{"title":"Cicely Berry","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCicely Berry\u003c\/strong\u003e offers insightful guidance on the craft of voice and performance, essential for actors and directors alike. Her works explore the dynamic relationship between voice, body, and character, providing practical techniques to enhance theatrical expression.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRooted in a deep understanding of theatre, her books like \u003cem\u003eFrom Word to Play: A Handbook for Directors\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eVoice and the Actor\u003c\/em\u003e are invaluable resources for those seeking to refine their vocal skills and unlock new dimensions in dramatic presentation.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"voice-and-the-actor-by-cicely-berry-9780020415558","title":"Voice and the Actor","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Speaking is part of a whole: an expression of inner life.\" Cicely Berry has based her work on the conviction that while all is present in nature, our natural instincts have been crippled from birth by many processes—by the conditioning, in fact, of a warped society. So an actor needs precise exercise and clear understanding to liberate his hidden possibilities and to learn the hard task of being true to the instinct of the moment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs her book points out with remarkable persuasiveness, 'technique' as such is a myth, for there is no such thing as a correct voice. There is no right way—there are only a million wrong ways, which are wrong because they deny what would otherwise be affirmed. Wrong uses of the voice are those that constipate feeling, constrict activity, blunt expression, level out idiosyncrasy, generalize experience, and coarsen intimacy. These blockages are multiple and are the results of acquired habits that have become part of the automatic vocal equipment; unnoticed and unknown, they stand between the actor's voice as it is and as it could be, and they will not vanish by themselves. So the work is not how to do but how to permit: how, in fact, to set the voice free.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAnd since life in the voice springs from emotion, drab and uninspiring technical exercises can never be sufficient. Cicely Berry never departs from the fundamental recognition that speaking is part of a whole: an expression of inner life. After a voice session with her, I have known actors speak not of the voice but of a growth in human relationships. This is a high tribute to work that is the opposite of specialisation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCicely Berry sees the voice teacher as involved in all of a theatre's work. She would never try to separate the sound of words from their living context. For her, the two are inseparable.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eVoice and the Actor\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e- from Peter Brook's foreword\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47537437901036,"sku":"9780020415558","price":46.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780020415558-voice-and-the-actor.jpg?v=1776396315"},{"product_id":"from-word-to-play-a-handbook-for-directors-by-cicely-berry-9781840026016","title":"From Word to Play: A Handbook for Directors","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is a mystery in every play that is written, no matter whether classical and poetic or modern and demotic, and it is the sound and the rhythm of the writing which take us there.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCicely Berry, the Royal Shakespeare Company's Voice Director, has been working alongside some of Britain's greatest actors and directors for over fifty years and is widely regarded as one of the most significant voice teachers in the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFrom Word to Play\u003c\/em\u003e draws on Cicely's extensive experience of working with theatre companies in Britain and throughout the world. It is her manifesto for a return to the words themselves: for moving away from an over-conceptualised, over-literal view of language and rediscovering the meaning in its sounds and rhythms. At the heart of this book is a concise, practical guide for directors in rehearsal, setting out work strategies that help bring out both the shape and the details within all kinds of text—whether verse or prose, seventeenth-century or contemporary.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith a Foreword by Michael Boyd, Artistic Director of the RSC.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47596448579820,"sku":"9781840026016","price":89.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/b2a3786d22eb66d53ba7eba4f38ea8bd.jpg?v=1777929068"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.pro\/collections\/cicely-berry.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}