S3 E7: Re-Defining Verse Drama, Pt. 2 - Verse, Paragraph...and Bullet Formatting?

This is Hamlet to Hamilton Exploring Verse Drama. I'm your host, Emily CA Snyder. you're listening to a very special episode. Part two of Redefining Verse Drama, talking today about how you can tell the difference between short lines and lines of verse. To be? Hello friends and welcome back. This is gonna be a very short episode. It's in addition to the redefining verse drama episode, which is of course itself

Very much attached to the defining verse drama episode from season one. So if you want to listen to the current triptych, uh those are the ones to go ahead and give a listen to. Shout out to our patrons on Patreon who have made today's episode possible. If you are enjoying this work, If you find this work important to if you want to make sure that verse drama starts not just surviving but thriving in this twenty first century.

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that's going to tell you how to write verse drama. Alright, so let's get on. The very cool thing and the reason why I wanted to to do this sort of

addendum episode. Uh, and we will get back to soliloquy, wherein next time we're gonna be talking about uh gosh, what did I promise you? Oh, m meta theatrical soliloquy as in soliloquies that are happening in plays within plays. Um we will get back to that and from that we will then be talking about Now that we've learned the different types of soliloquy, how can you start writing soliloquy? BYE

Before we can do that, we need to talk about a new form of formatting. Do do that I've been thinking about for a while and that I just had a wonderful conversation. With uh an MA graduate student here in Stratford upon Avon working at the Shakespeare Institute. Her name is Chiara Hunter, and she herself is a verse dramatist, very exciting. And um this is this is what happens. This is why we have this podcast, guys, is because you cannot figure things out in a vacuum.

You need to be having cross conversations and puzzling things out as a community. So we went out to tea the other day and we're talking about the different types of verse and talking about our verse drama and Shakespeare and this, that, and the other thing. And something that I've been puzzling over is whether short lines, whether versus actually short lines.

Um, or if there's a better definition for verse. Because you look at something like Rosencratz and Gildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, or you look at Who's On First. um by the comedy duo Abbott and Costello. And those are incredibly short lines, right? Um, and yet while if we were to say that verse drama, or verse, I should say, is

is sort of defined by the short line, by the line break. And I do still think first drama is defined by the line break. Um These extremely short lines don't feel defined by their shortness.

Um, so let's read a little bit of who's on first. And then let's take a look at the difference between what I'm going to be calling bullet formatting, which I think that who's on first and a lot of comedy routines. um, quite a bit of Rosa Kratzigill and Stern are dead. And I would even suggest some parts of Shakespeare. such as the wooing scene between Katharina and between Kate and Petrucchio, I think are actually in bullet format. We may shove them into verse as a shared line.

Um But we're going to be taking a look at the difference between bullet formatting and verse formatting and paragraph formatting. Not prose, right? Because prose and um prose and poetry and rhetoric and nonsense, those are all styles of language. but we are looking at the formatting and the performative uses of formatting. In a script. Okay, so let's take a look at who's on first, which I feel is a beautiful example of bullet formatting. Here we go.

All right, so we're going to start um sort of in in the middle because sometimes the beginning of the sketch, depending on how they performed it, would would vary. You get different um different gags, things like that. But it begins with begins with Costello, who's this straight man saying, Look, Abbott, if you're the coach, you must know all the players. Abbott responds, right, certainly do.

Costello says, Well, I never met the guys, so you'll have to tell me their names, and then I'll know who's playing on the team. Abbot says, Oh, I'll tell you their names, but you know, strange as it may seem, they give these ballplayers nowadays very peculiar names. Costello says, You mean funny ones? Abbott says, strange names, pet names like Dizzy Dean. And they do a little bit of um topical humor. And then Abbott says

Well let's see. We have on the bags we have who's on first, what's on second, and I don't know is on third. And Costello says, that's what I want to find out. Okay, we are now transferring from what I'd call paragraph format. You can hear those were very long lines, to what I'm calling bullet format. So Costello says, that's what I want to find out. Abbot replies, I say who's on first, what's on second, and I don't know's on third. Costello says, Are you the manager? Abbott.

Yeah. Costello. You gonna be the coach too? Abbott. Yeah. Costello, and you don't know the fellow's names. Abbott. Well I should. Costello, then who is on first? Abbott. Yes. Costello, I mean the fellow's name. Abbott. Who? The the guy on first. Who? The first baseman. Who? The guy playing first base? Who's on first? I'm asking you who's on first. That's the man's name. That's whose name? Yeah. Well go ahead and tell me. That's it. That's who? Yeah. Okay. Do you hear how fast it is?

And I'm gonna ask you now, I'm gonna go into the next section. Um, it says pause. So I think a lot of times with bullet formatting, you find moments where you need to stop the bit. This is gonna be important because part of the difference. between all these different formattings is performatively how white space is used and how schwump and ouvreel are used, but particularly schwump.

Okay, so there's a pause. And I'm gonna ask you, there's gonna be one line or a few lines that are definitely in paragraph form and the other ones in bullet. So I'm gonna ask if you can hear the difference. Costello says Look, you got a first baseman? Abbott, certainly. Who's playing first? That's right. When you pay off the first baseman every month, who gets the money? Every dollar of it.

All I'm trying to find out is the fellow's name on first base. Who? The guy that gets the money. That's it. Who gets the money on first base? He does every dollar. Sometimes his wife comes and collects it. Whose wife? Yes. Pa. What's wrong with that? Look, all I want to know is when you sign up the first baseman, how does he sign his name to the contract? Who? The guy. Who? How does he sign it? That's how he signs it. Who? Yes.

Okay, so you can feel the length like when it's interrupted by a paragraph line. But again, you can feel the difference between what I'm calling bullets.

So What what makes a bullet a bullet? Why isn't a bullet formatting verse formatting? Because it's short. Is it because it's too short? You know, such as who, the guy, who? How does he sign it? That's how he signs it. Who? Yes. Right? Um why is this not verse? It's short. Why is this not just incredibly short paragraph? Um what is the difference? Okay.

So I think the reason why Bullet is different from the others, as I said, is the use of essentially white space and the use of schroump. And I mean frankly, the use of line endings. So if paragraph form is defined by the margin. Which is to say all the white space and is not particularly playable. Even if the paragraph is slightly tabbed in, um, like the first line is tabbed in, that white space isn't necessarily saying, take a break here.

The white space in a paragraph tends to be margin, tends to be border. It's not playable white space, by and large. Um however if we look at the schwumpf, that is the sort of collection of ideas. Um that are all bundled together. The schwump is on the paragraph. Again, I am talking in all these instances about if the formatting is used effectively, right? You can abuse formatting, you could do it poorly. This is why I think that Christopher Fry's verse.

is not verse, it's a paragraph form. Um, but he puts in line endings about half the time. Um, like half the time the line endings you're like, ah, yes is the verse, and then half the time you're like, You should have just written this in a paragraph, man. Okay. So paragraph schwumpf if used effectively is as you're taught in school, you begin with a thesis with an opening statement, and then it's followed up by the following schumpf ideas.

So you're not changing schoomf in an effective paragraph until you begin a new paragraph. The paragraph itself is one big schumpf, one big collection of ideas. Within that you can have changing ooveril, I think, which is again performative energy. Um, although I also think that you you quite often see that the ouvre real, the performative energy, can remain fairly static in paragraph form. It can also follow that the change doesn't happen in ouvre real's a change in paragraph.

Um again anything can be used anyway, uh, but I think this is a frequent use of paragraph. So therefore verse form is Since it's introducing the line ending, verse is also introducing the possibility, the effective possibility of having schwump not in a paragraph, but on the line. And having changes again on the line or within the line, as again, performative energy can sort of change wherever it needs to change.

Um, but effective verse use is that you don't have a full paragraph that's a schwumpf necessarily. Um, I think uh obviously there might be some difference in In strophic verse, we could look closer at that. that the schwumpf can effectively be on one line of verse and then the schwumpf can change on the next line of verse and change on the next line of verse. And Shakespeare frequently does that, which is why he's so exciting to play.

because a change of swoop schwump really encourages a change of ouvreal. And so the audience is following many more changes. However, you don't necessarily see Schwumpf and Ouvre using a f being used As effectively for performance, I think, in, for example, medieval verse. And yet, medieval verse is still verse, right? You can use

Um, you can use a formatting more effectively perform for performance, less effectively per for performance. And so I think verse is also therefore defined by that line break.

And the line break and this is where I think it's also important a a difference from verse Verse versus bullet. Is that Verse can have a line break which has a hard stop or a soft stop, right? Which has a full stop where it is end stopped where the end of the schwump ends with the end of the line. And that's frequently what we see in medieval verse, or with the end of the line invites an enjamment.

uh sort of again getting that motor running so that you dive into uh a slightly nuanced schwump, nuanced oeuvre in the next line, um, or your cup runneth over. Bullet, I think you're gonna find the end of the bullet. has i uh uh it's not really a hard stop um because the next person picks it up, the second voice, um

uh or the alteration. Um but but there is some sort of hard stop. So even in verse, if you have extremely modern contemporary verse that is very protein stick it You're you might see a list of extremely short lines, and yet I would not call them bullying. Examples are the majority of Jeremy O. Harris's slave play, also an up-and-coming play by Jasmine Mendez called City Without Altar, which is gorgeous.

Um and which Turn to Flesh Productions got to do a developmental reading of. And so you might have a list, for example, of um I don't know, I'm gonna make something up right now. The flower blooms in summer, spring, autumn, and in the winter dies. And you could chorally split that up between different voices the way that the Abbott and Costello

Um Rosa Kratza Gildenstern, Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny tend to have two voices going back and forth. You could have two voices, but that doesn't make it bullet. And that's because I think you can feel that there's sort of this in verse, there's a round sort of feeling.

even if it's end stopped line, there's a round sort of we're still here, we're following something down, the sort of super ouvreal, super schwomp, Um, the reason why I put in a line ending, and I feel you could probably feel those line endings, um, as I was making it up, is you can feel um

that there's a new schwumpf, there's a new idea. I want you to feel these things separately. And I do think that in Bullet, you're not feeling these short lines as you know, sort of a a change, you're feeling them kind of compressed. So again the schoonf in bullet is duck season, rabbit season, duck season, rabbit season resin season, rabbit season, duck season, bang. So you get this sort of like collage feeling in bullet.

You get this sense, if you were thinking of painting, I feel like pointalism where you keep building up the color through dotting it, right? But you're staying in that same spot. Whereas verse, you kind of feel like a ribbon or a long line going down. Right. Um, so let's let's listen to the Abbott and Costello, uh, another bit of it again. Um Let's see. Uh here's a very short piece. Castello said.

starts. Look, you got outfield? Sure. The left fielder's name? Why? I just thought I'd ask you. Well I just thought I'd tell you. Then tell me who is playing left field. Who's playing first? I'm not stay out of the infield. I wanna know who's the guy's name in left field. No, what is on second? I'm not asking who's on second. No, who is on first? I don't know. Third base.

Okay. Um you could feel the breakup of the paragraph, and you could feel especially when into bullet of no what is on second? I'm not asking who's on second, no, who's on first, I don't know third base. Um, in some ways it it almost doesn't matter who's saying what. This is why you can confuse who's Rosocrats, who's Gildan's turn, right? And

I I think it's even still different. Again, it's not just two voices, even if it's one voice doing two voices. It's not Jekyll and Hyde necessarily, although it'd be really awesome anyone who wants to take Jekyll and Hyde and do it in Uh competing verse versus competing paragraphs versus competing bullet. Um right, so so why is again something like the flower which blooms in spring, in autumn, winter withers and fades and

I fade with it too. Again, perhaps you can feel that sort of round thing. That would be verse versus no what is on second. I'm not asking who's on second. No what is on first. I don't know, third base. Can you feel the difference between verse and bullet? Okay, so some other differences between verse and bullet.

Besides bullet sort of feels like pointalism, at least to me. You're sort of again bulleting on the same point, even as you're changing the idea, you're playing it down, you're going ringing all the changes, whereas verse, which feels like Schwoo zoo, right? That's where I first came up with the idea of schoom. Um, because verse lines have so much schwump, whereas bullet feels like boom, boop, bo b, boop, boop, boom, boom.

Um and paragraph feels like chunk ka chunk ka chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk where's the end of the paragraph it just sort of keeps on going.

Um, this brings us to talking about margin and white space and border. So I do think Bullet works effectively in performance. if you have moments of rest, whether that's a pause, whether that's um suddenly breaking it up with paragraph or even breaking it up with verse because again I do think we see this for example in taming of the shrew so Uh so you have again think musically. If you have bullet essentially working as a staccato.

Da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da or something like that. You want to break it up with some so it's not just two hours, three hours of Da da da da da da da but you have da da da da shwoof da da schwoof da da schoon schoof da da paragraph is going on. So think of these, those of you who play drums, these are different sounds, right? This is the different way to make music. All right. White space in bullet form.

It it's not like idetic stickic. The white space is it feels like always a margin, always a border. So I'm going to look at this little bit of ABBA Costello again. If I were to read it as idetic stickic verse, which is to say, all white space is performative. If I'm looking at that rectangle and presuming that any white space in that rectangle is meant to be silence, it would sound like this. I'm now going to perform this abde castello, not as bullets.

But as verse, okay? Costello, look, you got outfield, Abbott, sure. The left fielder's name, why? I just thought I'd ask you, well I just thought I'd tell you. Then tell me who is playing left field, who is playing first. I'm not stay out of infield, I want to know who's the guy's name in left field. No what is on second? I'm not asking who's on second, no who is on first.

I don't know. Third base. Did you feel that difference? Like it's not funny anymore. But also did you feel it was so interesting, even as I was performing it, I could feel that Kind of happening when I was performing it as verse. Let me try performing this as paragraph, let's see. Look, you got Outfield Shore, the left fielder's name. Why I just thought I'd ask you.

Well, I just thought I'd tell you, then tell me who is playing left field, who is playing first. I'm not stay out of infield. I want to know what's the guy's name in left field, know what is on second. I'm not asking you who's on second, no who is on first. I don't know third base. Yeah. Okay, do you feel how that's like you kind of have in some ways for a paragraph there there's an there can be an element of monotone or at least an element of I'm not necessarily stopping.

Right? I'm not necessarily having pauses, but I'm also not hitting, hitting, hitting, hitting, hitting. And again, I would suggest neither of those is particularly funny.

So let's take a moment. Let's look at that taming of the shrew, and then we're going to end this episode. All right, one second, let me pull that up. Okay, so here we go. This is act two, scene one of Taming of the Shrew. It's between Kate and Petrucchio. I'm going to read uh what is typically All done in verse. All right. Um, we're gonna talk about the formatting in just a second. Okay. So I'm going to start with Petrucchio.

And I'm going to read it as it's typically performed. Ready? So Petrucchio. Good morrow, Kate, for that's your name, I hear. Kate. Well have you heard but something hard of hearing they call me Katharina that do talk of me Petruccio You lie in faith for you are called plainkate and bonny Kate and sometimes Kate the cursed But Kate, the prettiest Kate in Christendom, Kate of Kate Hall, my super dainty Kate for dainties are all Kates, and therefore, Kate, take this of me, Kate of my consolation,

Hearing thy mildness praised in every town, thy virtues spoke of, and thy beauty sounded, yet not so deeply as to thee belongs, myself am moved to woo thee for my wife. Kate moved in good time, let him that moved you hither remove you hence. I knew you at the first you were immovable, Petruchio. Why? What's immovable?

Kate, a join stool. Petrucchio, thou hast hit it. Come, sit on me. Kate, asses are made to bear, and so are you. Petrucchio, women are made to bear, and so are you. Kate, no such jade as you, if me, you mean. Petruccio, alas, good Kate, I will not burden thee. For knowing thee to be but young and light Kate, too light for such a swain as you to catch, and yet as heavy as my weight should be. Petrucchio should be should buzz Kate, well tain and like a buzzard,

Petruchio, oh slow winged turtle shall a buzzard take thee? Kate, I for a turtle as he takes a buzzard. Petruchio, come come, you wasp, with faith you are too angry. Kate, if I be waspish, best we were my sting. Petrucchio, my remedy then is to pluck it out.

Kate, I if the fool could find it where it lies, Petruccio, who knows not where was wear his sting in his tail? Kate, in his tongue, Petruccio, whose tongue, Kate? Yours if you talk of tails, and so farewell. Petruccio, what with my tongue in your tail? Okay, I'll stop there. Um, I wonder if you could feel like if you're listening to this, how you would format it. Now. How it's typically formatted when we receive the text is in all verse, right? People cut it at 10. They call it pentameter.

There are some parts of the that people cut it at ten and other scholars come along and say, Okay, well was this the editor cutting it at ten? Is this actually in the rehearsal script? If we have it, is it actually supposed to be paragraph form? And then the other thing they say is, oh shoot, there are these short lines that don't make up 10. What do we do with them?

Um this has been the study of several people, including Abigail Rokison, who is from the Shakespeare Institute and who I hope we'll be getting on this podcast. Once we get our feet settled here in uh Chicago and Stratford upon Avon, respectively. Uh not that uh Dr. Abigail Rokison is in Chicago. I am talking about Colin and myself, respectively. Um And so she's questioned, what are these short lines? They don't always equal a pentameter

What would do we do with them? Are they actually paragraph form? Should we be putting them as a shared line? Should we be putting them by themselves? There is another professor who also I got to speak with, Gary Logan from Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama. uh who has developed a different idea of what these short lines that don't equal 10 what they do. Um his work is still being written and is not yet published.

Uh and we also hope to get him, if you're listening, Gary Logan, feel free to contact us or remind us. Uh same thing, Dr. Abigail Rokus, and I promise I will ping you. uh and we will find a time to get both these great scholars on to talk about short lines. Um, but he has a different theory. It's not published yet, so I I don't feel comfortable talking about it yet.

Um, so what I'm putting forth essentially is my theory, which is that these do not need to equal 10 because we have moved from verse formatting into bullet formatting.

And I think you can feel that in the performance. So let me do this beginning part and let me read it as verse. All right. We're gonna start with Kate. saying, and I'm gonna perform it as verse, right? As if these are shared lines, as if it keeps going, right? Here's Cape Moved in good time, let him that moved you hither remove you hence. I knew you at the first. You were immovable, why, what's immovable? A joined stool thou hast hit it, come, sit on me.

Asses are made to bear, and so are you. Women are made to bear, and so are you. No such jade as you if me, you mean. Alas, good Kate, I will not burden thee. I'm gonna go down a little bit. Ah sorry, Petruccio, come, you wasp if faith you are too angry. If I be waspish, best beware my sting. My remedy then is to pluck it out. Aye, if the cool if the fool could find it where it lies.

Who knows not where wasp does wear his sting? In his tail, in his tongue, whose tongue? Yours if you talk of tails, and so farewell. Particularly did you feel that Um who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting in his tail in his tongue whose tongue yours if you talk of tales and so farewell. All right. It's got sort of a round way. It's an interesting way to perform it. Let's do just this. Um actually let's go back to the same place here. Because

It feels to me that it is, we are juggling in this scene, verse and paragraph and bullet. So this time I'm gonna perform the whole thing in paragraph, all right? Here we go, Kate. And I'm gonna try to do high voice, low voice, uh in a very gender stereotypical um but there we go. Kate. Moved in good time, let him that moved you hither remove you hence. I knew you at the first you were immovable. Why, what's immovable? A join stool. Thou hast hit it, come, sit on me.

As are made to bear, and so are you. Women are made to bear, and so are you. No such jade as you, if me you mean. Alas, good Kate, I will not burden thee, and then we'll go down to Come come, you wasp if you are too angry. If I be waspish, best beware my sting. My remedy then is to pluck it out. I, if the fool could find it where it lies,

Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting in his tail? In his tongue Whose tongue? Yours if you talk of tails, and so farewell. What, with my tongue in your tail? Nay, come again, good Kate, I am a gentleman. Okay, what was interesting performing that as paragraph is every time we switch to a new voice. it actually felt like a new thesis statement. So it was that first line of the paragraph. It was short was a new schwumpf thought, but it was really

Right It was chonk, here's a thesis, chonk here's a thesis, chonk here's a thesis. It wasn't bullet, bullet, bullet, bullet, bullet. It wasn't verse, verse, verse, verse. It was Chong Kirza Thought, new thesis statement, new thesis statement. And I actually felt So, whereas the verse was kind of at least keeping me with the two of them, although like I almost didn't feel the difference between who was who.

Um, because we were just sort of sliding off and around one another. Um when I do it as paragraph, I felt really distant. From whoever was the next me to speak. Women are made to bear, and so are you. No such jade as you, if me you mean. Let me actually go back. Thou hast hid it, come sit on me.

Asses are made to bear, and so are you. Women are made to bear, and so are you. No such jade as you, if me you mean. I feel like a news anchor, I grant you. Um But yeah, no let me do these bit Again, I'm let's do just the bits that are I feel are in bullet, which is.

The setup in paragraph, I feel, which is I knew you at the first you were a movable. Why, what's a movable? A joined stool, thou hast hit it, come sit on me. Asses are made to bear and so are you. Women are made to bear and so are you. No such jade as you of me, you mean Okay, so even though those middle lines are longer are in fact in pentameter, they still feel bullet, don't they?

Right? Still feel bullet. Um, again, perhaps we could say we have idetic bullet, we have protein bullet, you know. We could talk about um meter. Absolutely bullet can have meter, just as anything can have.

I d just as everything has meter, right? Everything has rhythm. Everything has uh can have beat. Strict repeated meter, I should say. Okay, so let's go back and let's perform this now as the the second chunk. As going from perhaps paragraph or perhaps two bullets back and forth, right? So here we go. In bullet.

Petruchio beginning. Come come, you wasp, if faith you are too angry. If I be waspish, best beware my sting, my remedy then is to pluck it out. I, if the fool could find it where it lies, who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting, in his tail, in his tongue, whose tongue's yours if you talk of tails, and so farewell. Um, another way to think of this, and again thinking of Rosa Kratz, Gillen Sterner dead

is a tennis. B, right? But again, we're staying on the same thought. We're wringing the changes down. That's what we're doing. But it is the same game, right? um as opposed to verse which is c sort of again Da da da da da even if you're using strong consonant Um so for example, let's go back up to the verse part with Petruchia.

This is absolutely inverse. Alright? You lie in faith, for you are called plain Kate, and Bonnie Kate, and sometimes Kate the cursed. But Kate, the prettiest Kate in Christom. Let's do just that much. Why is that not bullet? Right? Because we've got this sort of ringing the changes down with what is Kate Plain, Kate Bonnie, Kate, Kate the curse, but Kate the prettiest Kate in Christendom.

I think you could format that as as bullet if you wanted. It's formatted in verse, though, and I think It does work effectively inverse because what you're getting is the change of schwump on each line. So I'm gonna do greater line breaks for you to hear. You lie in faith for you are called plain Kate, and bonny Kate, and sometimes Kate the Cursed, but Kate, the prettiest Kate in Christendom.

Kate of Kate Hall, my super dainty Kate. For dainties are all Kate's, and therefore Kate. Take this of me, Kate of my consolation. Do you hear how like there's a thought through it, right? Um, and there's a thought that turns on the line break. This is extremely effective verb. Whereas the

You have a bit more of that tennis. Why what's immovable? A joined stool, thou hast hit it, come sit on me. Asses are made to bear and so are you. Women are made to bear and so are you. No such jade as me, you mean. Um or again lovely later. Who knows not where wasp is where his sting in his tail and his tongue, whose tongue yours if you talk of tails, and so farewell. And you can feel that we kind of go from at least this bit I feel is paragraph to bullet to verse.

Here's a paragraph Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting in his tail? So what you have is the paragraph thesis statement schwumpf. Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting. And then we go to bullet in his tail, in his tongue, whose tongue, yours if you talk of tails and so farewell. The yours if you talk of tails and so farewell Definitely feels like verse. Not just because it's a strict repeated meter, not just because it's a longer line.

But because the schwoump goes through and does that sort of ribbon thing. Yours if you talk of tails and so farewell. Because you go from yours, which is taking off the bullet from before, if you talk of tails, which has of course the pun of we're talking about butts, but we're also talking about tails, as in um Telling a story. So this is the end of the tales, and so farewell, right? Which he comes back with: what with my tongue in your tail?

trying to maybe get it back to either verse, but it feels more like a bullet to me. Um bum. And then it goes back to what feels to me more like paragraph. Nay, come again, good Kate. I am a gentleman.

All right. I think it's the white space, it's performative white space. It's about whether a line break is a line break or whether it's just a border, a margin. And really it's about the schwump. And again we're talking about effective use. of formatting is if in paragraph that first thesis statement and everything else um supports it. Sometimes with paragraph you only get that first thesis statement. Right? Just one line.

Um, if it's verse, effective verse, you have the change and really the development of schwump. through the ideas. That's why on a shared line you have the sense that it's still connected. There's still an overall schwump um between these or that it's meant to be played that way. And it's important for a shared line too, particularly in idetic stickic verse, because then you're not confused as to whether we're still in verse or whether we've switched over to paragraph or bullet, right? All right.

The and then bullet is defined more by um a pointed accumulation or or f bringing the changes back and forth. Um the schwump is Is sort of this explosion, this pointalism. I need to think more about it. What do you think? I guess that's my question, right? What do you guys think? What do you think? But I think this solves the question of short lines.

Yeah, so that's my theory right now is that we've discovered another form of formatting which we're gonna which I'm gonna call bullet. Thank you so much to Kiara Hunter who absolutely helped talk through this idea. And I think that the I the idea of bullet actually really helps bring into focus more what is verse, why is verse, what is paragraph, why is paragraph, and how are all these things.

formatted, how does that translate into performance? How does that translate into the music of this spoken dialogue which is performed? Okay. That's it for me, your super short episode redefining verse drama, the formatting of drama, um, and the difference between just a short verse line.

Versus a bullet. There we go. Talk to you later. Hamlet to Hamilton exploring verse drama. Patrons on Patreon. Special thanks to stars and scans Ben Claude, Madeline Farley, and Jasmine Nayek. If you'd like to become our patron and get different goodies, you can join us over on patreon.com slash Hamlet to Hamilton. Hamlet to Hamilton is hosted by Emily C.A. Snyder with audio engineering and sound design by Colin. This podcast is part of the Turn to Flesh Productions.

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