Voice and Text
Are you breathing to live or are you breathing, merely to survive? This is the question I ask my students and professional actors, all the time when working on shows. As a voice and text coach I have studied different approaches (from Linklater, Fitzmaurice, Alexander technique, Qi-Gong, Tai-Chi, Rosenburg, and, currently, studying Knight-Thompson Speechwork)to activating text and releasing thoughts in a manner that is meaningful, economical, definite, and dynamic; whilst keeping clarity of specificity of thought. I believe, as Cicely Berry says, “Voice is the muscle of the soul.” Muscularizing the text is a phrase I often use when working with actors; helping them to understand that speaking text should always be thought of as a complex set of infinite combinations of different muscles, of all sizes and shapes; working together to create and communicate complex and not-so complex langauge.
I often ask the actors to think about this: when I close my eyes, is the play still happening? Sometimes we can see things with our ears; colors, textures, temperatures, stories, and thought packages. Other times, we can hear things with our eyes; body language, physical shifts, the sound of colors, and the movement of the eyes, which can inform how we respond.
I continually work with the actor to find their character’s voice; as they work through their story by occupying the space of the character’s circumstances with their voice and their own, unique and nuanced, physicality. Through active listening and observation, the actor can then, freely, find the life of the character; responding with a voice that is free and connected to truth.
These are four rules about speaking a speech that have continually resonated with me for over fifteen years.
The speech must arrive out of a situation.
The speech must have a story.
The speech must be spontaneous. (Avoid premeditating so that you can fresh mint the words. Are examining the script to decide or are you exploring the language to discover?)
Words, Words, Words:
I love words. LOVE them. I like to look at every consonant, vowel, diphthong, triphthong, and elided sounds. I believe that an entire word; with the clearest vocal expression, oral posture, and emphasis, can tell a larger story than an emotionally charged line delivery. The edges of words, the ends of words, the rounded sound of a vowel, and elongation of a word or vowel can also serve as little subplots to the larger story. This is one of the ways that I seek textual nuance. Letters can contain so much emotional life and paint such wonderful pictures if, we the actor, give the words, letters, and sounds, the space to explore that. I always encourage actors to find the words that affect us, viscerally; words that help paint a clear picture. I believe every word is necessary and was selected carefully, by the playwright so let’s dive in and find how much or how little power these words can, potentially have, moment to moment. Words can have flavors. They can have colors. Ultimately, they all have power to transform, change, inspire, encourage, destroy, and create. It is up to the actor and the voice and text coach to find those words, moment to moment, and how they can connect to the larger life of the story and all those, onstage. Words can live and be generated from different areas of the actor’s/character’s physical dimensions; connected to breath. Breath gives life and life is full of stories that beg to be told by those who love to breathe life into story.
Approaches to Mind, Breath, Body, and Voice
The mind informs the voice and the voice follows the body and the body follows the voice.
First: The actor must free the body of tension. Become a blank canvas/vessel for the text and the story.
Second: Breath Support is the end all be all of textual delivery. When the actor breathes in the thoughts and exhales the sounds that create the words that communicate what the character wants; what they are fighting for, what they desperately need, and what they would like to actively share with all those that are in their presence, the actor can then, clearly, send the voice to it’s destination and expect something new, something different, and something exciting. Speaking and thinking on the line, using breath support, helps the actor to continually speak from a place of honesty and uncertainty.
Third: Physicalization is absolutely necessary for creating supported, resonant, open, free, and clear sounds. Ground yourself in the text by grounding your whole physical self in the space you occupy and draw the text from the earth and send it out so that it can be heard and processed. A disconnected physicality can often lead to disconnected text. Economy of movement and specificity of gestures requires a physically free vessel to access these which is, again, why release of tension is important.
Fourth: Because emotions are not always playable actions I encourage actors to play the action, the moment, and the text in a way that is definitive and clearly articulated; which will help to communicate and release the emotional life and truth of the character without having to force it. The vocal expression that is needed for each moment will reveal itself to the actor; sans premeditation.
Fifth: Aristotle speaks about the components of an action as having 5 parts:
Astonishment (impulse, stimulus, trigger) You see, or hear, or feel something of enough importance that it takes you from where you were to somewhere new.
Philosophize (ruminating on what you have experienced)
Evaluate (argue with yourself about what you just experienced)
Decide (sum up everything you have philosophized about and evaluated and weigh what needs to happen next)
Astonishment (after all these steps now you may find new impulses, stimuli, and triggers)