NEW SCENE BOOK BY TOP HANNA-BARBERA CARTOON VOICE MAN TEACHES THE ART OF VOICE ACTING

Scenes For Actors and Voices focuses on one, two and three character scenes short enough for use in any acting class or audition.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Joe Bevilacqua (845) 647-9475
joebev@comedyorama.com

NEW SCENE BOOK BY TOP HANNA-BARBERA CARTOON
VOICE MAN TEACHES THE ART OF VOICE ACTING

"Scenes For Actors and Voices" is a compilation of original scripts by Daws
Butler, who spoke the words for most of the classic Hanna-Barbera
characters: Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Elroy Jetson,
and a hundred others. His significant work both as a writer and actor with
Stan Freberg in the 1950s on "The Stan Freberg Show" and
multi-million-selling records such as St. George and the Dragonet are still
held in reverence today.

Edited by radio historian and author Ben Ohmart and veteran public radio
producer Joe Bevilacqua, "Scenes For Actors and Voices" is comprised of rare
never-before published material from a man known as some of animation's
most beloved cartoon voices but who was also a prolific writer.

"Most people are unaware of this," laments Bevilacqua, who studied voice
acting with Butler for 13 years, as part of Butler's Beverly Hills,
California workshop. "Daws co-wrote the Dragonet spoofs and many
other of Freberg's most successful records. He wrote for 'Time for Beany,'
Bob Clampett's TV puppet feast which ran live five days a week for five
years. And he wrote and voiced some of TV's funniest animated
commercials."

In 1975, Daws Butler began an acting workshop from his audio
studio/converted garage and soon after wrote hundreds of scenes for his
students to perform.

Among Butler's many successful students were Nancy Cartwright (the voice of
Bart Simpson and author of the L.A. Times best seller, My Life as a
10-Year-Old Boy), and Corey Burton (Disney's Atlantis; Return to
Neverland; Brainiac in the Superman/Justice League cartoons; the Old Navy
'logo voice'). Burton also wrote the book's insightful foreword.

Nancy Cartwright says the book is "a romp in a garden of characters. Each
monologue, dialogue or scene study is a taste of some of the 'juicy fruits'
that Daws left as his legacy. They fed me. They fed Corey Burton. They fed
Joe Bevilacqua. And they fed dozens of other voice talent in Hollywood and
beyond."

"More than a voice actor, Daws was an artist," explains Bevilacqua. "To
him, playing a talking dog or bear was as real as playing Hamlet or Mac
Beth. The techniques he taught are all represented in these scenes, which
are not cartoony but realistic examples of human interaction."

Corey Burton adds, "His writing was purposely difficult to get a 'handle'
on; carefully crafted to be open to a nearly infinite range of
interpretation. A genuine exercise which actors must first struggle to
decode, then apply great depth of imagination and creativity in a complex
exploration of character and emotion, through a virtual rainbow of
possibilities."

The book was a longtime dream of Butler, who died in 1988. With the
cooperation of Butler's widow, Ohmart and Bevilacqua chose the best
monologues, dialogues and exercises from hundreds of scripts found in file
cabinets in the Butler family garage. They wrote introductions for each
filled with the advice Butler gave his students during a typical workshop.
The result is a scene book for anyone interested in improving how they use
their voice. But actors, in particular, will find it as useful as a painter
would find a life drawing class.

"Plus, it's a very entertaining read. 'Better than the average scene book,'
as Yogi would say," concludes Bevilacqua.

Scenes For Actors and Voices focuses on one, two and three character scenes
short enough for use in any acting class or audition. Future Daws Butler
scene books are planned, and Ohmart and Bevilacqua are currently working on
the authorized biography of the voice legend for publication Christmas 2004.

Scenes For Actors and Voices by Daws Butler

Release date: July 14, 2003.

ISBN: 0-9714570-6-9                             PRICE: $15.95 + $2 shipping

Order from BearManor Media, P O Box 750, Boalsburg, PA 16827, or on the web
at: http://bearmanormedia.bizland.com