Teaching Talent

Teaching talent with the Shakespeare Out Loud series is the ability to hear thought behind the words of student/actors and give them suggestions to make that thought both clearer and richer. Aside from moving characters about on a stage, it is the same talent as that of the stage director: the ability to enrich and refine the spoken text. This talent completely depends on the teacher’s willingness and ability to hear. If one is to teach the Shakespeare Out Loud series as suggested, the teacher will spend perhaps 35% of every class listening to the students read prepared scenes aloud. The teacher’s ability to improve those readings is their talent.

I listen to the thought, or the lack of thought, behind the spoken words. I give the readers reasons why their characters choose their language. I help them specify and color images they find in the text. I discuss if the language is known or invented. If something is perhaps surprising I might suggest a word be expressed on a higher note in the voice. I constantly listen for wonder in the text – that sort of thing. When teaching and directing, I listen with every ounce of my being. When working a scene, I stop a student/actor whenever I want, instantly. Teaching talent is the instantaneous response to what a one hears. It is not something that can be prepared; it completely depends upon what the student provides. This ability to listen intently, then enrich and refine through suggestion, is the talent. Quite often teachers have this talent and don’t know it; they have never practiced it. Shakespeare Out Loud provided them with the tool to develop this talent.

Even if a teacher has no dramatic flair, the series can still be employed. Some of the students will possess the talent, and if the teacher is generous and insightful, they will allow these students to assume leadership roles. In the Shakespeare Out Loud experience the students learn more from Shakespeare and their peers than they do from their teacher. Talented Shakespeare Out Loud teachers mainly cast, listen and suggest well.