The Actor and the Text

by Berry, Cicely

• ISBN13: 9781557831385
• ISBN10: 1557831386
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-02-01
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
• More Book Details

Summary

These words of Cicely Berry, the voice director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, speak to anyone who needs to speak his or her piece - in any arena, at sales meetings or religious revivals. Berry's book will insure that the speaker and the text gets heard - accurately and with true emotional range. Never again will one be accused of simply "reading a prepared statement." Berry's exercises to develop relaxation, breathing and muscular control will literally help everyone breathe easier when confronting the printed page.

Table of Contents

Foreword	7	(1)
Trevor Nunn
Acknowledgments	8	(1)
Introduction	9	(5)
Part ONE: Attitudes to Voice and Text	14	(38)
Chapter One: Sound and Meaning	14	(18)
1 Attitudes to voice	15	(9)
2 The practical means	24	(8)
Chapter Two: Heightened versus Naturalistic Text	32	(20)
Part TWO: Shakespeare -- Setting out the Rules	52	(88)
Chapter Three: Metre and Rhythm	52	(30)
Chapter Four: Structures, Energy, Imagery and Sound	82	(58)
1 Energy through the text	82	(8)
2 Antithesis	90	(5)
3 Substance of the word	95	(9)
4 Discovery and movement of thought	104	(6)
5 Nature of the image, its logic, and its inquiry into nature	110	(5)
6 Argument and emotion	115	(6)
7 Word games and patterns	121	(7)
8 Structure of speeches	128	(12)
Part THREE: Shakespeare -- the Practical Means	140	(120)
Chapter Five: Introduction to the Exercises	140	(3)
Chapter Six: Substance of the Text	143	(28)
1 Sounds: vowels and consonants	143	(5)
2 Hearing the language: substance of text	148	(9)
3 Language fabric	157	(14)
Chapter Seven: Metre and Energy	171	(18)
1 Metre	171	(7)
2 Energy through the text	178	(7)
3 Subversion -- or making language your own	185	(4)
Chapter Eight: Acting, Text and Style	189	(16)
Chapter Nine: Further Points of Text	205	(46)
1 Prose	205	(8)
2 Heightened music	213	(7)
3 Scene structures	220	(9)
4 Recap on speech structures	229	(11)
5 Sonnets	240	(11)
Chapter Ten: Relating to Other Texts	251	(9)
1 Jacobean text	251	(2)
2 Restoration text	253	(1)
3 Formal modern text	254	(1)
4 Modern text	255	(5)
Part FOUR: Voice Work	260	(25)
Chapter Eleven: Preparation	260	(14)
1 Finding the space	260	(5)
2 Using poetry	265	(8)
3 Cadence and note	273	(1)
Chapter Twelve: Further Voice Exercises	274	(11)
Further Perspectives	285	(12)
Index of Quotations	297	(4)
Quotes by Subject	301