Acting Narrative Speeches: The Actor as StorytellerMeriwether Pub., 2002 - 445 pages Narrative speeches, both classical and contemporary, are used to reveal how an actor can discover the inherent energy, the essence and the subtextual colours of every word and sentences of a dramatic speech. This book clearly demonstrates that any memorable performance needs far more than acting technique alone. In eighteen chapters actor/director/teacher McDonough defines in depth how an actor can find the often overlooked subtleties that create characters with dimension and moments of heightened reality. |
From inside the book
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Page 83
... sentence , he leans back in the chair . Suddenly he gets in , and the answer is in his body , his slack face : he is the image of his father's drunken stupor . Speak the second sentence from his father's point of view . Is Wesley's ...
... sentence , he leans back in the chair . Suddenly he gets in , and the answer is in his body , his slack face : he is the image of his father's drunken stupor . Speak the second sentence from his father's point of view . Is Wesley's ...
Page 252
... sentences are sometimes less effective than expressive hitches within sentences . Hitching within a sentence which gives the following word emphasis - might embody a hesitation , a search for the right word , a calculated little pause ...
... sentences are sometimes less effective than expressive hitches within sentences . Hitching within a sentence which gives the following word emphasis - might embody a hesitation , a search for the right word , a calculated little pause ...
Page 403
... sentence and the overall structure of the speech and of the scene in which it occurs . - Sometimes you must simplify and edit impulses in the later stages of rehearsal : nothing should get in the way of sense . Knowing what you are ...
... sentence and the overall structure of the speech and of the scene in which it occurs . - Sometimes you must simplify and edit impulses in the later stages of rehearsal : nothing should get in the way of sense . Knowing what you are ...
Common terms and phrases
acceleration acting action actor Agamemnon Appendix Athi audience beginning body build caesura central moment chair character character's choices circumstances climax Clytemnestra conjure create deceleration develop draft E.E. Cummings emotional emphasize endwords energy example explore expressive eyes fade father feel feet from/to gesture Gus Edwards Hamlet hand happened hear Hotspur I'm Not Rappaport Imagine implicit scene impulses indirect quote inner conflict inside the story Juliet language layered look metaphor moments Monologues move movement narrative speeches onomatopoeia onomatopoetic opposites performance phrase physical play point of view possible pullback Puntila rehearsal reliving rhythm rhythmic Romeo Romeo and Juliet Sam Shepard seam sentence set the scene Shakespeare shape single image slow snake handling sound sense space specific spondee stage syllables talk tell the story telling a story theater Titania transition trochee Tybalt voice Wesley Weston words