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What is it about working with heightened text that fills some actors with fear? Is it the departure from regular, everyday speech? The breadth of study and preparation it often requires? Perhaps it\u2019s the fear that even after a wealth of script analysis and rehearsal, the words might still sound stilted or fake. Whether you\u2019re preparing for a drama school audition, wading into Shakespeare for the first time, or tackling a text that leaves realism behind, heightened text is going to be a part of your practice as an actor. Learn how to do it and do it well<\/em>.<\/p>\n In drama, heightened text refers to language\u2014usually dialogue\u2014that is distinct from everyday speech by its employ of poetic, rhetorical or stylistic devices. It is commonly associated with Shakespeare, Classical or related older texts, but is also present in contemporary works that forgo realism or naturalism in their writing. Heightened text requires a great deal of study and preparation by actors, as it may not be as easily accessible as text written in everyday speech. However, it also offers actors a chance to explore stylistic and emotional extremes, and captivate audiences in a way that may surprise and delight them.<\/strong><\/p>\n This article contains everything you need to know about heightened text: how to recognise it, understand it and how to perform it well. And as with all things in your acting practice that may cause you anxiety or concern, be methodical. Don\u2019t panic. Develop your understanding, practice the related skills and you\u2019ll be feeling confident in no time.<\/p>\n Heightened text sits across two main subcategories: older dramatic works, reaching back to the Classics, and contemporary writing that strays from realism.<\/p>\n In the Western theatre canon<\/a>, we can trace heightened text back to its roots in the drama of Ancient Greece and Rome. Classical theatre was rooted in poetry, and so the comparison we might make in the present day between this style of play and what we\u2019d identify as \u2018straight-up poetry\u2019 is apt.<\/p>\n As theatre continued to evolve, reaching larger audiences and receiving greater acclaim, it continued to draw from these foundational forms. It\u2019s why we associate heightened text most famously with William Shakespeare<\/a>\u00a0(and contemporaries of his like Christopher Marlowe<\/a>) who was a keen student of Greek and Roman Classical writers.<\/p>\n Shakespeare\u2019s work was (for its time) innovative. However, he still drew upon classical conventions such as verse (iambic pentameter<\/a>), and rhetorical\/poetic functions to sway the thoughts and capture the imaginations of his audience.<\/p>\n Eventually the advent of realism and naturalism in the 19th and 20th century started to shift writing in drama to something more akin to regular human speech. Writers such as Anton Chekhov<\/a> began to explore characters onstage more like the audience than fictional heroes, or the ruling class of Shakespeare\u2019s history plays.<\/p>\n But the influence of classical, heightened text remained: if not directly in form, then in the use of literary devices<\/a> such as metaphor, simile, analogy, symbolism and imagery.<\/p>\n There is no hard-and-fast rule to determine when<\/em> contemporary heightened text begins to develop in the Western canon, only the means to identify it stylistically. One could argue that as long as artists have worked to establish an artistic \u2018norm\u2019\u2014such as realism in the early 20th century\u2014there are outliers keen to push the boundaries of form either for the sake of innovation or rebellion.<\/p>\n Generally, contemporary heightened text utilises forms such as blank verse or rhyming couplets. It may employ rhetorical devices to \u2018elevate\u2019 the words of a character above the normalcy of regular human speech. And the choice of language and imagery may be more poetic than literal\u2014signalling a departure from the majority of dialogue in modern stage or screen works that seeks primarily to move the action of a story forward.<\/p>\n Often, the delivery of heightened text signals a break with the conventions of dialogue on stage or screen: the direct communication<\/a> between actors used to imitate a conversation. Heightened text may utilise direct address to speak to the audience, be performed as a soliloquy<\/a>, or feature performers speaking fragmented words or phrases in the same space\u2014but not to each other.<\/p>\n So: why perform heightened text? Or, if you\u2019re feeling cynical: why bother with heightened text? If it\u2019s confusing enough for actors to learn and perform, then isn\u2019t it doubly so for an audience to comprehend and appreciate?<\/p>\n Heightened text isn\u2019t concerned with sounding real. It doesn\u2019t spend its time trying to \u2018trick\u2019 an audience into believing what is on the stage or screen in front of them. Instead, it speaks directly to the themes and ideas present within the work, and offers them up in a way that is evocative, affecting, emotional.<\/p>\n If you find yourself performing heightened text from another time period, such as Shakespeare or one of the Classics, you quickly discover that themes present in these works are just as relevant as they are today. And rather than the archaic aspects of the language locking audiences out, they actually invite us in past the dramatic conventions of the times. The words are puzzles to be solved, by artist and audience alike. Why do you think we keep coming back to Shakespeare?<\/p>\nExamples of Heightened Text<\/h2>\n
Classical Heightened Text<\/h3>\n
Contemporary Heightened Text<\/h3>\n
Benefits of Heightened Text<\/h2>\n