Speak the Speech

“Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue.” Hamlet III,ii

Based on the premise that Shakespeare’s plays were created to be given and heard, Olympic Shakespeare Productions’ Speak the Speech events are the keystone of the company’s community outreach efforts.

The afternoon of the second Sunday of each month marks an opportunity for anyone with an interest in the plays to come and read or listen. Often the setting echoes the atmosphere of the selected play. Examples include: Julius Caesar in Port Townsend City Council Chambers, Othello at Manresa Castle, The Tempest around a campfire on the beach at Fort Worden or Twelfth Night around the woodstove at a cozy dockside restaurant.

Roles are assigned (large, small and gender non-specific) upon arrival. Readers are seated in a circle to express their common commitment to the reading of the play at hand. The circle is filled with all the real people that populated Shakespeare’s worlds: children and old people, tradesmen and trained actors, artisans and aristocrats. These hands-on experiences of the works of William Shakespeare have never failed to create a special bond. At the end of each reading more than one reader has commented, “I’m amazed! I understood it!”

Click here for information on
our current Speak the Speech event.

Speak the Speech – Richard III, presented Sunday, June 9,
2002 at McKenzie Bunker, Fort Worden State Park, Port Townsend.