Question

Read the following scene from Trifles.

COUNTY ATTORNEY (preoccupied). Is there a cat?
(Mrs. Hale glances in a quick covert way at Mrs. Peters.)

MRS. PETERS. Well, not now. They’re superstitious, you know. They leave.

COUNTY ATTORNEY (to Sheriff Peters, continuing an interrupted conversation.) No sign at all of anyone having come from the outside. Their own rope. Now let’s go up again and go over it piece by piece. (They start upstairs.) It would have to have been someone who knew just the—
(Mrs. Peters sits down. The two women sit there not looking at one another, but as if peering into something and at the same time holding back. When they talk now, it is the manner of feeling their way over strange ground, as if afraid of what they are saying, but as if they cannot help saying it.)

How would an audio recording most likely convey the characters’ actions during this scene?
with a change in each character’s tone of voice
with the reading of the written stage directions
with a change in the volume of the characters’ voices
with the lines of dialogue spoken by each character

Answer 1

with a change in each character’s tone of voice

Explanation: an audio recording typically uses actors’ vocal tone, pauses, and nonverbal sounds to convey actions and attitudes rather than reading stage directions aloud.