The Actors Body and Voice

"Acting is a sport. On stage you must be ready to move like a tennis player on his toes. Your concentration must be keen, your reflexes sharp; your body and mind are in top gear, the chase is on. Acting is energy. In the theatre people pay to see energy." - Clive Swift

The above quote is true in many ways. I've had many directors say during a rehearsal, "If you're doing it right then you should be physically exhausted when you're done." Body and Voice go hand in hand for both are principle tools in the development of your character. Both are needed to externalize your character's inner life.

Body

External training includes the development of your entire physical apparatus. On stage you must have complete control over your bodies movements. Many actors will need to train in combat, fencing, athletics and so on. If you plan on being a part of Musical Theatre, then you must also train in dance. An actors body must be a responsive and expressive instrument with the ability to embody your character's inner thoughts, desires, and fears. With your body you will be reacting to lines that are being said towards others as well as towards you. You will also need to be able to communicate with your body. It's not enough to just stand there and deliver or receive a line. Your whole body must be in character and your facial expressions and your whole body should follow the mood of your character. Facial expressions are huge part of acting especially in the theatre where the entire audience from the front to the far sides to the very back will need to be able to know how you feel by the expressions you make. This doesn't mean you need to be completely cheesy, you just need to be big with your reactions and your delivery.

Voice

Vocal training develops your oral dexterity as a speaker and involves detailed work in diction, rhythm, tempo, resonance, projection, pitch, inflection, and dialects. Just as the body is important to developing your character, so is your voice. As an actor you must have the ability to speak your lines with clarity of thought and purpose through the eyes of your character. Like I've said before, acting isn't simply reciting memorized lines in front of an audience. Everything you say has a meaning and holds some importance to your character. For everything you will say on stage will lead to a response which will lead to the next action on stage. So you must put the greatest possible meaning into every word you say.

Remember, however, that what you do with your body and voice on stage must carry throughout the entire scene or play. For example, let's say you are performing a scene where your child just died. It is not enough for you to deliver the lines with great intensity and then stop and wait for your next line. As I said before, the body and voice are principle tools in the development of your character. You must maintain the emotion in your voice and the expressions on your face and through your body as long as that scene needs them. On stage you are your character. As long as you are in front of the audience, you should always mentally and physically be that character.