Just because we all have the gift of gab does not mean we are endowed with the art of speech. Speech is an art, especially speech for the theatre. Those of us who devote ourselves to this art must continually question and re-evaluate our aims and methods. Battered and worn by our own dissatisfaction and that of critic and audience over the voice and speech of American actors, we must seek the root of the trouble and if possible ways to eradicate it.