‘Suit the Action to the Word’: A Conversation with Actress Kate Forbes

Often actors use subtle clues in the text to determine how to play a specific moment. Hartford Stage Education Associate, Aurelia Clunie, turned to actress Kate Forbes, who plays Gertrude in Hamlet, to explore her approach to preparing a Shakespearean role.

Aurelia Clunie: How do you figure out what a character is saying?

Kate Forbes: I read it out loud over and over, to get a sense of the way the words sound. Sometimes the character uses a lot of hard consonants in their speech; sometimes long languid vowels. Reading out loud helps me hear the rhythm that Shakespeare wrote for me to find. After I experiment with the words out loud, then I turn to “sense.” Often by then I’ve figured out what I’m saying, mostly, but I always read the editors notes, and look up any word I’m not absolutely sure of.

Another “trick” I use to explore the text: I walk the text as I speak it, changing direction a) when there is a punctuation mark of any kind then b) changing direction at the end of every verse line. Both exercises teach me something about character, because in Shakespeare, character is very connected to language. Sometimes the language is smooth and even, sometimes jagged and broken. I try to go to the language before nailing down “what it means” because I’ll often find something surprising in the sounds of words and the choice of words, especially the rhythm or lack of it, in the blank verse.

AC: How do you approach speaking verse differently than speaking prose?

KF: Often we try to make Shakespeare sound “modern” by speaking his verse as if it were prose. I do understand the temptation! I try to think of my character choosing to express herself in 10 syllable bursts…sometimes there are extra syllables, sometimes less, and this is a clue! It’s not accidental where Shakespeare chose to break the verse line. For example, here’s a cool extra syllable on the standard iambic pentameter : “To be or not to be that is the question” (II.2.160) That extra hanging syllable leaves the thought dangling in mid-air, it feels uneven, unbalanced, which is how Hamlet perhaps is feeling.

Prose is often used for the “comic” characters, but not only for them! The gravediggers speak in prose, but Hamlet’s “advice to the players” speech is also in prose. Prose sounds like everyday speech. It can be spoken quite quickly, and part of its appeal lies in the different pace a prose scene or speech will have from the rest of the play.

AC: What advice do you give your students who are approaching Shakespearean text for the first time?

KF: Love the words. Read out loud….first stress the nouns, then stress the verbs, then stress the adjectives. Be bold and brave, because the language is—even when the characters are feeling hurt, anguished, afraid, in love, or uncertain! His characters love to express themselves, and are very specific in their thoughts. Rise to the language; don’t pull the language down to you. Think of it like the best spoken word poetry, rap…the characters use words actively.

AC: Anything else you would like to add? What are your thoughts on Gertrude as you begin this process?

KC: The big Challenge of the part I’m playing this time is how little my character says. Her mystery lies in what she does not say. Claudius has a lot of double-speak. Gertrude is interesting in what she doesn’t say–her character seems mostly described by others…Gertrude is the most hidden, the least articulate!

AC: What do you love most about performing Shakespeare?

KF: I love performing Shakespeare because I get to speak so powerfully and expressively, in a way I don’t ever get to in real life. I’m not the best speaker as just myself…speaking Shakespeare’s language allows me to touch the very best (and worst) parts of my humanity. Words have power in his plays…they can be tools of persuasion, weapons to wounds, rhymes to love.