APPENDICES

PROJECTS FOR IMPROVING SPEECH

There are two school activities which more than any others furnish an incentive for work toward improving speech. These are Acting and Debating. Accordingly there are here added to the regular text-book the following suggestions and exercises for staging plays and carrying on debates. These are intended to serve three purposes:

1. To provide interesting ways of applying the principles of the text.

2. To furnish a text and exercises for class work in the elements of Play Producing and of Debating.

3. To furnish aid to those who find themselves responsible for the success of school enterprises in the way of directing plays and conducting school and inter-school debates.

APPENDIX A

I. THE NATURE OF ACTING

Acting is Make-Believe. Many people look on acting as merely a matter of talking the lines that the writer of the play has written down in a book. Yet acting is very much more than just uttering sentences. Attempts to substitute for acting such things as brilliant and gorgeous lighting effect, scenery, music and dancing, choruses, and ballets, must inevitably fail to satisfy people seeking public entertainment through plays. It is still true that "the play's the thing;" and to have plays, the actors must play their parts. If they play well, the spectators enjoy it; if they play ill, the spectators proclaim it a poor show.

A word as to what acting is. We often hear people say that they have enjoyed this or that dramatic production because it was so true to life, because it was so "natural." The moving pictures in particular have led us to look for minute detail in the way of stage setting and in the way of using hands and eyes and facial expression. As a consequence many people are confirmed in the conviction that the best way to play on the stage is to do as one would do in everyday life, that the best trait an actor can cultivate is to be "natural.” Now this point of view is at the same time both correct and all wrong. If there is one thing that acting claims to be, above everything else in the world, it is that it is unnatural; it is showing off, mimicking, it is all a game of pretense, it is artificial in the extreme. An easy way to understand what acting really is, is to remember that it must of all things else be "stagey." We all have seen "stagey" people off the stage; we call them affected, unnatural; they possess the exaggerated walk, the excessive use of facial expression, a drawn-out or exaggerated way of pronouncing the language, and a manner generally unsuited to everyday life. By our very use of the term "stagey" applied to these characteristics we indicate that we appreciate that what happens on the stage should be different from what it would be in everyday life.

II. STAGE SPEECH

Project The Voice.. First of all the actor must be distinct. He must pronounce his words so that nobody in the house can miss a single one. In most rooms or halls where dramatics are produced this is much more than a matter of enunciating sounds distinctly and pronouncing words correctly; it is a matter of what is known as projecting the voice. Remember that you are talking to more people than you are used to. The people on the back row have just as much interest in getting what you say as those on the front row; obviously, then, if you do not reach them with your voice, you are cutting them off from the best part of the evening's entertainment. So project your voice so that it goes clear to the person on the last row.

Practice Overdoing in the Reading of Lines. In addition to this you must remember that stage talk is always an exaggerated talk. It cannot be like parlor chat or office gossip. Even though it may seem to people in their seats exactly like what they have heard in parlors or in offices, yet if it should be transferred precisely as it is to a parlor or an office, these same people would be very much startled and possibly disgusted at what they heard. As a general rule it would be well to advise all novices to practice overdoing the matter of distinctness and projection, rather than underdoing. Put that down as a safe rule. Overdo until a director or some competent critic tells you you are too strong, or too loud, or too forceful. Be unnaturally distinct, forceful, and clear. Remember it is easier to tone down than to tone up; and audiences insist on hearing clearly.

Talk" Front." A specific piece of advice to improve the projecting of the voice is to make sure to "talk front" as much as possible. Talking front is the name that is used for making sure that whenever you have something important to say, you say it toward the audience. No matter if you seem to be talking to someone at your side or even to somebody behind you, there is always a way of moving and changing and turning the head and waiting while you turn, especially waiting, so that when it comes to an important word or an important part of a sentence, you can make sure that that part is uttered straight ahead to the audience. This applies especially in rooms and halls and buildings where hearing qualities are not good, and where the person on the last row is rather far away. In smaller places, the more intimate kind, there is op

portunity for talking to one side or to the rear. However, you do not do this unless you are perfectly sure you can be heard in all parts of the house. If the audience does not hear what the whole thing is about, there is no chance that they can get the enjoyment out of the evening that they should have.

Use Your Powers. Another important point to be impressed at the start is that successful acting comes better from actors who plunge in and go the limit rather than from those who hold back. Another way of saying this is, Use all you have for your part. Do not be afraid to do anything necessary with your voice, or your enunciation, or pronunciation, with your hands and face, bodily activity, and with your interpretation of written lines; it is much better to go too far than not far enough; a good director can hold young actors back much more easily than he can draw them out.

Use Hands Intelligently. The hands of the actor can accomplish wonders in the presentation of feelings and ideas. The ordinary man in everyday life is rather awkward with his hands. If he should go on the stage and use them in precisely the same way that he does around the house or around his place of business, he would look only funny. He may be trying to act a tragic part, but if he does it the way he behaves every day, the audience will either laugh at him or just silently pity him and endure the show as best they can. Also the way one walks on the stage tells a great deal as to what sort of person he is. Every time a character enters the stage he ought, by the way he carries himself, to suggest to the audience immediately what sort of person he is. His very walk ought to be a revelation of his inner nature.

Act All in One Piece. Especially important is it that you act "all in one piece." You have all seen amateur actors; have you ever stopped to think what it is that makes you call them amateurs? Or you have seen some of your own friends, so-called amateurs, do so well that you have considered them as good as professionals; and their friends have said of them afterwards "Well do you know, I just couldn't believe that was John, or Mary; it just made me think that I was looking at that person in the play." This is the only standard to aim at, to make your audience forget who you are, and to think only of the personage of the play. This result can be achieved only as you play that part all over; you must act all in one piece. If you are to be a "no'count" negro, you must have the shoulder jerk of the negro, and the projection of the chin, the flapping of the hands, the wriggle of the body, the shuffling