Voice into Acting

How can actors bridge the gap between themselves and the text and action of a script, integrating fully their learned vocal skills? How do we make an imaginary world real, create the life of a role, and fully embody it vocally and physically so that voice and acting become one?

Christina Gutekunst and John Gillett unite their depth of experience in voice training and acting to create an integrated and comprehensive approach informed by Stanislavski and his successors – the acting approach widely taught to actors in drama schools throughout the world.

This updated edition contains: a new chapter on vocal embodiment of actions, new findings from neuroscience supporting the approach, more exercises, warm-up routines for training, rehearsal and performance, and a completely new glossary of terms.

The authors create a step-by-step guide to explore how voice can:

- Respond to our thoughts, senses, feelings, imagination and will
- Fully express language in content and form
- Communicate imaginary circumstances and human experience
- Transform to adapt to different roles
- Connect to a variety of audiences and spaces

Featuring 55 illustrations by German artist, Dany Heck, Voice into Acting is an essential manual for the actor seeking full vocal identity in characterization, and for the voice teacher open to new techniques or an alternative approach to harmonize with the actor's process.

John Gillett is the author of Acting on Impulse - Reclaiming the Stanislavski Approach (Methuen Drama, 2007); the second extended edition, Acting Stanislavski - A practical guide to Stanislavski's approach and legacy (Bloomsbury, 2014); and co-author with Christina Gutekunst of Voice into Acting - Integrating voice and the Stanislavski approach (Bloomsbury 2014, and now in a second edition, 2021). He has also written articles on acting and the preface for a new edition of Stanislavski's Creating a Role (Bloomsbury Revelations, 2013). John trained as an actor in the approach of Stanislavski and Michael Chekhov and has worked widely in theatre, radio, film and television. He has taught and directed in many drama schools, including RADA, LAMDA, CSSD, and GSA, and was Head of the Post Graduate Acting Course at East 15. John has run acting workshops here and aboad, is a member of Equity and has had a prominent role in the writing of recent arts policy documents for Equity and the Creative and Leisure Industries Committee of the TUC (2019).

Christina Gutekunst has been Head of Voice at East 15 Acting School since 2003. Apart from co-writing Voice into Acting, she contributed a chapter, Organic Voice: Vocal Integration through Actor Training in Somatic Voices in Performance Research and Beyond (edited by Christina Kapadocha, 2020).

Christina trained as an actor in Germany and Britain, and then gained her Post Graduate diploma and MA in voice studies at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She has taught voice in numerous acting schools, has worked on voice-overs as actor and director and co-ran two theatre companies. She has also coached on productions for TV and theatre.