Welcome to the final part of my Shakespeare Level 2 Knowledge series!
Today, we’re (sensibly!) turning our attention to the third and final question your students will be asked in the exam:
How did observing the ‘changes of thought’ in the speech inform your vocal and physical performance choices?
🗂️ There’s a downloadable handout at the end of this post — available to all subscribers — which covers all three Shakespeare Level 2 questions in one place.
LAMDA defines a ‘change of thought’ as:
a place in the text where the character’s topic of speech, emotion or intention changes.
I teach this using three clear STEPS:
👣 STEP 1: identify two or three places where there is a change of thought → translate these thoughts into modern English to help with understanding
👣 STEP 2: think about how you change your voice at this point → Does the volume, pitch, pace, or tone change?
👣 STEP 3: think about how you change your physicality at this point → Does the posture shift? Do gestures, eyeline or pace of movement change?
The responses to these three prompts will obviously depend on the particular speech you have chosen1, but here’s an example using Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 5:
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