravity of the conundrum that Hamlet is facing. The words make sense to you, so they'll make sense to us.
Now, you want to be a clear, understandable actor who makes Shakespeare look effortless? Just do that for every line. I'm not kidding.
Every.
Single.
Line.
Paraphrasing is a valuable tool to have in your belt. It can make or break a performance, especially if the text is complicated. Maybe now you see why most actors don't do it. But it really is what sets an actor apart. Separates the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. As you get more familiar with this kind of work, it will get easier. You'll develop an ability to do it on the fly, and it'll become clearer and clearer. For you and the audience. But you're not there yet. Hardly anyone is. For now, do the homework, know what you're saying, and watch your Shakespeare skills grow.
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