Introduction to Speechwork for Actors: An Inclusive Approach

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.

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, Ron 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's 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 near you. Ron is a certified teacher of Knight-Thompson Speechwork and a Lead Trainer of Fitzmaurice Voicework®. Ron is also the Founding Coach for BoldVoice, a mobile app designed to help non-native speakers of English build confidence in their spoken English while honoring their own accent and home language.

Bill Connington is the author of Physical Expression on Stage and Screen: Using the Alexander Technique to Create Unforgettable Performances (Bloomsbury Methuen Drama). He is an award-winning actor and screenwriter. Bill's first feature film the comedy Love, Repeat is in post-production. His second feature, the psychological horror film Poughkeepsie is for Lovers is in the editing phase.
Bill is a lecturer in acting at Yale School of Drama and is a graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
www.billconnington.com