Voice: Onstage and Off

This new and updated edition of Voice: Onstage and Off is a comprehensive guide to the process of building, mastering, and fine-tuning the voice for performance. Revised with the contemporary actor in mind, this fourth edition empowers actors wishing to master their voice as performers.

Every aspect of vocal work is covered, from the initial speech impulse and the creation of sound, right through to refining the final product in different types of performance. Tackling emerging discussions at the intersections of voice and identity, with new content dedicated to voice for trans and non-binary actors, as well as introducing students and practitioners to the anatomical aspects of voice and to auditory awareness, the book equips actors to hone, care for, and define their voice. Among other new features in this fourth edition are coverage of transgender acting and heightened auditory awareness, which bring this established textbook to a modern audience.

This highly adaptable course of study empowers performers of all levels to combine and evolve their onstage and offstage voices.

Online resources are available for each chapter, including audio examples, additional exercises, and content for instructors.

Robert Barton is professor emeritus of acting at the University of Oregon. He is the author of Style for Actors, Acting: Onstage and Off, Acting Reframes, and co-author of Movement: Onstage and Off with Barbara Sellers-Young, Theatre in Your Life and Life Themes (both with Annie McGregor), and A Voice for the Theatre with Harry Hill. He has been honored as Outstanding Acting Coach by the American College Theatre Festival. His core beliefs on actor training are summarized in the essay “Creative Acting” in Creativity in Theatre. All Robert’s works seek to find ways to intersect and mutually benefit our acting and our lives.

Rocco Dal Vera was Head of the Division for Acting, Arts Administration, Dance, Musical Theatre, Opera and Theatre Design and Production at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, specializing in theatre voice and speech with particular interest in voice and emotion. He co-authored Acting in Musical Theatre (with Joe Deer), served as a columnist for Dramatics Magazine and Teaching Theatre, and was founding editor of The Voice and Speech Review. Rocco influenced many actors to use their voices in more powerful ways thanks to his gentle yet profound guidance.