A how-to guide to helping performers add emotion and technique to all spoken performances, with a concentration on poems as the best and easiest examples. Handbook and Teacher Guide.
GENERAL CONTENTS:
Theme
Mechanics - Emphasis, Phrasing, Volume, Tempo, Pitch, Gesture, Structure.
Sample Poems
Choice of Poem
Performance Tips - General Problems, General Techniques
Using this text, any competent but untrained person could coach a performer (or him/herself) to a strong, persuasive, performance of any presentation.
The Teacher Guide also covers choral speech, impromptu speech, and prepared speeches.
Excerpt
INTRODUCTION
It is assumed that most teachers using this text are not dealing with a class of experienced drama students. Most of the exercises suggested could be successfully done, after a bit of preparation, by an average Junior High English class. The general technique demonstrated, that of poetry analysis, has been used by the author with students aged 7 through 18.
If most of the students we are dealing with have little training, they will start with whatever intuitive ability in speaking they have gained through their life experience. This ability can be greatly improved by some understanding of why and how performance works. My approach is this: "You know how to do this already. However well you do it now, let's learn some things that will make you better at it." What we are working toward is a balance of intellect (technique) and intuition (emotion), to create a well-rounded, expressive performance.
PART 3: MECHANICS
Performing a poem or a dramatic script requires an incredible number of decisions. Fortunately, most of these decisions we make intuitively: that is, without thinking about it. At times, though, we must consider carefully just how we will speak. Does the poet mean to get loud here,? How much anger should I show there? Where do I pause in this line? For those parts, we make an intellectual decision as to what will be the best interpretation. Our final performance is a combination of these intuitive and intellectual decisions.
The intuitive decisions come from our personal experience. The intellectual ones usually have to do with the mechanics of how we speak:
Emphasis Pacing Tempo Volume
Pitch Gesture Structure
Each of these is covered in one part of this chapter. If you are preparing a performance piece, it usually works best to do your analysis in the order given.
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