speaking are extremely
valuable. Memorizing may make the material grow so familiar that it
loses its interest for the speaker. Pupils frequently recite committed
material so listlessly that they merely bore hearers. Such a
disposition to monotony should be neutralized by the ability to speak
well in public.

Naturalness and Sincerity. When you speak lines from a play inject as
much naturalness and sincerity into your delivery as you can command.
Speak the words as though they really express your own ideas and
feelings. If you feel that you must exaggerate slightly because of the
impression the remark is intended to make, rely more upon emphasis
than upon any other device to secure an effect. Never slip into an
affected manner of delivering any speech. No matter what kind of
acting you have seen upon amateur or professional stage, you must
remember that moderation is the first essential of the best acting.
Recall what Shakespeare had Hamlet say to the players.

Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus: but use all
gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind
of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give
it smoothness. Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious,
periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split
the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of
nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise.

Character Delineation. In taking part in a play you must do more than
simply recite words spoken by some one other than yourself. You must
really act like that person. This adds to the simple delivery of
speeches all those other traits by which persons in real life are
different from one another. Such complete identification of your
personality with that of the person you are trying to represent in a
play is termed character delineation, or characterization.

You may believe that you cannot represent an Indian chief or a British
queen, or an Egyptian slave, or a secret service agent, but if you
will recall your childish pastime of day-dreaming you will see at once
that you have quite frequently identified yourself with some one else,
and in that other character you have made yourself experience the
strangest and most thrilling adventures. When you study a role in a
scene or play, use your imagination in that same manner. In a short
time it will be easy for you to think as that other character would.
Then yo