Description

Cicely Berry, Voice Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, is world-famous for her voice teaching. The Actor and the Text — now expanded in a new edition — is her classic book, distilled from years of working with actors of the highest calibre.  Building on the specific exercises covered in her first book, Voice and the Actor, Cicely Berry relates the practicality of voice production to the challenges of a difficult text. And by getting inside the words we use – whether those of Shakespeare or our contemporaries – she shows how to release their energy and excitement for an audience.ContentsPart ONE: Attitudes to Voice and Text    Chapter One: Sound and Meaning    1 Attitudes to voice    2 The practical means  Chapter Two: Heightened versus Naturalistic TextPart TWO: Shakespeare — Setting out the Rules  Chapter Three: Metre and Rhythm  Chapter Four: Structures, Energy, Imagery and Sound    1 Energy through the text    2 Antithesis    3 Substance of the word    4 Discovery and movement of thought    5 Nature of the image, its logic, and its inquiry into nature    6 ArguAient and emotion    7 Word games and patterns    8 Structure of speechesPart THREE: Shakespeare — the Practical Means  Chapter Five: Introduction to the Exercises Chapter Six: Substance of the Text    1 Sounds: vowels and consonants    2 Hearing the language: substance of text    3 Language fabric    Chapter Seven: Metre and Energy    1 Metre    2 Energy through the text    3 Subversion — or making language your own Chapter Eight: Acting, Text and style    Chapter Nine: Further Points of Text    1 Prose    2 Heightened music    3 Scene structures    4 Recap on speech structures    5 Sonnets    Chapter Ten: Relating to Other Texts    1 Jacobean text    2 Restoration text    3 Formal modern text    4 Modern textPart FOUR: Voice Work  Chapter Eleven: Preparation    1 Finding the space    2 Using poetry    3 Cadence and note  Chapter Twelve: Further Voice ExercisesFurther PerspectivesEnjoy Boggy