Experiencing Speech: A Skills-Based, Panlingual Approach to Actor Training

Experiencing Speech: A Skills-Based, Panlingual Approach to Actor Training, Second Edition is a beginner’s guide to Knight-Thompson Speechwork®, a method that focuses on universal and inclusive speech training for actors from all language, racial, cultural, and gender backgrounds and identities.

This book provides a progression of playful, practical exercises designed to build a truly universal set of speech skills that any actor can use, such as the ability to identify, discern, and execute every sound found in every language on the planet. By observing different types of flow through the vocal tract, vocal tract anatomy, articulator actions, and how these components can be combined, readers will understand and recreate the process by which language is learned. They will then be introduced to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and will practice using the IPA for narrow transcription of speech sounds. This revised second edition features:

• New and updated exercises exploring vowel charts
• More pathways for connecting speechwork with acting work, including professional applications
• Updated images throughout
• Updated information for instructors and the use of the text in various courses
• New web resources, including additional exercise and video demos.

Experiencing Speech: A Skills-Based, Panlingual Approach to Actor Training is an excellent resource for teachers and students of speech and actor training, as well as aspiring actors looking to diversify their speech skills.

Andrea Caban is an Associate Professor of Speech and Accents at University of California, San Diego, and Co-Director and Master Teacher of Knight-Thompson Speechwork® where she leads the KTS Teacher Certification Program. She co-wrote the companion text to Experiencing Speech, Experiencing Accents: A Knight-Thompson Speechwork® Guide for Acting in Accent. She holds an M.F.A. in Acting from the University of California, Irvine.

Julie Foh is an Associate Professor at Yale University and a Master Teacher of Knight-Thompson Speechwork®. As a professional voice, dialect, and text coach, she has worked in film, television, theatre, and podcasts. She holds an M.F.A. in Voice Pedagogy from the A.R.T. Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University and a B.A. in Theater Studies from Duke University, and is an Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework.

Jeffrey Parker is a Professor of Voice and Speech at Metropolitan State University of Denver and serves as the Director of Voice and Text for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. He has worked at theaters across the United States, both as an actor and a voice, dialect, and text coach. He is a certified teacher of Knight-Thompson Speechwork® and holds an M.F.A. in Acting from the University of California, Irvine.