Tackling Text [and Subtext]

Tackling Text [and Subtext]

Author: Barbara Houseman

Publisher: Nick Hern Books

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13:

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A handbook for students, actors and teachers, on how to cope with text, character and situation.


Finding Your Voice

Finding Your Voice

Author: Barbara Houseman

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9780878301676

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Finding your voice can be used as a resource by actors at all levels, form students and young professionals to established and experienced actors. Drama teachers in schools and committed amateur actors who want to increase their vocal skills and understanding will also find it invaluable.


Mastering the Audition

Mastering the Audition

Author: Donna Soto-Morettini

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2013-12-02

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 1408166208

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Frustrating, nerve-wracking, job-winning or job-losing, flawed yet necessary - auditioning is a maddening business for everyone involved. The people behind the audition desk are looking for a killer audition (often under tremendous pressure), but most of the auditionees walk into the room feeling nervous, unprepared, and unable to control their own performance. Although the idea of creating 'winning performance strategies' is common in business and sports studies, no one has ever really attempted to bring the psychology of creating a winning performance to a book on auditioning. Drawing on some fascinating, cutting-edge research into how the brain copes and responds in high-stress situations, Mastering the Audition looks closely at the effects of fear, at our flawed ability to assess or really know ourselves, at what really drives us, and at what it really takes to master the audition experience. Applicable to all areas of performing, including reality television, musicals, stage, film and commercials, this book helps you hone your performing skills and develop the mental toughness that can keep you going through the inevitable ups and downs of the audition process. Where other books advise you to 'be confident' and 'be prepared', Mastering the Audition tells you exactly HOW.


The Verbal Arts Workbook

The Verbal Arts Workbook

Author: David Carey

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2010-09-26

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 1408132567

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Actors need to learn not only how to use their voice, but to use voice and language together. This book is about the expressive potential of language, and how actors can develop the verbal skills to release that potential. Written by tutors at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and authors of the successful companion title, The Vocal Arts Workbook + DVD, this book provides practical approaches to each aspect of verbal expression: Sound: speech sounds and how to use them more expressively Image: bring life and specificity to images when you speak Sense: focus on the most significant words and phrases in a speech or scene Rhythm: how rhythm is created and used in both verse and prose Argument: the structure or logic of language Putting it all together using one classical and one modern scene Each of the chapters consists of several sections: Framework; Exploration; Exercises; Follow-up; Suggested Texts; and Further Reading, addressing the learner throughout, but also providing Teaching Tips which give specific notes for teachers.


Stages of Reckoning

Stages of Reckoning

Author: Amy Mihyang Ginther

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-12-30

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 1000823180

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Stages of Reckoning is a crucial conversation about how racialized bodies and power intersect within actor training spaces. This book provokes embodied and intellectual discomfort for the reader to take risks with their ideologies, identities, and practices and to make new pedagogical choices for students with racialized identities. Centering the voices of actor trainers of color to acknowledge their personal experience and professional pedagogy as theory, this volume illuminates actionable ideas for text work, casting, voice, consent practices, and movement while offering decolonial approaches to current Eurocentric methods. These offerings invite the reader to create spaces where students can bring more of themselves, their communities, and their stories into their training and as fodder for performance making that will lead to a more just world. This book is for people in high/secondary schools, higher education, and private training studios who wish to teach and direct actors of color in ways that more fully honor their multiple identities.


The Opera Singer's Acting Toolkit

The Opera Singer's Acting Toolkit

Author: Martin Constantine

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2019-10-31

Total Pages: 393

ISBN-13: 1350006483

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The complete dramatic toolbox for the opera singer – a step-by-step guide detailing how to create character, from auditions through to rehearsal and performance and formulate a successful career. Drawing upon the innovative approach to the training of young opera singers developed by Martin Constantine, Co-Director of ENO Opera Works, The Opera Singer's Acting Toolkit leads the singer through the process of bringing the libretto and score to life in order to create character. It draws on the work of practitioners such as Stanislavski, Lecoq, Laban and Cicely Berry to introduce the singer to the tools needed to create an interior and physical life for character. The book draws on operatic repertoire from Handel through Mozart to Britten to present practical techniques and exercises to help the singer develop their own individual dramatic toolbox. The Opera Singer's Acting Toolkit features interviews with leading conductors, directors, singers and casting agents to offer invaluable insights into the professional operatic world, and advice on how to remain focused on the importance of the work itself.


Approaches to Actor Training

Approaches to Actor Training

Author: John Freeman

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2019-03-15

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 1350316180

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This insightful and practically-focused collection brings together different approaches to actor training from professionals based at universities and conservatoires in the UK, the US and Australia. Exploring the cultural and institutional differences which affect actor training, and analysing developments in the field today, it addresses a range of different approaches, from Stanislavski's System to contemporary immersive theatre. With hands-on focus from some of the world's leading programmes, and attention paid to ethical control, consent and safe practice, this book sees expert tutors exploring pathways to sustainable 21st century careers. Designed for tutors, students and practitioners, Approaches to Actor Training examines what it means to train as an actor, what actors-in-training can expect from their programmes of study and how the road to professional accomplishment is mapped and travelled.


Voice into Acting

Voice into Acting

Author: Christina Gutekunst

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-01-14

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 1350064947

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How can actors bridge the gap between themselves and the text and action of a script, integrating fully their learned vocal skills? How do we make an imaginary world real, create the life of a role, and fully embody it vocally and physically so that voice and acting become one? Christina Gutekunst and John Gillett unite their depth of experience in voice training and acting to create an integrated and comprehensive approach informed by Stanislavski and his successors – the acting approach widely taught to actors in drama schools throughout the world. This updated edition contains: a new chapter on vocal embodiment of actions, new findings from neuroscience supporting the approach, more exercises, warm-up routines for training, rehearsal and performance, and a completely new glossary of terms. The authors create a step-by-step guide to explore how voice can: - Respond to our thoughts, senses, feelings, imagination and will - Fully express language in content and form - Communicate imaginary circumstances and human experience - Transform to adapt to different roles - Connect to a variety of audiences and spaces Featuring 55 illustrations by German artist, Dany Heck, Voice into Acting is an essential manual for the actor seeking full vocal identity in characterization, and for the voice teacher open to new techniques or an alternative approach to harmonize with the actor's process.


Teaching Strategies for Neurodiversity and Dyslexia in Actor Training

Teaching Strategies for Neurodiversity and Dyslexia in Actor Training

Author: Petronilla Whitfield

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-07-30

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13: 0429858191

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Teaching Strategies for Neurodiversity and Dyslexia in Actor Training addresses some of the challenges met by acting students with dyslexia and highlights the abilities demonstrated by individuals with specific learning differences in actor training. The book offers six tested teaching strategies, created from practical and theoretical research investigations with dyslexic acting students, using the methodologies of case study and action research. Utilizing Shakespeare’s text as a laboratory of practice and drawing directly from the voices and practical work of the dyslexic students themselves, the book explores: the stress caused by dyslexia and how the teacher might ameliorate it through changes in their practice the theories and discourse surrounding the label of dyslexia the visual, kinaesthetic, and multisensory processing preferences demonstrated by some acting students assessed as dyslexic acting approaches for engaging with Shakespeare’s language, enabling those with dyslexia to develop their authentic voice and abilities a grounding of the words and the meaning of the text through embodied cognition, spatial awareness, and epistemic tools Stanislavski’s method of units and actions and how it can benefit and obstruct the student with dyslexia when working on Shakespeare Interpretive Mnemonics as a memory support and hermeneutic process, and the use of color and drawing towards an autonomy in live performance This book is a valuable resource for voice and actor training, professional performance, and for those who are curious about emancipatory methods that support difference through humanistic teaching philosophies.


Theatre Studies

Theatre Studies

Author: Kenneth Pickering

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-09-16

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1349923303

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An interactive text covering the requirements of undergraduate and diploma courses in theatre, drama and performing arts, successfully integrating both practical and theoretical work. The authors draw on considerable experience of contemporary practice and provide fascinating examples of theatre at work through text and improvisation.