The singing and acting handbook : games and exercises for the performer

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Title:

The singing and acting handbook : games and exercises for the performer

Author:

De Mallet Burgess, Thomas, 1964-

ISBN:

9780415166584

Publication Information:

London ; New York : Routledge, 1999.

Physical Description:

204 p.

Subject Term:

Acting in musical theater.

Acting -- Study and teaching.

Movement (Acting)

Musicals -- Auditions.

Revues -- Auditions.

Singing -- Auditions.

Added Author:

Skilbeck, Nicholas, 1965-

Summary:

Describes methods for the performer to develop the skills required to sing and act at the same time as well as outline important aspects of the set helpful to the director and teacher.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Stillwater Public Library	792.6 DEM	Searching... Unknown

This book is an unique resource which directly addresses all performers who sing and act, whether in opera, musical theatre or music-theatre. By looking beyond the separate acts of singing and acting the performer builds up a greater awareness of how the two interrelate to form a single powerful expression.
Using games, exercises and discussion, The Singing and Acting Handbook takes a stimulating approach to the demands made upon today's performers, and will equip both the experienced professional and the student to take full advantage of rehearsal and performance. With advice on approaches to learning music, interpreting scores, and building characters, it provides a long-awaited innovative resource for performers, directors, workshop leaders and teachers.

Reviews (2)

Choice Review

The 20th century saw two particular phenomena that changed the landscape of voice study: the increasing availability and acceptance of voice-science research and the overwhelming popularity of contemporary music theater. Voice science has provided a body of information about exactly how the voice functions. Music theater has fostered the demand for training programs and performance opportunities from grade school through college to the professional level. These three books provide a minisurvey of ways these phenomena are being served by the literature. Drawing extensively from the teaching of Jo Estill, a pioneer in the effort to legitimize "belt" singing, Kayes (professional singer and teacher in England) meant Singing and the Actor for teachers whose primary business is preparing singers for the modern musical stage. Relying on selected voice-science information, Kayes outlines a highly mechanistic procedure to train the muscles used for singing ("Learn to 'listen with your muscles' rather than to your voice, and you will be successful"). A glossary, a list of exercises and song assignments, and an index are included. Teachers of music theater and even classical voice may find this book helpful, but students themselves should not try her suggestions unsupervised--which makes this a questionable resource for beginners. By contrast, Robison's introductory manual The Actor Sings is unusually kind, generous, and encouraging and offers simple, practical advice to beginners. His most significant sources, mentioned in "Suggested Reading," are Carolyn Sloan's Finding Your Voice (1999), Kristin Linklater's, Freeing the Natural Voice (1976), David Craig's On Singing Onstage (rev. ed., 1990), and James McKinney's The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults (rev. ed., 1994). Rare among voice texts of any kind is a chapter on finding a teacher. The young professional singer might find it a useful aid to sort through the many conflicting bits of advice gleaned from books, coaches, directors, workshops--in short, the entire support system that has developed to train those who intend to make music theater their life's work. A dose of simplicity is often needed, and Robison supplies it. Burgess and Skilbeck's The Singing and Acting Handbook is an excellent reference resource intended to create and keep alive the requisite self-knowledge, imagination, and creativity to distinguish the especially talented performer from the thousands of others. The acting and musicianship exercises that constitute the core of the book are well explained, and the purpose of each exercise is also clear. The authors' overall intention is to assure that technical mastery is always in the service of the dramatic conception. An appendix provides 28 singing exercises. The bibliography is excellent. Teachers of music theater or opera will want this in their libraries for the use of students at all levels. M. S. Roy Pennsylvania State University, University Park Campus

Library Journal Review

This collaborative effort by Oxford don and musical director de Mallet Burgess and acclaimed international musical director, composer, and teacher Skilbeck is the result of the authors' efforts to develop practical and effective exercises to merge music and drama in the study and performance of musical theater, opera, operetta, vaudeville, and cabaret. Following an introductory section establishing the constituent elements of music, drama, and the workshop process through which the techniques can be incorporated, the authors delineate over 100 exercises for fundamentals: rhythm, pulse, and time; music, text, and score; and character, emotion, and sound. Instructions for each workshop-tested exercise are prefaced by its title, goal, methodology, risk factor, and necessary resources. This wonderful compendium of exercises clearly supports the authors' basic tenet that musical theater is greater than the sum of its usually segregated parts. Certain to become a standard in this discipline.--Barry X. Miller, Austin P.L. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Preface	p. xi
Acknowledgements	p. xv
Part 1 Introduction	p. 1
1 Singing and acting in performance	p. 3
Introduction	p. 3
Music and Drama	p. 4
The Structure of Sung Theatre	p. 5
The Past, the Present and the Challenge of Terminology	p. 7
The Performer	p. 13
The Fundamental Disciplines	p. 14
The Indivisible Expression	p. 16
Using the Exercises	p. 17
The Workshop Process	p. 18
The Leader and the Workshop Process	p. 19
Part 2 The Exercises	p. 25
2 The fundamental disciplines	p. 27
Preparing the Ground	p. 27
Relaxation	p. 28
Exercise 1	p. 29
Dissociation	p. 32
Exercise 2	p. 33
Visualisation	p. 34
Exercises 3-4	p. 34
Warming-up	p. 38
Exercises 5-6	p. 38
Energising	p. 42
Exercises 7-14	p. 43
Concentration	p. 51
Exercises 15-23	p. 51
Awareness	p. 58
Exercises 24-39	p. 59
Imagination and Spontaneity	p. 72
Exercises 40-47	p. 73
3 Rhythm, pulse and time	p. 81
Rhythm and Time	p. 81
Exercise 48	p. 82
Pulse	p. 82
Exercises 49-60	p. 83
Musical Structure	p. 94
Exercises 61-64	p. 96
Sustaining a Moment	p. 100
Exercises 65-69	p. 101
Using Rhythm and Pulse to Create Emotion	p. 107
4 Music, text and the score	p. 110
Approaching the Score	p. 111
Learning the Score	p. 112
Interpreting the Score	p. 114
Exercise 70	p. 118
The Relationship between Text and Music	p. 119
Exercises 71-75	p. 121
Exploring the Sound and Word Association	p. 125
Exercises 76-79	p. 127
Being Present	p. 130
Exercises 80-86	p. 133
Dialogue, Recitative and Heightened Text	p. 138
Exercises 87-92	p. 141
5 Character, emotion and sound	p. 146
Character	p. 147
Music and Character	p. 150
Exercises 93-99	p. 152
Acting in Sung Theatre	p. 157
Exercises 100-101	p. 160
Gesture	p. 163
Exercises 102-106	p. 164
Eye Language and Focus	p. 169
Exercises 107-108	p. 170
Emotion	p. 171
Exercises 109-119	p. 174
6 Conclusion	p. 185
Appendix Figures 1-28	p. 189
Bibliography	p. 200
Index of games and exercises by title and destination	p. 202

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