Action focuses on the practical exploration of short lines as identified through visual clues in the text.
For the final three tools in the toolkit, a complete First Folio version of the scene or play will need to be provided to learners. These tools will not work with the cue scripts.
Inform learners that in Shakespeare’s verse, there are short lines; this is where one character’s section of verse has fewer than ten syllables. Unlike shared lines, this usually occurs within one character’s speech or can occur at the end of the characters’ speech when followed by a complete verse line.
Instruct learners that short lines signify that they should pause or add a physical action in the space.
Encourage learners to experiment with pausing and adding action at the short lines, always considering their characters ‘Want’ and how this might be realised through an action or pause.
Once learners have experimented with this in practice, a discussion centred on the characters’ intentions is a helpful conclusion to the tool. Why do the learners think their character has a need to pause or take physical action at this point?
Tray Four : Back to the Text