Learning Shakespeare

On Friday, I was once again at Tales Around the Fire and I had the opportunity to perform my own rendition of Henry V, Act 3, Scene 1. I absolutely love performing Shakespeare and find it easier to learn than other scripts. The question I find myself asking is why other people find Shakespeare so difficult to learn or understand. I think it is because of the words. Quite often obscure words that are no longer used in the English langauge put people off. So large is the hang-up that it puts people off, well that and the fact that they studied it in school.

For me Shakespeare is a gift to anyone who recites it. Shakespeare had a fantastic knowledge of what the technical needs of a play are. Often you find natural chunks and rhythms built into the plays and add that to the couplets at the ends of each scene there are many tricks and tips that help you learn it.

Henry V, Act 3, Scene 1 for example can be broken down into at least 8 sections that are easier to learn.

So I've decided I want to do more Shakespeare in the future. Until then here's the voice recording of the recitiation on Friday: http://www.noslens-notepad.co.uk/oncemore.wav