Synopsis:

In the late 1980s, Peter Gill, first director of the National Theatre Studio, sent a group of young actors and directors to interview some of the most respected actors of the time about speaking on stage. Those conversations, with actors such as Alec Guinness, Rex Harrison and Robert Stephens, are collected here for the first time, with an introduction by Peter Gill.

'Your body is a machine... in speaking and in moving and in everything... a piece of equipment.' 

From initial questions about clarity, projection, technique and influences, the discussions take off in surprising directions, providing fascinating insights into the actor's craft and revealing how the skills of stage-speaking are passed from one generation to the next. ‘These fascinating conversations reveal a great deal about the craft of speaking on stage, but even more about the history of theatre in the 20th century...a book to treasure’ Sir Peter Hall