What is the structure of the language trying to do to the listener?
Keeping It Active, by Jeannette Nelson.
What the book addresses
Nelson explores how actors can use rhetorical devices as active resources in spoken text. The 2022 Nick Hern Books paperback is ISBN 9781848429369.
How to read it
Read a rhetorical device as part of an encounter, rather than as a decoration to display. Repetition, contrast or a developing list may change the pressure of a thought. Follow Nelson's examples and then return to the whole scene, where the relationship and circumstances determine what the language can accomplish.
An original rehearsal investigation
Find a short passage containing a repeated word or an explicit contrast. Identify what changes between its first and last use. Speak the passage to a partner with a concrete reason to be heard. Ask what became clearer in the argument, then try another reading. Keep the experiment grounded in the sentence rather than adding an arbitrary vocal effect.
Connections and distinctions
Read alongside Berry’s The Actor and the Text and Rodenburg’s Speaking Shakespeare. Nelson broadens the study of language across writers and periods. Use this comparative reading to investigate deep Script and Character Analysis, playable action and voice.
This is an original JBAS reading guide with an attributed overview and study questions. Read the complete book for the author's developed argument and exercise instructions.
