Freeing Shakespeare's Voice: The Actor's Guide to Talking the Text

In one of the most eloquent handbooks I've ever had the pleasure to peruse, Kristin Linklater guides you through a rich and expertly constructed path designed to help you give your voice to Shakespeare's text. For her, the body and the voice are one: an instrument that needs each part to work. To speak the speech, you start with how it sounds - the open vowels and clear consonants each bring a unique bodily sensation. Then you progress to what it actually means - the content, the "emotional", the life - and later bring this to poetic form. Ms.L insists you also understand Th' Elizabethans and their take on life - her explanations always held me rapt. Her methods are direct; each chapter builds upon the one that came before. However, this shouldn't mean the structure is rigid: there's lots of room for your experiments. This book is one of my best purchases.

The master teacher Kristin Linklater has written a user-friendly, brilliant book on her approach to Shakespeare's language. Anyone interested in reading or performing Shakespeare shouldn't be without it.