Introduction to Speechwork for Actors: An Inclusive Approach

241 Pages·2022·8.074 MB·English

by  Ron Carlos

INTRODUCTION
TO SPEECHWORK
FOR ACTORS
ii
INTRODUCTION
TO SPEECHWORK
FOR ACTORS
An Inclusive Approach
RON CARLOS
SERIES EDITOR: BILL CONNINGTON
METHUEN DRAMA
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK
1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA
29 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, Ireland
BLOOMSBURY, METHUEN DRAMA and the Methuen Drama
logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in Great Britain 2023
Copyright © Ron Carlos, 2023
Series Preface © Bill Connington, 2023
Ron Carlos has asserted his right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as author of this work.
Series design by Charlotte Daniels
Cover image © Troyek / iStock Photo
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or
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given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author
and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed
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for any such changes.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: HB: 978-1-3501-4595-5
PB: 978-1-3501-4596-2
ePDF: 978-1-3501-4597-9
eBook: 978-1-3501-4598-6
Series: Acting Essentials | AE
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For all my teachers,
most of whom were my students,
and for Mishy
vi
CONTENTS
List of figures x
List of tables xi
Foreword by Dawn-Elin Fraser xii
Series preface xiv
Acknowledgments xvi
Introduction 1
Assumptions and -isms 6
How to use this book 7
The International Phonetic Alphabet 8
Accent, dialect, and idiolect 9
1 A snapshot of you 11
Storytelling and conversation 11
Reading 12
Playing with sentence structures 13
Word lists 14
2 Meet your text 17
Some useful grammar concepts before we begin 18
Analyzing the text 21
3 Language of your body 35
Lexicon 35
Packaging your images 37
Word soaking 39
viii CONTENTS
4 Color me aware 47
5 The work of awareness 59
Release 60
Isolate 67
Activate 81
6 The shape of your sound 87
7 Your own kind of music 91
Syllables 94
Word stress 96
Thought stress 97
Rhythm 97
Pitch 103
Pace 105
Volume 108
8 River of sounds 111
Jumping in the river 113
Vowel chart 115
Diphthongs 120
Lexical sets 121
Vowel phonetics 124
9 Splashing in the river 141
Plosives 143
Taps 150
Nasals 151
Trills 157
Fricatives 158
Affricates 165
Approximants 167
Lateral fricatives 170
Lateral approximants 172
Syllabic consonants 175
“R” roundup 176
CONTENTS ix
10 Moving forward 187
Strengthening your idiolect 187
Visiting your sources 188
Changing your speech 189
Continuing your speechwork 191
Appendices
A Daily practice template 193
B Dialect breakdown template 194
C Practice for consonant clusters 206
D List of companion videos 212
Glossary 213
Bibliography 220
9781350145962_txt_print.indd 9 29-07-2022 15:47:22