Cover Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Preface -- Contents -- Introduction -- Part I Believability: The Territory and the Tools -- 1 The Divine Marriage: Combining Believable Acting with Expressive Singing -- Being Believable as Your character -- Acting Actions -- Acting Feelings -- Acting Technically -- Acting Intutively -- Grounding Your Acting in Hardwired Human Behavior -- Singing and Acting Together-Believably -- Jumping Your Internal Hurdles -- Summary -- Exercises -- 2 To Become or Not to Become: Using Yourself to Create a Believable Character -- Entering Your Character's Reality-The Magical If -- Describing Your Character's Reality -- Making Your Character's Given Circumstances Your Own -- Using the Magical If to Explore Carmen as Gypsy -- Using the Magical If to Explore Tony as Leader of a Street Gang -- Sharing Your Character's World -- Putting It Together -- Summary -- Exercises -- 3 Playing in the Moment: Using Improvisation to Be Believable -- How Improvising Helps You to Act Believably -- Setting Up Successful Improvisational Situations -- Setting Up Successful Singing Improvisations -- Beginning an Improvisation -- Helpful Tips -- Discussing the Improvisation -- Handling Possible Fears about Improvising -- Summary -- Exercises -- Ideas for Improvisations -- 4 Judgments and Trust: Improving Your Concentration -- Introduction -- Improving Your Concentration by Increasing Your Ability to Trust -- Improving Your Concentration by Putting Judgments in Perspective -- Improving Your Concentration by Intensifying Your Engagement -- Maintaining Your Concentration in Demanding Vocal Passages -- Recovering Your Concentration -- Summary -- Exercises -- Part II Creating Your Character -- 5 Neither "Right" nor "Wrong":Making Effective Interpretive Choices -- Freeing Yourself to Make Interpretive Choices.

Recognizing When Your Character Choices Will Work Well -- Interpreting the Music to Help Make Effective Character Choices -- Summary -- Exercises -- 6 Your Character's Universe: Analyzing the Dramatic Structure of Music-Theater Pieces -- The Music-Theater Master Plan -- The Four Dramatic Building Blocks -- Developing the Action in the Stock Dramatic Structure -- Developing the Action in a Typical Plot -- The Music as an Emotional and Dramatic Voice -- Summary -- Exercises -- 7 Your Character's World: Fashioning a Theme Statement -- Defining the Theme -- Defining the Qualities of the Most Useful Theme Statements -- Fashioning a Theme Statement -- Fashioning a Theme Statement Using Research -- Troubleshooting -- Summary -- Exercises -- 8 Your Character's Heart's Desire: Fashioning Super-objectives -- The Qualities of the Most Useful Super-objectives -- Fashioning a Super-objective -- Why a Single Super-objective is the Most Helpful -- Troubleshooting -- Summary -- Exercises -- 9 Motivating Your Character's Actions: Fashioning Objectives and Acting Beats -- Defining Objectives and Acting Beats -- Defining the Qualities of the Most Useful Objectives -- Fashioning Objectives for Operas and Musicals -- Fashioning Objectives for Songs, Art Songs, and Lieder -- Using Objectives to Strengthen a Role or Scene -- Fashioning Acting Beats -- Using Acting Beats to Motivate Repeated Text -- Summary -- Exercises -- 10 Your Character's Inner Voice: Fashioning Subtext and an Internal Dialogue -- Defining Subtext -- Considering the Score as a Source of Subtext -- Fashioning Subtext -- Fashioning Internal Thoughts for Music Without Words -- Integrating an Internal Dialogue into Your Dramatic Analysis of Operas and Musicals -- Integrating an Internal Dialogue into Your Dramatic Analysis of Art Songs, Lieder, and Songs -- Troubleshooting -- Summary -- Exercises.

Part III Preparing for Performances -- 11 Being Believable in Any Role on Any Stage: Heightening -- Defining Heightening -- Heightening Your Feelings and Gestures by Energizing Your Body and Breath -- Heightening Your Gestures for Period Pieces -- Heightening Your Gestures for Melodramas and Farces -- Using Heightening to Support Hyper-melodramatic and Hyper-farcical Roles -- Troubleshooting -- Summary -- Exercises -- 12 Getting the Part: Auditioning -- Introduction -- Preparing to Audition -- Doing Auditions -- Solving Auditioning Problems -- How to Improve -- A Final Note -- Summary -- Exercises -- 13 Getting Good: Rehearsing -- Introduction -- Preparing to Rehearse -- The Rehearsal Process -- Troubleshooting -- Summary -- A Rehearsal Checklist -- Exercises -- 14 Delivering a Believable Character: Performing -- Preparing to Perform -- Preparing to Enter -- Entering -- Performing Operas and Musicals -- Performing Art Songs, Lieder, and Songs -- Troubleshooting -- Summary -- Exercises -- APPENDIX 1 Ten Maxims of Believable Singing Acting -- APPENDIX 2 How to Analyze and Prepare Vocal Material from a Dramatic Viewpoint: An Overview -- APPENDIX 3 A Short Glossary of Stage Terms -- APPENDIX 4 How to Research Period Practices in Movement, Manners, and Gesture -- APPENDIX 5 Notes on the Exercises for Teachers and Directors -- Index.