Portuguese Year 5: Reciting and performing: voice, pauses, stage directions
Portuguese, Year 5 (Portugal): How to prepare a poem for reciting and a dramatic text for the stage: pace, pauses, tone and stage directions.
Giving a poem a voice and a play a body
To recite is to say a poem aloud to others, bringing it to life with your voice. What counts: diction (pronouncing words clearly), volume, pace, pauses (at the end of verses and at punctuation marks) and intonation (raising and lowering your voice). To perform a dramatic text is to give it a body: the characters say their lines, and the didascálias (stage directions, in brackets) tell gestures, tone, entrances and exits, and are not spoken aloud. A play is divided into acts and scenes.
Poems and plays were made to be heard and seen
Poems and plays were made to be heard and seen. Read silently, they lose half of what they have. The way you say them shows how you understood them: the same verse said fast and loud sounds cheerful; said slowly and softly, it sounds like a secret or like sadness. So, before reciting, you must understand the text (the feeling, the images, who speaks) and only then choose voice and gestures.
Preparing four verses and one line
«O luar entrou no quarto / com passinhos de veludo; / pousou no meu cobertor / e ficou a ver-me tudo.» (The moonlight tiptoes in, settles on my blanket and watches me.) Step 1: understand: the moonlight is calm, almost a secret. Step 2: pauses: short at each verse end, longer after «tudo». Step 3: tone: low and slow; slow down on «veludo». Step 4: on stage, «LUÍS (a sussurrar): — Não acordes o cão!» means you say only «Não acordes o cão!», in a whisper.
Fast and loud is not expressive
Two traps. First: reciting fast and loud, stopping only when you run out of breath, instead of respecting the pauses and the meaning. Second: reading the didascálias aloud as if they were lines. They are instructions for the actor and the director, not text to be spoken. The rule: say what the character says, and do what the didascália asks.
Poetry sessions, school theatre, radio
People recite poems at poetry sessions in libraries and schools, act in school plays, and use only their voice on the radio, in audiobooks and podcasts. Even an oral presentation depends on pauses, intonation and diction. Before performing anything, a group rehearses: reads, marks pauses, decides gestures and agrees on entrances and exits.
Test what you learned
What are «didascálias» in a dramatic text?
- a) The most important lines of the play
- b) The author's notes on gestures, tone and scene, which are not spoken aloud
- c) The title of each scene
Correct answer: b) The author's notes on gestures, tone and scene, which are not spoken aloud — Yes: they guide the actors and are usually written in brackets.
You will recite: «O luar entrou no quarto / com passinhos de veludo; / pousou no meu cobertor / e ficou a ver-me tudo.» Which reading fits best?
- a) Low and slow, with a pause at the end of each verse
- b) Fast and loud, without pauses, to finish soon
- c) Always the same tone, without thinking about the meaning
Correct answer: a) Low and slow, with a pause at the end of each verse — Yes: the moonlight is calm and secret, and pauses at verse ends let the images sink in.
In the text «LUÍS (a sussurrar): — Não acordes o cão!» (LUÍS, whispering: “Don't wake the dog!”), what does the actor say aloud?
- a) «Luís a sussurrar: não acordes o cão!»
- b) «Não acordes o cão!» shouted, so everyone hears
- c) «Não acordes o cão!», in a whisper
Correct answer: c) «Não acordes o cão!», in a whisper — Yes: you say only the line and do what the didascália asks, which is to whisper.
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