About The Book
In the sports world, the coach is a person of high status but with voice and speech coaches, this is not always the case. Janet Madelle Feindel has honed her career by developing a program of teaching and coaching than brings the work of the voice trainer to the presidium.
Over the last thirty years, there have been great strides in voice training in a number of areas but sadly, directors have often been unaware of these strides.
The author shows that the study of the voice and speech as well as the Alexander technique for the director should be an integral part of the director’s training. Feindel provides an overview of basic voice and speech production, the Alexander and ways to integrate these principles into the rehearsal process and methods for working most effectively with voice and speech/Alexander coaches.
In The Thought Propels the Sound, Feindel outlines her successful approach to training actors and musical theatre performers using traditional methods developed by well renowned individuals such as Berry, Linklater, Fitzmaurice and Alexander, and synthesizes them with her own methods of Vox Explora and Resonex that have evolved out of her vast experience training actors at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television and coaching for the Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival under the direction of Martha Henry, (Officer of the Order of Canada) and coaching professionally working with many noted performers.
The Thought Propels the Sound is a must book for directors and directing students but also for voice and dialect coaches, Alexander teachers, medical specialists, speech pathologists, actors and singers and anyone interested in the performer’s voice in the theatre.
About The Author
Janet Madelle Feindel, (MFA, Carnegie Mellon 2002) was awarded a lifetime membership to the Pacific Voice and Speech Foundation for “exemplary contributions to the pedagogy and care of the artistic voice”. She has received numerous grants and awards including two Tyrone Guthrie Awards from the Stratford Festival, Canada. She is an expert voice, dialect, accent coach, and Alexander Technique Teacher, with particular talent for working with English as a Second Language speakers. She is also an Equity actress and director.
Feindel has taught many sought after artists including Golden Globe recipient Matt Bomer; Dagmara Domińczyk (Succession, Higher Ground, The Lost Daughter); Disney Legend Award recipient Josh Gad; Academy Award nominee Leslie Odom, Jr; Olivier Award recipient Patina Miller; and Zach Quinto (Startrek).
Feindel was co-voice/text consultant with Cicely Berry, CBE, for the critically acclaimed Merchant of Venice and The Jew of Malta starring Academy Award Recipient F. Murray Abraham, for Theatre of a New Audience, NYC, and Merchant at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Complete Works Festival. She also served as Mr. Abraham’s Alexander Technique Coach, through his Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship grant.
Other coaching credits include: Stratford Festival, Canada including the Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre; Shaw Festival, (also Principal of the Academy); Canadian Stage Company Shakespeare, Toronto; Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Quantum, The Rep, Pittsburgh; Shakespeare Festival of New Jersey, NJ; Pitt Rep/Rampe Theatre, Pittsburgh/Stuttgart, Germany; and film/television/radio credits Queer as Folk, Love and Hate, Dream Team, Street Legal, The Old Guy.
Feindel leads workshops and presents at conferences internationally including: the Care of the Professional Voice Symposium, Philadelphia; master class for Canadian Voice Symposium, Banff, Canada; Choice for Voice, sponsored by British Voice Association/Guildhall School, London, UK; Pacific Voice and Speech Foundation, Krakow, Poland; Los Angeles, Santa Clara, San Francisco; International Congress on the Alexander Technique, Oxford, UK; Lugano, Switzerland; Freedom to Act Conference, NYC; Alexander Technique International, Papenburg, Germany; Budapest, Hungary; Alexander Alliance Deutschland;, among numerous others.
Her teaching credits include Module Leader of Voice, Institute of the Arts, Barcelona; Concordia, John Abbott Cegep, Montreal; University of Alberta, Edmonton; and Professor Emerita, Voice/Alexander/Dialects, School of Drama, Carnegie Mellon University, where she initiated many innovations including Seminars on Vocal Health with the Voice Clinic, University of Pittsburgh; integration of Linklater Voice and Alexander Technique into the curriculum; Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee; Theatrical Intimacy Guidelines; Outreach with the Hope Academy, recognized by the Leonard Gelfand Center; and workshops for professors with the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence.
Feindel is a Designated Linklater Voice Teacher, certified in Fitzmaurice Voicework®, certified Yoga Alliance Teacher and certified with Alexander Technique (ATC), Canada; Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique, (STAT), UK; American Society of the Alexander Technique (AmSAT); Alexander Technique International (ATI), and Regroupement d’éducation Somatique.
She has published a chapter in The Performer’s Voice (Plural), articles in Canadian Theatre Review, Canada’s Globe and Mail, and several Alexander Congress Papers, STAT Publishers, UK. Her play A Particular Class of Women, is published by Lazara and then in SINGULAR VOICES, Canada Playwrights Press. Initially performed by Feindel herself, the play has been performed by many companies, including Teatro inglés and Teatro Colosseo (in Italian) in Rome, Italy.
Janet Madelle wishes to thank Susan Ambrose, Barbara Anderson, Richard Armstrong, Michael Benninger, Cicely Berry, Eric Berryman, Elizabeth Bradley, Roberta Burke, , Gaius Charles, Antoni Cimolino, Graeme Campbell, Deborah Clipperton, Christopher Hoch, Jim Davidson, Theresa Davis, Catherine Fitzmaurice, Michael D. Frederick, Michael Fuller, Robert Haley, Mark Kamlet, Mladen Kiselov, Dudley Knight, Paula Hill, Martha Henry, Lucinda Holshue, Jeffrey Horowitz, Nancy Houfek, Gregory Lehane, Kristin Linklater, Joan Melton, Vladimir Miroden, Thomas Murray, Janice Price, Martin Prekop, Bonnie Raphael, Lisa Ritter, Robert Sataloff, Susan Schulman, John Shepard, David Smukler, Paul Wagar, Andrew Wade, Karen Waggoner and the wonderful staff at Plural.
Table Of Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction to Voice Training
Overview of Voice Methods: Whose Voice Is It Anyway?
Overview of Speech Methods: Whose Standard Is It Anyway?
Voice and the Alexander Technique
Vox Explora�: What Is It?
Resonex�
Voice and Text Explorations
Directors, Voice and the Rehearsal Process
Special Issues
Working with Voice/Dialect and Alexander Coaches
Appendix, Anatomy and Physiology of the Voice
Bibliography
Voice Sources
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