The Key Questions: Language

The Key Questions unlock the information necessary to engage each of the Acting Basics.

Language: What am I saying?

Unlike Life, in the play your words have been chosen and structured by the playwright to achieve specific purposes: you must know what you are saying or you should not say it.

Rhythm and inflection are key elements that can shade your Language by providing the nuances of emphasis and de-emphasis, of volume, rate, and pitch, and of overall vocal quality.

We certainly need to know what the words mean and we need to communicate it clearly to the audience, but we also need to know what it is that the character is trying to communicate by way of those words. For the most part, if you’re speaking clearly, the words take care of themselves; what becomes interesting is what, at the most fundamental level, you are saying below, above, and beyond those words.

The more that you are saying, the richer your Acting is.