One of the things I've had more access to in this go-round has been recordings of Shakespeare performances.  I don't use other people's performances for interpretation -- I think there's plenty of information in the text itself -- but I have been listening to the language and its rhythms in performances obtained via BitTorrent or Netflix streaming, and ...

... it just amazes me how *bad* so many of the line readings are, even in the good (or "good") performances. It's strange to hear some British actor with a resonant, mellifluous (hi, Terry!) voice just blow through the lines in order to get them all out. We learned at Winedale to be better with the language than that.

And, also, I can see much more how working on scenes gives us a kind of focus on the particulars of the language -- I find myself thinking hard about each word and phrase.  I really enjoy the mindfulness of this kind of work.


--Mike