The Singing and Acting Handbook

Thomas de Mallet Burgess works internationally as a freelance director and workshop leader in opera, musicals and spoken theatre. In the UK he has worked for the Royal Opera House, Opera North, Welsh National Opera, the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Nicholas Skilbeck works internationally as a musical director, composer, vocal coach and pianist. He has worked for Cameron Mackintosh as Musical Director of Cafsand has led workshops in opera and musical theatre for Opera North, the Studio des Varietes in Paris, and the Royal Academy of Music.

Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Part One Introduction -- 1 Singing and acting in performance -- Introduction -- Music and Drama -- The Structure of Sung Theatre -- The Past, the Present and the Challenge -- Terminology -- The Performer -- The Fundamental Disciplines -- The Indivisible Expression -- Using the Exercises -- The Workshop Process -- The Leader and the Workshop Process -- Part Two The Exercises -- 2 The fundamental disciplines -- Preparing the Ground -- Relaxation -- Exercise 1 -- Dissociation -- Exercise 2 -- Visualisation -- Exercises 3–4 -- Warming-up -- Exercises 5–6 -- Energising -- Exercises 7–14 -- Concentration -- Exercises 15–23 -- Awareness -- Exercises 24–39 -- Imagination and Spontaneity -- Exercises 40–47 -- 3 Rhythm, pulse and time -- Rhythm and Time -- Exercise 48 -- Pulse -- Exercises 49–60 -- Musical Structure -- Exercises 61–64 -- Sustaining a Moment -- Exercises 65–69 -- Using Rhythm and Pulse to Create Emotion -- 4 Music, text and the score -- Approaching the Score -- Learning the Score -- Interpreting the Score -- Exercise 70 -- The Relationship between Text and Music -- Exercises 71–75 -- Exploring the Sound and Word Association -- Exercises 76–79 -- Being Present -- Exercises 80–86 -- Dialogue, Recitative and Heightened Text -- Exercises 87–92 -- 5 Character, emotion and sound -- Character -- Music and Character -- Exercises 93–99 -- Acting in Sung Theatre -- Exercises 100–101 -- Gesture -- Exercises 102–106 -- Eye Language and Focus -- Exercises 107–108 -- Emotion -- Exercises 109–119 -- 6 Conclusion -- Appendix: Figures 1–28 -- Bibliography -- Index of games and exercises by title and destination