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(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
