Feel speech as an expressive physical action.
Life and work
Arthur Lessac developed Kinesensics, a system of voice, speech and movement training, across decades of teaching and theatre work. Lessac considered speech an inner physical action and placed voice within the work of the whole body. His books connect technical attention with expressive possibility.
Approach and technique
Kinesensics directs your attention to the sensations and expressive possibilities of speaking. The institute’s areas of study distinguish consonant, structural and tonal energies. Consonant work attends to the movement and musical qualities of speech sounds. Structural work explores vowels and the space in which they form. Tonal work attends to resonance and pitch.
You can use those distinctions to examine a line more precisely. A consonant may sharpen an intention; a vowel may give a thought room to continue. The body’s movement, breath and expressive purpose remain part of the task. You are studying relationships among sound, sensation and communication, rather than adding an attractive vocal surface after the acting has been decided.
Voice teaching built alongside theatre work
You can follow Lessac’s teaching from study at the Eastman School of Music and New York University into professional theatre. His early vocal coaching included Pins and Needles in 1937. He founded the National Academy of Vocal Arts in 1945 and began teaching voice and speech at Stella Adler’s studio in 1951. These working settings helped him develop the approach he called Kinesensics.
The first edition of The Use and Training of the Human Voice appeared in 1960 for his students. Later editions expanded and revised the text. Body Wisdom, published in 1978, developed the relationship between vocal work and the use of the body. You can read the two books together to understand why his vocabulary keeps sound, sensation and movement in conversation.
The musical organization of spoken language
You encounter the word energy in Lessac’s work as part of a specific vocabulary for voice and body training. The institute distinguishes consonant work, structural work with vowels, and tonal work. The categories direct attention toward different aspects of speaking. You can study articulation, the shaping of vocal space and the life of pitch without treating them as unrelated finishing touches.
The description of consonants includes rhythm, sustained color and intention. This goes beyond the idea that a consonant simply makes a word correct. Its movement can participate in the thought’s direction. Structural work concerns the shape and flexibility associated with vowels; tonal work concerns resonance and changes of pitch according to context. The vocabulary asks you to experience language physically as well as understand it intellectually.
What does this mean for a spoken phrase? You can hear organization at several levels. The sentence carries a thought; individual sounds give that thought duration and texture; the movement and breath belong to the person addressing a listener. A technical choice acquires a dramatic purpose through the relationship among those levels. The sound can contribute to the action instead of decorating an otherwise completed performance.
The relationship between the two books clarifies the scope. The Use and Training of the Human Voice develops voice and speech work, while Body Wisdom places it within a larger investigation of bodily use. You encounter a teacher seeking an integrated training vocabulary. Physical characterization, rhythm and expressive intention appear beside the more familiar concerns of articulation and tone.
For your study, Lessac offers a way to regard speech as material with its own musical possibilities. You can appreciate the shape of a vowel or the movement of a consonant while keeping the meaning of the phrase active. The important artistic relationship is between sensation and communication: what you experience internally and what the listener receives can inform the same act of speaking.
Applications for actors
You take the physical pleasure and specificity of language into scene work. Let the sound of a word help you act on a partner, and keep checking that the person can receive what you mean. Technical attention and human intention can share the same line.
Rehearsal exercise
Choose a brief request containing a word such as “more,” “please” or “stay.” Say it at an easy volume. Notice the physical activity of the consonants and the time available in the vowel. Repeat the word gently, then place it back in the full request.
Speak to a partner with a specific reason to ask. Notice whether extra attention to the word makes the request clearer or distracts you from the other person. Try a shorter and a longer version without pushing the voice. Keep the version that serves the encounter.
Books and further study
Read The Use and Training of the Human Voice and Body Wisdom: The Use and Training of the Human Body as related parts of Lessac’s work. The Lessac Institute’s history traces successive editions and the development of the teaching. When you work from a particular edition, keep its terminology and sequence visible. Compare your sensation with what a listener actually receives; the two kinds of information can help you ask a more useful rehearsal question.