Clarity
July 4, 2020•139 words
Above all, some technical points have been impressed on me since playing for three years in theatres which have been too large for the plays we have performed in them. This has entailed first and foremost clear speaking – not shouting, but enunciating, with particular attention to the last word of every sentence. There is always a key word in a line, and if this is lost the whole meaning of the sentence (and in comedy, therefore, the laugh) is lost too. Often this key word is the final one of the line, and a fatal fault is to exhaust one's breath at the beginning of the sentence and let the final word become inaudible. The cure, of course, is to control the diaphragm so that the breath is conserved.
The great actress Athene Seyler (1889-1990). Wise, wise words.