Books
Acting and Singing with Archetypes
Acting and Singing with Archetypes
(Limelight). The journeys in Acting and Singing with Archetypes are based on the ‘Voices of the Archetypes of Myths and Legends’ workshops that Frankie Armstrong has conducted throughout Europe, Australia, and the United States. Primarily geared toward theatre teachers, directors, and theatre workshop leaders, this groundbreaking, interactive book with an accompanying CD shows actors and singers how to expand their creative choices by taking journeys to find the archetypes within themselves.
Reviews on Amazon Books
Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars
Had a great Archetypes studio exploration with the help of this book! GREAT BOOK!, January 16, 2013
By gmfr89
This review is from: Acting and Singing with Archetypes (Paperback)
Absolutely love this book. An incredible exploration for an actor (or singer) interested in exploring Archetypes. Best when you are using this in a class room setting or with a group of fellow performers- but an informative read alone. Mostly a guide line for how a workshop or class room style exploration of archetypes should go. Bought my own set of archetype cards I was so inspired after this book haha.
Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars
Useful exercises for tapping into the archetypes, March 29, 2012
By Taylor Ellwood
This review is from: Acting and Singing with Archetypes (Paperback)
This book was written for an audience of actors, but as someone who is not an actor, but nonetheless does work with archetypes I found it to be a valuable read, with useful exercises that can be applied to more than just acting. I like that the authors drew on perspectives of movement such as Laban’s work, but also that they made their work very accessible. This is a book I’d recommend to a counselor, actor, artist, or the magician who wants to take a different approach to his/her magical workings.
The Complete Voice and Speech Workout: 74 Exercises for Classroom and Studio
The Complete Voice and Speech Workout
(Applause Books). Potent and empowering voice exercises by the master teachers who devised them! One of the constants that any actor, director or theatre teacher needs is a strong vocal warmup. This valuable, first-of-its-kind resource contains 75 exercises for both solo and group work, contributed by some of the best professionals in the world.
Reviews on Amazon.com
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Good Book!
By Kyle Milleron September 19, 2007
Format: Paperback
This is an good book to use to practice intonation, pronunciation and articulation. I actually use this book when teaching phonetics in my speech courses.
The complete voice and speech workout
By Sylvia M. Larrasson May 27, 2008
Format: Paperback
A great book with practical exercises useful for singers, as well as actors. Concisely and well described, and fun, too!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Excellent book!
By Salzburgon September 4, 2013
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
A fantastic book, with lots of practical information. The exercises are useful and get results. I have used this book extensively in my teaching, both in Canada and in England. Highly recommended.
Practice, practice and practice is the formula
By crison December 6, 2013
In order to obtain good results we need to practice, and practice. In other words to be perseverant since the activities of the book are very helpful.
Re The Complete Voice and Speech Workout:
“Janet developed, edited and published a book of VASTA exercises including a demonstration CD. This useful tool [which] serves the voice community and those who need voice work without the advantage of a trainer, was a wonderful publication opportunity for the membership [of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association].” Lisa Wilson, U. of Tulsa
Another (rather long) Review of The Complete Voice and Speech Workout
A welcome addition to the genre, The Complete Voice & Speech Workout Book offers seventy-four vocal exercises, contributed by fifty-five members of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association and edited by Janet Rodgers, VASTA’s past president. Not a vocal training course per se, the book is more of an all-you-can-eat salad bar of exercises, grouped into chapters such as Getting to Know Your Voice, Breathing and Supporting; Exploring Pitch; Projecting and Calling; Integrating Voice, Breath and Text; Integrating Voice and Movement; Character Voices and Dialects. The reader is invited to experience everything from a basic neck stretch to an extended emotional journey.
Nineteen of the exercises are presented on the CD. About half of them are relaxation and breathing exercises recited straight from the text, which is a waste. The disk space would be much better used to illustrate such elusive skills as inflection, pitch, tone and resonance. A few of the exercises are marred by overblown prose and too-technical vocabulary. Not every actor (or teacher) is familiar with such terms as intercostal muscles, phonation or keynote range. A student who stops mid-exercise to look up “mandible bone” might be annoyed to discover that it simply means “jaw.”
That being said, the book would be especially useful to an instructor seeking vocal exercises for a general acting class. Written in a “teacher’s voice” (first do this, now do that), most of the exercises are straightforward and understandable. Many of them even seem like fun. My favorite (contributed by Phil Timberlake) teaches nasality and falsetto using lines like, “Surrender Dorothy!” and “Run Toto Run!”
As might be expected from a text with so many authors, the style is uneven. Considering the book’s enormous variety, however, this is a small tradeoff. There are so many to choose from, if you don’t like (or don’t understand) an exercise, simply turn the page and move further along the buffet table. You won’t go away hungry.
MAUREEN CLARKE