Authors: Cicely Berry, Trevor Nunn
ISBN-13: 9781557831385, ISBN-10: 1557831386
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Applause Theatre Book Publishers
Date Published: February 2000
Edition: 1st Edition
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.
Foreword | 7 | |
Acknowledgments | 8 | |
Introduction | 9 | |
Pt. 1 | Attitudes to Voice and Text | |
Ch. 1 | Sound and Meaning | 14 |
1 | Attitudes to voice | 15 |
2 | The practical means | 24 |
Ch. 2 | Heightened versus Naturalistic Text | 32 |
Pt. 2 | Shakespeare - Setting out the Rules | |
Ch. 3 | Metre and Rhythm | 52 |
Ch. 4 | Structures, Energy, Imagery and Sound | 82 |
1 | Energy through the text | 82 |
2 | Antithesis | 90 |
3 | Substance of the word | 95 |
4 | Discovery and movement of thought | 104 |
5 | Nature of the image, its logic, and its inquiry into nature | 110 |
6 | Argument and emotion | 115 |
7 | Word games and patterns | 121 |
8 | Structure of speeches | 128 |
Pt. 3 | Shakespeare - the Practical Means | |
Ch. 5 | Introduction to the Exercises | 140 |
Ch. 6 | Substance of the Text | 143 |
1 | Sounds: vowels and consonants | 143 |
2 | Nearing the language: substance of text | 148 |
3 | Language fabric | 157 |
Ch. 7 | Metre and Energy | 171 |
1 | Metre | 171 |
2 | Energy through the text | 178 |
3 | Subversion - or making language your own | 185 |
Ch. 8 | Acting, Text and Style | 189 |
Ch. 9 | Further Points of Text | 205 |
1 | Prose | 205 |
2 | Heightened music | 213 |
3 | Scene structures | 220 |
4 | Recap on speech structures | 229 |
5 | Sonnets | 240 |
Ch. 10 | Relating to Other Texts | 251 |
1 | Jacobean text | 251 |
2 | Restoration text | 253 |
3 | Formal modern text | 254 |
4 | Modern text | 255 |
Pt. 4 | Voice Work | |
Ch. 11 | Preparation | 260 |
1 | Finding the space | 260 |
2 | Using poetry | 265 |
3 | Cadence and note | 273 |
Ch. 12 | Further Voice Exercises | 274 |
Further Perspectives | 285 | |
Index of Quotations | 297 | |
Quotes by Subject | 301 |