This workshop is a compilation of all the voice work the group practiced throughout the workshops.

It is a rare experience to see how professional actors productively prepare their voices during rehearsals and before performances. It is also an unforgettable reminder of the physical nature of language.

Exercises on

• the muscularity of consonants and on the openness of the vowels.
• connecting with relaxation in order to root the voice and give it range and resonance.
• how to find strength without tension.
• how to find one's own individual sound—and voice.

One of the recurring exercises addresses the Player King from Hamlet. The group becomes an ensemble collectively telling the story using the speech's rhythms and cadence to lift it through and offer a sense of suspense—that suspense which must grab the audience and keep it entertained. This epic story asks for great openness to the language. Because the group does it together, one learns how to take on each other's energy to make it work as a whole. It is an essential exercise for learning how to listen, for releasing the voice, and for making us aware of the emotive power of language.

Workshop 4: The Whole Voice

Shakespeare texts used in exercises are supplied on screen for classroom use as well as in Cicely Berry's teacher's manual.

• Introduction: Jeremy Irons 0:00:46
• Introduction: Cicely Berry 0:03:30
• Exercise 1: Empowering the Voice: Relaxation, Breathing, and Resonance
  Group Relaxation, Breathing, Resonance 0:05:41
• Exercise 2: Strength in Language Linked to Physical Strength
  (Titus Andronicus Act III, Scene i)
  Introduction: Cicely Berry 0:15:13
  The Group Reading (subtitles) 0:15:43
  Feeling the Vibration 0:16:40
  Pulling Against Each Other as Vowels Lengthen 0:18:59
• Exercise 3: Music Releases the Power of Open Vowels
  Introduction: Cicely Berry 0:20:27
  Exercise 4: Sound—The Gateway to Awareness
  Group Works on Consonants, Vowels 0:26:58
• Exercise 4: Sound—The Gateway to Awareness
  Group Works on Consonants, Vowels 0:26:58
• Exercise 5: How Sound and Meaning Are Linked to Feeling
  (Hamlet, Act III, Scene i)
  Introduction: Cicely Berry 0:32:03
  “Oh What a Noble Mind” (subtitles) 0:32:45
  Beating Out the Metre 0:33:45
  Sounding the Vowels 0:35:38
• Exercise 6: Telling the Story
  (Hamlet, Act II, Scene ii)
  Introduction: Cicely Berry 0:37:18
  On the Word—The Player King 0:38:05
  Finding Breath in “The Rugged Pyrrhus” 0:53:00
  “Anon he finds him” (subtitles) 0:54:51
  Freestyle Running 0:58:16
  Climbing Up to Speak 1:02:03
  Story Circle 1:07:01
  “The Mobled Queen”: Cicely Berry Conducts
  Group Reading 1:12:57

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