Course Details

Giving public readings is a crucial part of being a writer ? regardless of whether you're a long-established author, a journalist reading an article, or someone embarking on a first book tour. Readings are a chance to talk with your audience face to face, a chance to show them how good your writing really is. With more than 150,000 books published every year, readers are overwhelmed by the options on bookstore shelves ? giving a good reading is the best opportunity for making your work stand out.

If a reading goes well, audiences will take your book home from the store, and ensure that it gets the readership (and sales) it deserves. The problem is, giving readings is an art form that takes training and practice, but it's rarely discussed, and almost never taught.

Expect to learn how to:

• Relax and be present in front of an audience
• Expand your vocal variation to keep listeners captivated
• Effectively express the emotional life of your characters and narratives
• Break habitual speech patterns and let the rhythms of your writing come alive
• Clarify the meaning of each sentence by choosing operative and inoperative words
• Create a personal connection to the audience, so listeners don't feel they're being read to, but being told a story one-on-one

Instructor Bio

David Prete's Courses

David Prete is a writer, actor, and readings coach living in New York City. He graduated from the New Actors Workshop, where he studied with Mike Nichols (Tony and Academy Award-winning director of The Graduate, Primary Colors, The Birdcage, and Angels in America) and George Morrison (Broadway and Off-Broadway director of The Premise and Epitaph for George Dillon).
He has appeared in theater productions ranging from Shakespeare to adaptations of Leo Tolstoy to commedia dell'arte versions of Clifford Odets. He co-founded Water Theatre Company, where he worked as an actor and producer. He has also acted in independent films screened at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, the Long Island Film Festival, and the International Film Festival of NYC.
David is an expert at teaching fiction and nonfiction writers to read their work in public by utilizing vocal and delivery techniques from his experience as an actor. He is also a fiction writer. His first book, Say That to My Face, was published by W.W. Norton in 2003. He is currently at work on a novel entitled, Bones of His Bones, also to be published by Norton.