About the Book:

Designed for actors and public speakers who need to bring a spoken text to life, The Actor and the Text is a guide for both the beginner and the professional. Building on the exercises covered in her first book, legendary voice coach Cicely Berry relates the practicality of voice production to the challenges of a difficult text. By getting inside the words we use she shows us how to release our energy and excitement to an audience.

The words of Cicely Berry, the Voice Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, speak to anyone who needs to speak his or her piece – in any arena, at sales meetings or religious revivals. The Actor and the Text will insure that the speaker and the text gets heard – accurately and with true emotional range. Never again will one be accused of simply "reading a prepared statement." Cicely Berry's exercises to develop relaxation, breathing and muscular control will literally help everyone breathe easier when confronting the printed page.

What people say:

"Her personal approach is almost that of a confidante, relaxing the mind and the body, or of a healer soothing tensions, rooting emotions in reality. She prepares the actor to be a tuned instrument, which may clearly, resonantly, play Shakespeare's subtlest and grandest notes." — Ian McKellen

About the Author:

Cicely Berry CBE (1926-2018) was a British theatrical voice coach whose unconventional methods made her one of the most revered and influential figures in British theatre; she worked with actors ranging from Peggy Ashcroft to Samuel L Jackson in a teaching career that spanned nearly 70 years. She trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. After graduating, she was hired by the school as a voice instructor. Her reputation steadily grew and led Trevor Nunn, the Royal Shakespeare Company's artistic director at the time, to hire her as the company's first voice director in 1969, a post she held for 45 years. Her passionate work as a voice director influenced the stage and screen performances of generations of British actors, including Sean Connery (whom she coached at her home in the 1960s before she joined the R.S.C.), Judi Dench, Emily Watson and Patrick Stewart.