ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the proposition that a visual construct approach may assist some acting students identified as dyslexic in their accessing of the content of Shakespeare’s text, enabling an assured reading of the words. It explores the use of drawing in informing actors’ characterizations. The ideas of actors and artists who have declared themselves dyslexic and their visual methods to assuage it are described and discussed. Circumventing the obstacles caused by dyslexia, it gives examples of exercises that utilize drawing to connect with the written text. The chapter introduces the first four participants in the study (second-year acting students assessed as dyslexic) and a consideration of what image might mean in relation to the dyslexic participants’ production of an image-based primary text.
