Ned Wayburn - The Art of Stage Dancing

Excerpt: ...they should know is what their speeches are. What they have to say is called a speech, and in parenthesis must always be the stage business or what they are to do. Stage directions should always be in parenthesis. They are sometimes typed in red ink on the first copies of the parts. When they study the dialogue, they should try to fathom the speech; that is, they should form a minds eye picture of what the line conveys to the audience. That is how I teach them to study. They read a sentence. A sentence is supposed to express a complete thought. They must get the proper inflection by reading it out loud. No method of expression is brought into play yet. By that I mean no pantomimic by-play or facial expression. They are only reading at first. In most of the amateur shows, 226 the players never do anything else but read the parts. They read, crossing back and forth whenever the coach thinks they ought to cross, and it doesnt mean a thing. I watched that very thing in an amateur show not so long ago, and it was inane. Nobody should move from one place on the stage to another without a reason for moving. There is a reason for every inflection of the voice. A person with common sense will read a part intelligently, but only a person with a dramatic spark inside of the body will be able to act a part naturally. If the dramatic spark is not there, no human being will put it there. If it is there, a real director will discover it and awaken it and make much of it. After this first reading rehearsal, where the parts should be cast, more than one person can be tried out for the different parts. I make a call for the dialogue rehearsal where I walk them through the action, holding the parts in their hands as they walk through the physical action of the play. You will find that each one has his or her own idea as to how it should be done. I have them speak their lines distinctly and slowly at first. While this is going on I do not allow any visitors. Not...