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.

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.

"Many high school theatre teachers do not have access to intensive voice instruction. Rena's book will fill that void. It is instructive, concise, easy to understand, and most importantly for the high school student, fun. High school teachers will find the book an invaluable voice and acting resource. It would be beneficial to all high school theatre programs to have Voice and the Young Actor as a textbook." Kim Moore, High School Teacher, Colorado There are thousands of students enrolled in school drama classes in yet very often young actors cannot be heard, are culturally encouraged to trail off at the ends of sentences, and habitually use only the lowest pitches of the voice. Drama teachers, frequently ask, "How can I get my students to speak up, to be clear, to articulate?" Voice and the Young Actor is written for the school actor, is inviting in format, language and illustration and offers clear and inspiring instructions. A DVD features 85 mins and 28 filmed voice workshop exercises with the author and two students. These students log their reflections in the book on what they have learned throughout their training and there is space for the reader to do the same. A workbook in format, Voice and the Young Actor provides simple, interactive vocal exercises and shows young performers how to take voice work into acting.

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 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.

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.