Janet Madelle Feindel Releases THOUGHT PROPELS THE SOUND; A Guide To Voice & Speech For Theatre Directors

Janet Madelle Feindel, tenured faculty in acting voice and the Alexander Technique at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama, announces the release of her book THOUGHT PROPELS THE SOUND, a guide to voice and speech for theatre directors and other professionals interested in voice. THOUGHT PROPELS THE SOUND, published by Plural Publishing, is now available at various international bookstores.

"This book is both practical and insightful. It is practical in that it deals with all the technical aspects of voice and text work that the actor needs to discover and to use when rehearsing a play. It is insightful in that it clearly identifies the ways by which the director can help the actor free their imagination in order to illuminate the text as fully as possible," said Cicely Berry, officer of the Order of the British Empire and director of voice for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK.

"Janet Feindel zeroes in on a vitally important and often overlooked area: How the director supports the actors' work on text and voice. Her new book THOUGHT PROPELS THE SOUND is a refreshing and illuminating guide for directors, artistic directors, actors and vocal coaches." Jeffrey Horowitz, Artistic Director, Theatre for a New Audience, New York City

Feindel has many years of experience training actors and musical theatre performers at Carnegie Mellon's School of Drama including Zach Quinto, Josh Gad, Megan Hilty, Van Hansis, Christopher Hoch and Cote de Pablo and coaching professionally for such theatre companies as Theatre for a New Audience, (where she coached alongside CicelyBerry the critically acclaimed MERCHANT OF VENICE, which played in NYC and the RSC Complete Works Festival, UK), Stratford Festival, Shaw Festival, Canadian Stage Company, Ark Theatre (LA), Pittsburgh Public Theatre and the Rep. She has coached Megan Follows, F. Murray Abraham, Ezra Knight, Martha Henry and Brian Bedford, among many others. Feindel is a master trainer in voice and speech and is certified in the work of professional trainers Kristin Linklater, Catherine Fitzmaurice and F. Matthias Alexander. The book presents Feindel's innovative approach to voice training, synthesizing traditional methods with her own approaches called "Vox Explora" and "Resonex."

"A basic understanding of voice and vocal health is essential for a director, just as an understanding of music is for a conductor or dance is for a choreographer. The book is also useful for actors, voice/speech and Alexander coaches, speech pathologists, politicians, public speakers and anyone interested in the human voice," Feindel said.

THOUGHT PROPELS THE SOUND provides holistic instruction on voice and speech production including anatomy, and discusses ways to integrate these principles into the rehearsal process and guide directors to work effectively with voice and speech and Alexander coaches. The book contains a section on vocal anatomy written by University of Pittsburgh speech pathologist Dr. Katherine Verdolini and post-doctoral student Aaron Ziegler.

Feindel, who teaches regularly in Germany, has served as an educator of the F.M. Alexander Technique at international venues, including the Care of the Professional Voice Symposium, Choice for Voice - sponsored by the British Voice Foundation - and The International Congress of the F. M. Alexander Technique. She is currently a visiting professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, acting as voice and speech UG curriculum consultant. She coached at the Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre at Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada, where she received a Tyrone Guthrie Award for the book's initial research. Feindel holds a master's degree in fine arts from Carnegie Mellon's School of Drama.? Film/TV credits include QUEER AS FOLK, DREAM TEAM, STREET LEGAL and LOVE AND HATE.

"Janet Feindel's book THOUGHT PROPELS THE SOUND will fill a vacuum in the field of performance literature. Although there are many books available to actors on how to train their voices, and actors know that they must train their voices, there is an astonishing level of - let¹s call it - deafness in directors, artistic directors and producers. This book promises to sound a necessary alarm that will penetrate to those who wield authority over actors and very often jeopardize a performance because their eyes dominate their creative process. In simple terms the information Feindel offers will sensitize directors, empower actors, and guide vocal coaches, trainers and speech pathologists. The book is practical and opens up a subject that has too long remained somewhat mysterious to the non-initiate. Voices need to be talked about. In particular directors need to know how the voice works and how to maximize the conditions for the most vivid and appropriate vocal life on stage. It is interesting that in training programs for directors there are courses in lighting, scene design, script analysis, but not in voice. And yet voice and language are the heartbeat of Western theatre. Certainly in England a voice teacher/coach/text-director is almost always part of the creative team that is assembled for a production. The National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company have one or more voice directors on staff. In the States this concept has yet to be generally accepted. Perhaps because the role of auteur-director is preeminent, or perhaps because the contribution of a voice director has not been understood. Janet Feindel¹s book will go a long way to dispel misunderstanding, educate and illuminate the art that is speaking." -- Kristin Linklater, Professor of Voice, Columbia University, Theatre Division, head of Acting, Author of FREEING THE NATURAL VOICE, FREEING SHAKESPEARE'S VOICE

"Feindel has a plethora of attributes, but for the sake of economy, let me list two: 1) I (and my colleagues at CMU, where we took her class) still use Madelle's exercises in our professional careers, as they are practical, simple, and extremely beneficial, and 2) unlike other voice teachers, Madelle's work helps an actor support one's choices with proper vocal support, as opposed to limiting one's choices with some stodgy idea of what 'the voice' should sound like in a theatrical context." -- Christopher Hoch, Broadway roles include Sir Lancelot in SPAMLOT and Gaston in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

"Janet Feindel has developed an expert yet personal approach to the important business of training the actors' voice. Hers is one which takes into account the varied challenges that the current generation of actors and directors will encounter as they are called upon to engage with how theatre will be defined in the Twenty First Century. It should be considered an essential complement to established resources in the field." -- Elizabeth Bradley, Chair of the NYU's undergraduate School of Drama, Cultural Ambassor for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Producer Festival of Firsts and formerly head of drama at Carnegie Mellon University

 

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