Why text analysis is foundational work for the actor.
When Hamlet admonished the actors visiting Elsinore to "suit the action to the word, the word to the action" he was expecting that the troupe understood the proper process of script analysis before they began rehearsal.
We live in a world that is essentiually "against text." That is, we shun long text, difficult text, challenging text, the deeper meaning of text. Better to watch a YouTube video or call oneself a "visual learner," a term invented to substitute for "lazy."
In Shakespeare's time, the ability to command language was considered a a lofty goal. In our time, language is distrusted and avoided, along with basic intelligence and critical thinking. And we call ourselves advanced.
Reading a text is an active, engaged process that affects the brain in a specific manner. Watching something on a screen is a passive process that is about receiving, not engaging.
For actors, being able to sit down with a dramatic text and break down what the writer is trying to do with words is essential work, to be done before getting on your feet in rehearsal.
Try to become more than a talented actor. Try to evolve into an intelligent actor.
What are we looking for in the words? Using Shakespeare as an example, we should first ask ourselves what tools the writer themselves employed to accomplish their task of the text?
Poetic style: imagery, metaphor, alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, rhythm, meter and all the techniques used by the poet.
Structure: how the writer builds the scaffolding of their scenes, acts and play in terms of dramatic events, characters, entrances, exits, arcs and more.
Beats: can you identify the beat changes in a given scene? How many are there? Why do the characters change tactics? What changes take in the relationships between the characters from moment to moment, scene to scene and in the context of the play?
How does each character use language? What can we learn from them about their own worlds from how they speak? How does their use of language change in the course of a play? Don't forget that when a character is silent, they are most likely choosing not to speak. What are they saying in their silence?
These are some of the topics that need to be addressed by the actor through homework, study, research, tablework and all the way through rehearsal, performance and even beyond. Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, Sam Shepard, August Wilson,Anna Deveare-Smith, all use language in very specific ways. The actor must get to the heart of how language works in each and every text they encounter, or else everything else they do is pointless.
Let the theatre help you fall in love with language. Embrace it, engage with it, dig into it and discover the incredible power in the way dramatists use language to change the very nature and shape of the world around us.
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