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Mastering Stage Presence: How to Present to Any Audience
Stage presence—the ability to connect powerfully and authentically with an audience—is something we often associate with performers. Great actors, musicians, and public speakers all seem to have it. But this same capacity is something we all need and use in many areas of life, both professional and personal.
Any time you present yourself to others, whether in a speech, a public presentation, a meeting, an interview, a class, or a negotiation, your success depends on far more than the words you say. Your ability to communicate, to inspire, or to convince is heavily influenced by the way you carry yourself, the way you speak, the way you express what you’ve decided to say, and the way you connect with your listeners and the space you’re in. In any situation where you present yourself, your way of being and interacting with your listeners—your presence—is equally as important as what you say.
But is presence something you’re born with—an innate talent—or are there ways to develop it? Can presence, in fact, be learned?
As you’ll discover in this illuminating and highly practical course, the answer is an unqualified “yes.” The skills of poise, physical ease in public, clarity of speaking, and engaging, effective communication are well understood, and can be practiced and developed in ways that will greatly improve your success in presenting yourself in any setting.
Presence: A Learnable Skill
Drawing on the skills and techniques used by professional actors and public speakers, you can learn to offer your best self to the world, by cultivating self-awareness, mental focus, and the freedom of your body and voice. Whether your goal is to act on the stage or screen, speak at a public gathering, present at a business meeting, or even to be in top form over the dinner table, expressing yourself at your very best is a practical and reachable goal.
In Mastering Stage Presence: How to Present to Any Audience, Melanie Martin Long, a celebrated teacher of acting and directing, leads you in an in-depth exploration of the skills—and the joy—of performance and self-presentation, which apply to any situation where you present yourself to others.
Like golf, tennis, or painting, learning performance technique involves building one skill on another. In the course of 24 interactive lecture/practice sessions, you’ll learn core principles of modern acting technique that allow you to define and express your purpose for presenting. You’ll work systematically to become conscious of your own physical and vocal habits. And you’ll practice the techniques of freeing your body and voice for fuller self-expression.
Building on these practices, you’ll integrate your new skills by walking through the experience of an audition or interview, and then by exploring the process of preparing a performance or public appearance. Finally, you’ll learn how to channel nervous energy into effective performance, how to draw your audience in, and how to keep their attention through the end of your time onstage. With remarkable clarity and thoroughness, this course teaches you the what and how of presence and self-presentation, on stage and in life.
Hands-On Training in the Skills of Performance
In these dynamic learning sessions, you’ll study and practice the three building blocks of performance technique:
mental focus and preparation;
your physical life; and
voice and speech.
This is hands-on, high-level work in which you’ll explore all of the mental and physical resources that go into an effective stage performance or presentation. Far more useful than any book could be, the video sessions allow you to experience the work directly, practicing physical and vocal workouts in studio sessions with Professor Long.
First, you’ll learn that what drives a successful performance is the clear pursuit of your objective (or, in acting, the character’s objective), which unfolds moment by moment through specific actions.
Using characters from Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire, study acting pedagogue Uta Hagen’s “Nine Questions,” which crystallize a dramatic character’s circumstances, motivations, and objectives, and see how these factors propel their behavior onstage.
Learn how to specifically apply the principles of purpose and objectives to both dramatic scripts and public speaking, giving your performance or presentation crucial clarity and focus.
Next, you’ll work to develop physical freedom and ease onstage—a vital asset for presenting yourself in public.
Drawing on the discoveries of movement pioneers F. Mathias Alexander, Moshe Feldenkrais, and Rudolph Laban, practice movement exercises used by professional actors. These will help you bring your body into natural alignment, release unnecessary physical tension, and move with balance, spontaneity, and freedom.
Stage Savvy: A core element of skillful performance and stage deportment, learn how to take focus onstage, as well as how to give focus and cre...
Any time you present yourself to others, whether in a speech, a public presentation, a meeting, an interview, a class, or a negotiation, your success depends on far more than the words you say. Your ability to communicate, to inspire, or to convince is heavily influenced by the way you carry yourself, the way you speak, the way you express what you’ve decided to say, and the way you connect with your listeners and the space you’re in. In any situation where you present yourself, your way of being and interacting with your listeners—your presence—is equally as important as what you say.
But is presence something you’re born with—an innate talent—or are there ways to develop it? Can presence, in fact, be learned?
As you’ll discover in this illuminating and highly practical course, the answer is an unqualified “yes.” The skills of poise, physical ease in public, clarity of speaking, and engaging, effective communication are well understood, and can be practiced and developed in ways that will greatly improve your success in presenting yourself in any setting.
Presence: A Learnable Skill
Drawing on the skills and techniques used by professional actors and public speakers, you can learn to offer your best self to the world, by cultivating self-awareness, mental focus, and the freedom of your body and voice. Whether your goal is to act on the stage or screen, speak at a public gathering, present at a business meeting, or even to be in top form over the dinner table, expressing yourself at your very best is a practical and reachable goal.
In Mastering Stage Presence: How to Present to Any Audience, Melanie Martin Long, a celebrated teacher of acting and directing, leads you in an in-depth exploration of the skills—and the joy—of performance and self-presentation, which apply to any situation where you present yourself to others.
Like golf, tennis, or painting, learning performance technique involves building one skill on another. In the course of 24 interactive lecture/practice sessions, you’ll learn core principles of modern acting technique that allow you to define and express your purpose for presenting. You’ll work systematically to become conscious of your own physical and vocal habits. And you’ll practice the techniques of freeing your body and voice for fuller self-expression.
Building on these practices, you’ll integrate your new skills by walking through the experience of an audition or interview, and then by exploring the process of preparing a performance or public appearance. Finally, you’ll learn how to channel nervous energy into effective performance, how to draw your audience in, and how to keep their attention through the end of your time onstage. With remarkable clarity and thoroughness, this course teaches you the what and how of presence and self-presentation, on stage and in life.
Hands-On Training in the Skills of Performance
In these dynamic learning sessions, you’ll study and practice the three building blocks of performance technique:
mental focus and preparation;
your physical life; and
voice and speech.
This is hands-on, high-level work in which you’ll explore all of the mental and physical resources that go into an effective stage performance or presentation. Far more useful than any book could be, the video sessions allow you to experience the work directly, practicing physical and vocal workouts in studio sessions with Professor Long.
First, you’ll learn that what drives a successful performance is the clear pursuit of your objective (or, in acting, the character’s objective), which unfolds moment by moment through specific actions.
Using characters from Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire, study acting pedagogue Uta Hagen’s “Nine Questions,” which crystallize a dramatic character’s circumstances, motivations, and objectives, and see how these factors propel their behavior onstage.
Learn how to specifically apply the principles of purpose and objectives to both dramatic scripts and public speaking, giving your performance or presentation crucial clarity and focus.
Next, you’ll work to develop physical freedom and ease onstage—a vital asset for presenting yourself in public.
Drawing on the discoveries of movement pioneers F. Mathias Alexander, Moshe Feldenkrais, and Rudolph Laban, practice movement exercises used by professional actors. These will help you bring your body into natural alignment, release unnecessary physical tension, and move with balance, spontaneity, and freedom.
Stage Savvy: A core element of skillful performance and stage deportment, learn how to take focus onstage, as well as how to give focus and cre...
- GenresAudiobook
Audible Audio
Published December 5, 2018
5 people are currently reading
31 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 13, 2020
Introductory course on all aspects of stage presence -- psychology, figuring out intention and purpose, body (relaxation and body language), voice, speech (you will learn they are two different things), how to deal with stage fright, and more. Best to do the video but you can get some good info out of the audio. The instructor is from a theatre background and lessons can apply to acting or public speaking. She is down-to-earth, wise, smart, sometimes funny. Helps you understand all the craft involved in any kind of good performance. Highly recommend. I really enjoyed it.
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August 19, 2019Didn't finish it. It was more about acting than public speaking
February 7, 2020
Not bad, but the packaging creates the impression it is about public speaking while it is more about acting. Also, you need the video to follow properly.
June 9, 2022
This course is a lot of fun especially if you want to do any stage acting. The professor also discusses making business presentations, but mostly she discusses stage presentation for plays.
I found the breathing and body exercises similar to yoga. I recognized one story she told that was an adaptation of an Asian religious story. (No need to sharpen my knife because my focus is so keen that the blade never hit a wrong place and the meat falls off the bone of its own accord.)
I might listen to this audio course again if I ever considered joining a stage production again... which means, probably not.
I found the breathing and body exercises similar to yoga. I recognized one story she told that was an adaptation of an Asian religious story. (No need to sharpen my knife because my focus is so keen that the blade never hit a wrong place and the meat falls off the bone of its own accord.)
I might listen to this audio course again if I ever considered joining a stage production again... which means, probably not.
December 4, 2022
I will focus on what I’m doing and fully be present
It’s the ability to convey emotion in a way that resonates with the audience
Purpose is everything
I will ask the questions to understand context and character I am in that given talk
Every movement is character to character dependent
Use all the sagital planes and MOVE
All of speaking exercises before you go up!!
RID OF VOCAL TICKS
It’s the ability to convey emotion in a way that resonates with the audience
Purpose is everything
I will ask the questions to understand context and character I am in that given talk
Every movement is character to character dependent
Use all the sagital planes and MOVE
All of speaking exercises before you go up!!
RID OF VOCAL TICKS
May 4, 2022
3.5 stars
February 17, 2024
Full of good practical hands-on lessons
August 23, 2024
A comprehensive course for public speaking and acting.
December 12, 2019
"Breathe. Be present. Find your light."
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews