In The Actor Speaks, Patsy Rodenburg takes actors and actresses, both professional and beginners, through a complete voice workshop. She touches on every aspect of performance work that involves the voice and sorts through the kinds of vexing problems every performer faces onstage: breath and relaxation; vocal range and power; communication with other actors; singing and acting simultaneously; working on different sized stages and in both large and small auditoriums; approaching the vocal demands of different kinds of scripts. This is the final word on the actor's voice and it's destined to become the classic work on the subject for some time to come.
The Actor Speaks investigates the unique interplay of talent, inspiration, and technique that comprises an actor's method of working. Through twenty-four in-depth interviews with acclaimed actors from the avant-garde, Broadway, and Hollywood, director-teacher Jane Sonenberg explores each artist's creative process. Ruth Maleczech, John Turturro, Zoe Caldwell, Dianne Wiest, Blue Man Group, Alan Arkin, Olympia Dukakis, Lily Tomlin, Mercedes Ruehl, and others share candid anecdotes from their lives and careers, giving insight into the way an acting process is formed and how the performance reflects that process.
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.
Voice and the Actor is the first classic work by Cicely Berry, Voice Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and world-famous voice teacher. Encapsulating her renowned method of teaching voice production, the exercises in this straightforward, no-nonsense guide will develop relaxation, breathing and muscular control - without which no actor or speaker can achieve their full potential. Illustrated with passages used in Cicely Berry's own teaching, Voice and the Actor is the essential first step towards speaking a text with truth and meaning. Inspiring and practical, her words will be a revelation for beginner and professional alike.
From the bestselling author of The Right to Speak and The Need for Words comes this Bloomsbury Revelations edition of the essential guide to voice work: The Actor Speaks. Beginning with what every first-year acting student faces in class and ending with what leading professional actors must achieve every night on stage, Patsy Rodenburg's celebrated work as one of the world's foremost voice and acting coaches is fully revealed in this thoughtful and inspirational book about acting. Written for the training and working actor, Rodenburg's book brings to life a wide range of exercises and methods to release the actor's voice, covering everything from posture, breath and the body, performing in specific spaces, previews and first performances, managing different length runs, using microphones and dealing with an ageing or sick voice. This book allows the reader to perform every night, reaching the pitch, passion and vocal intensity that the best roles require.
The book is based on a series of unique oral histories and interviews with actors who love the stage first and foremost. Editor Joan Jeffri focuses on the experience of actors in their training and career development, and on their relationships to society, culture, and institutions. Although names like Alan Alda are recognizable from other media, these actors all grew up being nourished by the stage. Their stories show that theatre is everywhere in this country--not only on Broadway, but also in churches, in schools, in regions, and in towns. These interviews and a thorough introduction provide a history of the American theatre for almost a century--the Yiddish theatre, the WPA, the start of regional theatre, off- and off-off-Broadway, and the Great White Way--through the voices of those who lived it.
From A Midsummer Night's Dream's Puck to Othello's Desdemona, this new edition of Speaking Shakespeare gives you all the necessary tools to bring any of Shakespeare's eclectic characters to life. Patsy Rodenburg uses practical exercises and textual analysis to hone in on your dramatic resonance, breathing and placement in order to unlock your potential for playing these iconic characters. Speeches and scenes such as Mark Antony's 'O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth' and the bloody scene in which Macbeth admits to Lady Macbeth that he has 'done the deed' are placed in context and discussed in depth. Combining clear practical, textual and imaginative work with a brilliant analysis of scenes and speeches from the whole range of Shakespeare's plays, this is an essential and inspiring guide for anyone working on his plays today. It brings a renewed focus on the language of power, so frequently spoken in the worlds of politicians and company directors, which will give readers insight into the potency of clear, direct communication, specifically in the context of Shakespeare. Each chapter has been revised following the author's 20 additional years of experience as a voice coach and includes techniques necessary for a clear and convincing performance.
In Speaking Shakespeare, Patsy Rodenburg tackles one of the most difficult acting jobs: speaking Shakespeare's words both as they were meant to be spoken and in an understandable and dramatic way. Rodenburg calls this "a simple manual to start the journey into the heart of Shakespeare," and that is what she gives us. With the same insight she displayed in The Actor Speaks, Rodenburg tackles the playing of all Shakespeare's characters. She uses dramatic resonance, breathing, and placement to show how an actor can bring Hamlet, Rosalind, Puck and other characters to life. This is one book every working actor must have.
A Warrior-Actor's Odyssey from Afghanistan to Hollywood and Back Fahim Fazli is a man of two worlds: Afghanistan, the country of his birth, and America, the nation he adopted and learned to love. He’s also a man who escaped oppression, found his dream profession, and then paid it all forward by returning to Afghanistan as an interpreter with the U.S. Marines. When Fahim speaks, the story he tells is harrowing, fascinating, and inspiring. Born and raised in Kabul, Fahim saw his country and family torn apart by revolution and civil war. Dodging Afghan authorities and informers with his father and brother, Fahim made his way across the border to Pakistan and then to America. After reuniting with his mother, sisters, and another brother, he moved to California with dreams of an acting career. After 15 turbulent years that included two unsuccessful arranged marriages to Afghan brides, he finally qualified for membership in the Screen Actors Guild—and found true American love. Though Fahim's California life was happy and rewarding, he kept thinking about the battlefields of Afghanistan. Haunted by a desire to serve his adopted country, he became a combat linguist. While other interpreters opted for safe assignments, Fahim chose one of the most dangerous: working with the Leathernecks in embattled Helmand Province, where his outgoing personality and deep cultural understanding made him a favorite of both Marines and local Afghans—and a pariah to the Taliban, who put a price on his head. Fahim Speaks is an inspiring story of perseverance and patriotism—and of the special love that one man developed for his adopted country. A gold medal winner from the Military Writers Society of America!
