LAMDA’s acting exams are designed to develop your skills in communicating a piece of dramatic text to an audience. Whichever LAMDA exam you’re taking, here are 5 top tips to improve your performance of any speech:
1. Speak Clearly
It’s very tempting to rush through your speech until you get to the end, but take time to savour every single word and go slow. The writer has written each word on the page for a reason, so enunciate clearly so that the audience can understand every word you say. Also, remember to play the size of the room. If you’re in a huge examination or rehearsal room, judge the size of the area vocally and physically and adjust your performance.
2. Share With The Audience
Remember that speeches are meant to be shared. Even if your character is giving a soliloquy or seems to be speaking to themselves, the writer is in fact sharing the character’s inner thoughts with the audience. It may also (in the case of characters like Hamlet or Macbeth) be a chance for your character to try and make sense of their own thoughts and situation they find themselves in. With this in mind, make sure that you are vocally and physically projecting to where the audience are. If your character gestures to another character off stage and you turn your head, make sure the audience can still see your face.
3. Commit to Stage Directions
Just like every word of speech on the page, the stage directions are there for a reason and can always give you hidden clues about the subtext (what the character really thinks or feels, not just what they say). Also, if the stage directions indicate that a character laughs or yawns, make sure that you really laugh or yawn. Observe how you do these things in everyday life and recreate these actions in your performance.
4. Break your Speech Down into a Beginning, Middle and an End.
Look at your speech on the page and see if you can see a clear beginning, middle and end. What does your character feel at the beginning of the speech and have their feelings and thoughts changed by the end? With this knowledge in mind, you’ll have a clearer idea of your character’s ‘journey’ and you may also come up with some ideas on how to show this contrast vocally and physically.
5. Relax!
It seems obvious to say but make sure you relax and enjoy performing your speech whether rehearsing with your tutor or in the exam itself. Taking a LAMDA exam is a huge achievement. Performing in the exam is your chance to share all the amazing work you’ve been doing in your lessons and at home. It’s not Maths (phew!) so there are no right or wrong ways to perform your speech. In fact, no one else in the world will perform this speech like you as we are all unique! Enjoy sharing what you’ve rehearsed and I’m sure the examiner will enjoy watching.
Break a leg!
