Comments on: Memorizing Shakespeare with ScenePartner

By: ScenePartner

ScenePartner — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 02:20:25 +0000

Thanks for the excellent write up of my site/product/idea. You’re absolutely right that ScenePartner is not a substitute for understanding the text, but that’s not my goal, right?

@Billicatons: We try to avoid anything but the proper scansion of the lines, so the only bias should be towards good rhythm.

@Willshill: The advantage to having multiple mp3s (one for each line) is manifold. Need to refresh one scene more than another? It’s easy to skip to that section. Cassette tapes are great for smaller parts, but if you’re playing Hamlet, you have to record over 2 hours of just your lines. How many times do you have to flip that tape?

By: Willshill

Willshill — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 02:43:33 +0000

Good advice, Gedaly. After listening to only part of the To Be, I can say that in my opinion something like this could be disastrous for an actor. Even though the reader is trying to be as nondescript as possible, their interpretive inflections are definitely there, and if the speech is memorized in this way, it will be extremely hard to get the aural messages, delivered by rote, out of the equation. As an advocate of “Out-Loud” Shakespeare, it would be so much better for the actor to be hearing his/her OWN voice. I’ve used a similar technique for years now, listening to the lines on tape as I drift off to sleep. But–and a big but–as you warned about, not until I’m sure I’ve done enough interpretive work on the text, always making sure I’ve spoken it out loud enough to really know and understand the what, and how I’m saying the what.
I’m all for entrepreneurship, but a cassette tape is much cheaper, safer, and more productive in the long run.

By: Billicatons

Billicatons — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:33:51 +0000

Yes, I agree with your reservations. It’s an interesting idea, but has uncomfortable overtones of karaoke Shakespeare. With dialogue as loaded with resonances, meanings and imagery as Shakey’s, no single rendition could be anything but partial … So the risk is that the listener’s interpretation is heavily prejudiced.

Nevertheless, an interesting idea. And potentially a useful tool once one has studied a text and fixed one’s own interpretation — or for refreshing one’s memory.