Introduction to Speechwork for Actors: An Inclusive Approach

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Description

Traditional speech work has long favored an upper-class white accent as the model of intelligibility. Because of that, generations of actors have felt disconnected from their own identities and acting choices. This much-needed textbook redresses that trend and encourages actors to achieve intelligibility through rigorous language analysis and an exploration of their own accent and articulation practices. Following an acting class model, where you first analyze the script then reveal yourself through it, this work breaks down a process for analyzing language in a way that excites the imagination. Guiding the student through the labyrinth of abstract concepts and terms, readers are delivered into the practicality of exercises and explorations, giving them self-awareness that enables them to make their own speech come alive. Informed throughout by notes from the author's own extensive experience working with directors and acting teachers, this book serves as an ideal speech-training resource for the 21st -century actor, and includes specially commissioned online videos demonstrating key exercises.

Reviews

The authors meticulous linguistic analysis paves the way for understanding the use of the technical skills of pitch/melody, volume/dynamics, and tempo/rhythm introduced later in the sequence. The inclusion of a warmup template is beneficial to giving students guidance in devising their own customized warmups. * Professor Robert Gonzalez, University of Tampa, USA *
A fresh and engaging approach to speech-work for actors working in the contemporary theatre. It stresses intelligibility and clarity in any accent or dialect rather than imposing a standard of speech that is only appropriate for a limited range or roles and styles. * David Carey, Voice and Text Director, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, USA *

Author Bio

Ron Carlos is a voice, speech, and dialect coach for film, television, and theater. A graduate of the American Repertory Theater and Moscow Art Theater School Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University, he has taught voice, speech, and dialects at the Yale School of Drama (now the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale), Marymount Manhattan College, City College of New York, Berg Studios, The National Student Leadership Conference, and The Shakespeare Academy at Stratford. Ron Carloss work has been heard through the voices of actors on and off Broadway, in regional theaters across the United States, on Netflix, Amazon Video, Hulu, network television, and in theaters. Ron Carlos is a certified teacher of Knight-Thompson Speechwork and a Lead Trainer of Fitzmaurice Voicework. He is also the Founding Coach for BoldVoice, a mobile app designed to help non-native speakers of English build confidence in their spoken American English while honoring their own accents and home languages.