I heard Richard Burton when I was very young and he was one of the people that woke me up to myself. He had a connection to that amazing voice of his and to the language that, at the time, wasn’t usually embodied. Philip Burton-his mentor-taught him secrets which were eventually passed on to me. For example, to connect to the language it is crucial to find the words of every line that actually convey the meaning of the line. Finding the key words for every line is very important and most people don’t do that, instead, they emphasize the words that sound or feel good to them. When actors or public speakers limit themselves in this way, they’re not considering the audience and thus forgetting to communicate to them; their words aren’t reaching the audience. And that was something that Burton did that was so special. The bottom line is Beauty, Power and Eloquence. Mean what you say, say what you mean, in the most eloquent way that you can.
You gotta move the line out to the audience, you can’t keep it with you. For example, take the line ‘Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time,’ how do you move it out? Start by asking yourself, how do I make the tomorrow’s different? What is the vowel that is important? The ‘ah’ is what is important because it’s endless. The sound gets really long and drudgery. It’s always about moving out.
Try it. How did it feel? What did you learn?
