| Tackling Text by Barbara Houseman |
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| Written by David Farmer | |
| Friday, 08 August 2008 | |
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There is no shortage of ideas, with exercises ranging from imagining words as stepping-stones so that the actor connects with each word in the text; moving around a room and picking up objects for each key word or phrase; passing a cushion around between performers to eradicate any dead moments in a scene and speaking to a plant or lamp to give a sense of talking to a real person when you are rehearsing on your own. In addition, plenty of space is given to technical approaches to the iambic pentameter, building a character and dealing with the inner critic. Although the book is aimed at drama students and young professionals it certainly offers techniques which could be usefully applied in any rehearsal and will be of great value to actor and director alike. Barbara Houseman is a well-respected voice, text and acting coach and has worked at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Young Vic as well as one-to-one with many famous actors including Daniel Radcliffe and Jude Law. She is also the author of Finding Your Voice (Nick Hern Books 2002).
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Tackling Text (and subtext) is a practical guide to working with the text of a play. Dealing with approaches to classic and modern scripts, the book takes extracts from plays and explores them using a wide range of approaches, each illustrated by practical activities. These include voice and movement exercises which can be done solo or in groups.
