Portuguese Year 3: The play: lines, stage directions and dramatised reading
Portuguese, Year 3 (Portugal): Tell lines from stage directions, give each character a voice, and turn a short play into a dramatised reading and a performance.
Lines, stage directions and voices
A play is written to be performed, not only read. It has lines: what each character says, with the character's name first. It also has stage directions (didascálias), often in brackets, which tell how to say something or what to do, such as «(a tremer)» (“trembling”). In a dramatised reading, each reader gives voice to one character and says only the lines, with the right tone. In a performance you add gestures, movement and, if you want, a simple set.
The voice is your tool
A play shows the characters speaking to each other, without a narrator to explain. So the voice is your tool: by changing tone, rhythm and strength you show whether the character is afraid, happy or angry. The stage directions tell you what the speaker feels or does. Reading a play also teaches you to listen to your classmates and to wait for your turn, and the result is teamwork.
The cat and the mouse
Scene made up as an example: «GATO (a espreitar): — Quem está aí? / RATO (a tremer): — Sou eu. Só ia a passar! / GATO (a sorrir): — Então entra, que lá fora está frio.» (CAT, peeking: Who is there? MOUSE, trembling: It's me. I was only passing by! CAT, smiling: Then come in, it is cold outside.) Step 1: one reads the Cat, another the Mouse. Step 2: each reads the directions silently. Step 3: the Cat speaks slowly and curiously; the Mouse, low and fast, trembling. Step 4: they say only the lines. Step 5: they wait their turn and change the voice at «?» and «!».
Reading the names and directions aloud
The commonest mistake is to read out everything that is written, including the character's name and the directions in brackets, as if they were lines. They exist so that you know who speaks and how, and the audience should not hear them. The second mistake is to read all the characters in the same voice: then nobody can tell the Cat from the Mouse. Change the voice, the pace and the strength for each character.
Where you say lines together
You do a dramatised reading when you read a short puppet play with classmates, when you say lines at a school party, or when you read a story to a little brother and use a different voice for each character. Actors on TV and in the cinema do the same with a script: they read the lines and the directions before they film.
Test what you learned
In a play, what is written in brackets, such as «(a tremer)» (trembling)?
- a) A line the actor must say aloud
- b) The title of the play
- c) A stage direction: it says how to speak or what to do
Correct answer: c) A stage direction: it says how to speak or what to do — Yes: «a tremer» tells the actor to speak and move trembling.
In the scene «RATO (a tremer): — Sou eu. Só ia a passar!» (MOUSE, trembling: It's me. I was only passing by!), how do you read the Mouse's line?
- a) Strong and slow, like the Cat
- b) Low and fast, trembling, because the direction says «a tremer»
- c) Loud and cheerful, as if singing
Correct answer: b) Low and fast, trembling, because the direction says «a tremer» — Yes: the direction tells you how the Mouse feels and speaks, so your voice shows it.
In a dramatised reading, what do you say aloud?
- a) Only the lines; the name and the directions tell me who speaks and how
- b) Everything: names, directions and lines
- c) Only the directions
Correct answer: a) Only the lines; the name and the directions tell me who speaks and how — Yes: the audience hears only what the characters say, in the right voice.
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