Paapa Essiedu (Hamlet) | Hamlet (RSC) | © Manuel Harlan
In today's blog, we're sharing a curated resource selection to help you introduce key acting concepts and deepen comparative analysis of performances through the lens of Shakespeare's Hamlet.
"Digital Theatre+ is an invaluable resource for teaching styles of acting. It is also an essential tool for students to engage with information and performances they would never have been able to access. The materials are especially helpful in demystifying styles of performance that may be unfamiliar."
– Trent, Associate Professor at East Carolina University
Paapa Essiedu and Jonathan Goad as Hamlet
Through the six productions of Hamlet on Digital Theatre+, students can analyze a wide range of acting approaches and performance styles. In particular, two productions from 2016 (the quincentenary of Shakespeare's death) can provoke insightful discussions:
- Royal Shakespeare Company (2016) starring Paapa Essiedu
- Stratford Festival (2016) starring Jonathan Goad
The first Black actor to play Hamlet for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Paapa Essiedu's performance was described by The Guardian as "intensely likeable [...] he has a priceless vitality, and speaks the verse intelligently".
Watch Paapa Essiedu in Act 3, Scene 2 of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Hamlet.
In comparison to Essiedu's 'likeability', Jonathan Goad imbued the character of Hamlet with far more anger. "This Hamlet is no hero", wrote a critic for Theatrius, "his desire for vengeance is rightly placed, but his methods are detestable, bringing pain to his family and court".
Our Interactive Playtext series makes it even easier to compare these performances, with extensive annotations from leading academics providing direct links from lines of dialogue to the exact moments in productions on Digital Theatre+.
See below how Christie Carson's Interactive Playtext for Hamlet can help students to draw out and analyze performance choices across multiple productions:
Hamlet is one of eight Interactive Playtexts available on Digital Theatre+
Text is Action. Action is Text.
One of our most popular resources for Higher Education, the Key Concepts in Acting series illustrates seven key aspects of acting, from working in physical theatre to understanding the fundamentals of the Stanislavski system.
In this series, the episode Playing Shakespeare uses filmed examples from Hamlet to show how Shakespeare's language provides actors with 'clues' about their character and performance on stage.
After watching this Key Concept episode, students can put their learning into practice and further examine Essiedu and Goad's performances with Shakespeare in Rehearsal, which includes practical workshops and examples of highly experienced actors experimenting with Shakespeare.
For example, Chapter 5: Structures of Thought, Feeling, and Action includes a paired performance exercise, where partners alternate lines of a soliloquy from Hamlet in Act 1, Scene 2.
"It is a soliloquy", comments Michael Gould, "but Hamlet is talking to himself. With that mirroring, [you] get a sense of Hamlet's inner and outer landscapes, and the duality of him as a character".
The Shakespeare in Rehearsal series includes 20 exercises led by Vinette Robinson and Kyle Soller.
Dive into Acting with Digital Theatre+
Supplement the above Hamlet resources with more top learning material:
- Hamlet on Film: A Critical Introduction by Shakespeare specialist Abigail Rokison-Woodall
- An Introduction to Working with the Viewpoints led by teacher and practitioner Stephen Atkins
We also understand that the sheer breadth of acting material can be overwhelming to sift through (both for students and educators), which led to the development of our granular Acting Study Unit, curated by Head of Acting at California State University Long Beach and Co-Executive Director of the National Alliance of Acting Teachers, Hugh O'Gorman.
Hear what Hugh had to say about the curation process in this blog!
Explore these resources with a free trial to Digital Theatre+ today!
If you are already a customer, you can explore the full Hamlet collection on DT+.