Working with Heightened Text

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’s the fear that even after a wealth of script analysis and rehearsal, the words might still sound stilted or fake. Whether you’re 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.

In drama, heightened text refers to language—usually dialogue—that 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.

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’t panic. Develop your understanding, practice the related skills and you’ll be feeling confident in no time.

Examples of Heightened Text

Heightened text sits across two main subcategories: older dramatic works, reaching back to the Classics, and contemporary writing that strays from realism.

Classical Heightened Text

In the Western theatre canon, 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’d identify as ‘straight-up poetry’ is apt.

As theatre continued to evolve, reaching larger audiences and receiving greater acclaim, it continued to draw from these foundational forms. It’s why we associate heightened text most famously with William Shakespeare (and contemporaries of his like Christopher Marlowe) who was a keen student of Greek and Roman Classical writers.

Shakespeare’s work was (for its time) innovative. However, he still drew upon classical conventions such as verse (iambic pentameter), and rhetorical/poetic functions to sway the thoughts and capture the imaginations of his audience.

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 began to explore characters onstage more like the audience than fictional heroes, or the ruling class of Shakespeare’s history plays.

But the influence of classical, heightened text remained: if not directly in form, then in the use of literary devices such as metaphor, simile, analogy, symbolism and imagery.

Contemporary Heightened Text

There is no hard-and-fast rule to determine when 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 ‘norm’—such as realism in the early 20th century—there are outliers keen to push the boundaries of form either for the sake of innovation or rebellion.

Generally, contemporary heightened text utilises forms such as blank verse or rhyming couplets. It may employ rhetorical devices to ‘elevate’ 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—signalling a departure from the majority of dialogue in modern stage or screen works that seeks primarily to move the action of a story forward.

Often, the delivery of heightened text signals a break with the conventions of dialogue on stage or screen: the direct communication between actors used to imitate a conversation. Heightened text may utilise direct address to speak to the audience, be performed as a soliloquy, or feature performers speaking fragmented words or phrases in the same space—but not to each other.

Benefits of Heightened Text

So: why perform heightened text? Or, if you’re feeling cynical: why bother with heightened text? If it’s confusing enough for actors to learn and perform, then isn’t it doubly so for an audience to comprehend and appreciate?

Heightened text isn’t concerned with sounding real. It doesn’t spend its time trying to ‘trick’ 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.

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?

Why Do Drama Schools ask for Heightened Text?

A prepared heightened text monologue is a common requirement for actors hoping to study at a drama school. Some people view this as institutional snobbery, or intellectual gatekeeping.Who cares if you “thither” and “thus” and “forsooth” if you want to act on the latest HBO drama?

The reason it’s requested by schools actually has more to do with your process as an actor than your current ability. Remember: they can teach you how to be a good actor. What a drama school can’t teach is how to be a student. And not a student as in “noun and book and show and tell”: a student of the arts—which all great artists are.

Heightened text requires study and consideration. You need to read the play the piece comes from to get the context. You need to do some Googling (or StageMilking?) to work out the meanings behind phrases, definitions, the presence of features such as iambic pentameter. Applicants who fail to do this are sending up a flare to the selection panel that they likely won’t do this when actually prompted to in their studies. It’s a great way to thin the herd of hopefuls: ridding the pack of people afraid to put in the effort an actor’s life so very much acquires.

How to Perform Heightened Text

Want to see heightened text done right? Check out this monologue from Much Ado About Nothing performed to perfection by Ekow Quartey. Watch it and then we’ll talk further.

Quartey does a masterful job of this speech. Why? Because he makes the words sound like his own. They’re casual, relaxed. They speak to his thoughts without oversharing or overcomplicating. It’s a perfect example of a rule we apply to Shakespearean language—and heightened text as a whole. Words are important, but they exist to serve the story.

So when you’re performing something that steps outside of realism, remind yourself: no matter how weird it might get, the words are there to help you tell the story. The words serve you, not the other way around. Iambic pentamenter, for instance, was a popular form in Shakespeare’s time because it was thought to emulate natural patterns in human speech. It is why Shakespeare can sound so modern. And why speaking Shakespeare’s words with an overwrought da-DUM-da-DUM rhythm sounds like a druken nursery rhyme.

Treat heightened text like any other text. That’s how to perform it. You might find yourself doing a little more research, or working harder to unlock the imagery or subtext. But at the end of the day, the words you speak are in service of reaching an audience and making them feel something.

Additional Hints & Tips:

• Research the text. Know what you’re talking about, know the context of a scene within the larger story. This is particularly important if you’re auditioning with the monologue.
• Consonants carry meaning, vowels carry emotion. Vowels are particularly important in poetic or heightened text. Don’t be afraid of letting your voice loose—especially when your/your character’s impulse is to make themselves smaller and less vulnerable.
• Pay attention to punctuation. Assess the inclusion of punctuation (or lack thereof.) A comma is generally a pause or change in thought; a full stop is a chance to breathe and attack the scene anew. The end of a line in heightened text isn’t necessarily a pause: sometimes Shakespeare would run several lines together as the character’s thoughts and feelings overwhelmed them.
• Do regular practice. Short of dissecting a Shakespearean monologue every morning before breakfast, why not consider a sonnet? You could even start your day reading a poem out loud. Speaking of:
• Don’t recite, perform. It’s not enough to simply say heightened text out loud and with an impassioned quality. Get into your character, who they’re speaking to and what they want: the objective.

Finally, ask yourself an important question: why is this written in heightened text  For most older, Classical pieces, the answer will be “Those were the times…” But for contemporary pieces? Why the hell did the writer bother writing in such a way? What does the style or form do for the text that regular dialogue or monologue might otherwise have failed to communicate?

Conclusion

So there you have it: our introduction to all things heightened text for actors! We kicked this article off by talking about fear—the fear so many actors have of working with heightened text. If this fear is familiar to you in your own craft or career, take it from us here at StageMilk that it doesn’t have to be this way.

Heightened text is scary. It’s intimidating and, at times, downright confusing! But only while it remains an unknown. So dive in! Get comfy with it. Challenge yourself to experiment, explore and, yes, fail. Before long, it’ll be just another skill in your actor’s toolkit you deploy to great effect.

You won’t even remember what you were so worried about.

Good luck!