In the course of their careers, actors get to experience a wonderfully eclectic range of characters and human behaviors. We investigate the way people think and act, and have the often-daunting task of giving life to a character who seems light years away from our own understanding and experience of life.
Continue reading ...A year ago I wrote about American scholar and practitioner Robert Hornby’s ‘The End of Acting’. It’s a book that has a strong point of view about the art of acting and the education of artists. I’ve enjoyed dipping back into it since a first reading in 1993. That an actor needs training is, from
Continue reading ...Image via Wikipedia I suppose every profession has its jargon, its arcane rituals which can look and sound absurd to outsiders, and which even initiates can find complex if not downright puzzling. When it comes to acting, many have struggled to give expression to the nature of the artform; what it is, how it happens
Continue reading ...Rhetorical power was the subject of some attention this week. One of the US Democratic Party’s hopefuls in the presidential primary race gave a marvellous ‘Yes We Can’ concession speech which used repetition to make its point. Barack Obama is a forceful, clear speech-giver. You can catch it here. I like this take on the
Continue reading ...A couple of days ago I featured a top Yank, Don LaFontaine … today it’s a top Brit, Mike Hurley. This little 14 minute video is from 1994, and my tech friends assure me the equipment and technology qualify as pure nostalgia. But there’s nothing creaky about the voice at work here. Great stuff.
Continue reading ...Image: jgrantmac This is not the mulling that comes with spicy wine, the traditional Christmas drink in colder climes. It’s another kind of thoughtful musing that often fills the mind. During this season, we tend to go back over the past 12 months or so, sorting and sifting through the discoveries and shuddering perhaps at
Continue reading ...You’ve heard his voice so often in move trailers, now here’s the face of Don LaFontaine. I came across this little movie this morning. Apart from being a nice intro to the guy behind the microphone, the movie has something to say about how pervasive a great voice can be. He has set the style
Continue reading ...If there were $$s for every time this note were given in rehearsal, there’d be a pot o’ cash worth fighting for. Not being heard can relate to so many problems: insecurity over lines and their meaning, a lack of self-confidence, through to poor technique … breath support and sloppy articulation being two of the
Continue reading ...I was asked by some students recently how, or whether I exercised my own imagination. We had been talking about the ‘most important muscle’, and about keeping it limber. This conversation must have stuck with at least one of the class members, who emailed me a week back wanting to know how to keep working
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