Lost and Found

How fortunate I am to have had a vacation and better yet an opportunity for a working vacation where the work was as stimulating and as uplifting as a journey to a tropical island. (Well, maybe that is a slight exaggeration). I spent my holiday this year on Vancouver Island, on a bluff overlooking the most stunning vista: ocean, island and mountains for as far as the eye can see; deer practically eating out of my hands and hummingbirds resting just inches from my nose.

Now several years ago, while shopping for a present my son's second birthday, I met a woman who is a poet, facilitator, social worker and much much more. Upon meeting we found we shared a mutual interest in and passion for the concept of "Women's Voices". For years we had contemplated merging our two specialties, writing and voice work, into a workshop designed to explore these two areas simultaneously. Thus was "Lost and Found" born two weeks ago on Vancouver Island. While I warmed us all up vocally and physically, the wonderful JS Nahani guided us through a series of thought provoking writing exercises. I was impressed by the amount of clarity that was gained, the quickness by which we were able to open up and reveal unvoiced truths and the confidence I left with, having made contact with these truths. The combination of opening the physical voice and the written voice was indeed as profound as we had expected and at every turn in the facilitation I could visualize further methods of integrating the work. It makes me question how I can integrate more written work into my sessions and how the use of the physical body and voice can enhance and deepen written material for many.

The workshop was help in a wonderful gallery of which I have included the link.

Mariner's Lookout
http://www.flipkey.com/comox-vacation-rentals/p164733/

Thank you Henry of Mariner's Lookout for the perfect space and beautiful art and to all of the amazing participants I look forward to hooking up in the future. If you have further ideas on the connection between writing and voice send them my way. I will keep you update as "Lost and Found" continues to grow... Next workshop will be held in Vancouver this fall.

Camp Fire Songs

One of my favourite parts of teaching is when a participant starts to really enjoy creating sound and they say something like, "Oh, I remember when I was a kid I made up these great songs." or "I love singing in the shower." Memories of a freedom they may not have felt for a very long time bubble to the surface. Usually, the next class they will arrive with stories about how they sang in the car for the first time in a very long time. For me summer brings these memories to the surface.

In the living room of our house that was build in 1907 are three built- in bookshelves, two of which hug the entry way to the front foyer. In one of those, on the second shelf up, was where my mother kept her dog-eared Girl Scout Guide Song Book. Whenever we went on a camping trip my mother would not only pack the most exquisite gourmet meals to be prepared over an open fire she would also bring her little guitar and if there was time after the tent preparation, exploration, cooking and cleaning, she would sing songs from her Guide days: Barges, Kookabura, This Land is my Land and many more filled our heads and hearts connecting us to each other and our mother's previous life as we munched on S'mores.

CBC currently has an article posted inviting you to send in your favourite camp song:

http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/general2/2011/07/12/campfire-music-the-best-songs-to-sing-around-the-wonderful-glow/

What I have decided that I will do for my children (maybe more myself, if truth be told) is to print out the lyrics of my favourite songs and put together a little book that we can take with us on our next outing. Better yet, I can teach them to the kids in the car on our way to our holiday.

I found a very extensive repository that included so many songs I hadn't thought about in years. Here it is for those of you who might want to keep that voice in shape in a slightly different way this summer:

http://webspace.webring.com/people/rn/nice_dragon/songbook_index.htm

May your songs be lively, your S'mores be messy and your summer nights breathtaking!

P.S. In case you have been deprived S'mores here is the basic recipe.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/smores/detail.aspx

Summer Reading

Ah, summer. Finally we have some gorgeous weather and as I have a little bit of time to build on and refine our Presentation Skills sessions for the Fall I have found a great resource. Scott Burkun's Confessions of a Public Speaker is refreshingly honest and simple. The disclaimer at the beginning sets just the right tone, "This book is highly opinionated, personal, and full of behind-the-scenes stories. You may not like this. Some people like seeing how sausage is made, but many do not."

Regardless of whether or not you enjoy seeing sausage being made, if you have ever had to appear in front of an audience and had any feelings of confusion or unease this is a very humorous but helpful way to look at some of the issues and practicalities in presenting. His website has lots of examples of his work, so enjoy the summer and get readin'!

Actor training and Presenting

What makes me qualified to teach Presentation Skills?

When my son was born, I had taken a break from acting for about a year and was working almost entirely with very novice actors, business people and educators on voice and presentation skills. For the first time in my life I was not immersed in the world of the actor and had very little contact with that community. At that time my brother-in-law was performing in a show so I went to see the show to support him (and because it was a great excuse to do one of the things I enjoy most). The show was an exceptional piece (which isn’t always the case) but mostly I was struck by the elegance, the power, the stature and ease of the actors. Having spent time away from this world, I had forgotten how the years and years of training added up to create master communicators as well as actors. These particular actors all had master’s degrees from very fine internationally recognized institutions as well as long lists of professional experience with some of the finest theatre companies in the country. It is no surprise that so many actors go on to be Public Speakers, Leaders of Organizations and Politicians. One of my students once told me that Ronald Reagan had been quoted as saying he didn’t know how any politician could succeed without training as an actor.

Now Actor training is always a bit of a mystery to the general public. What happens between those closed doors and why would it help me? I spent my childhood in three different places outside the home, one was in acting classes (my love) and the other was at political rally’s (my father’s choice) and the final was at church (my mother’s choice) and I think that it was in these three arenas that I was able to develop and assess different modes of communicating with people. In the arena of politics and church there was very definitely some politicians who were great communicators and some who were very poor. On the other hand, almost every actor was an extremely strong communicator and that made perfect sense to me. In the case of politicians so much of their training and interest could lie in other areas and although the ministers might have loved the liturgy and had a great spiritual connection their technical skills might not have been developed.

So I ask the question again, “What does actor training look like?” Contrary to what other people might believe, actor training looks at some very simple concepts in a very complex, deep, and layered way. It asks how can a person:

1) comfortably be in their body as other people watch them, without any of the physical ticks or patterning that may have developed throughout one’s life?

2) move in a way that expresses their thoughts fully, making use of their entire body?

3) speak fully from a point of deep connection to their soul and move another human being with their sound?

4) listen fully and respond instinctively and honestly?

5) Weave and create an intricate and vibrant story from their imagination?

The means by which these goals are attained are varied and creative but underneath them all is the development of the person to overcome those negative thoughts that might shut him/her down; stop them from expressing fully. Actor training is never ending, it begins at the moment one is born, learning from watching others, and continues every time an actor steps both onstage and offstage. I believe it is the same for every good presenter. Life is the teacher and we learn when we have the confidence to step bravely forward and present ourselves and our stories to an empty room or an audience of 500.

Live Longer

It is with great sadness that I read today of Arthur Lessac's death. Now who is Arthur Lessac you might wisely ask?

Arthur Lessac has been one of the most influential North American voice teachers of the last century and it was reading his seminal work, "The Use and Training of the Human Voice" that first piqued my interest in teaching voice work. He believed that the sounds in our language are like instruments in an orchestra and that one can develop both the body and the voice until it operates like a Stradivarius. Not only has he coached some of the most prominent actors of our time, he was a singer who performed with the likes of Paul Robeson and Burl Ives.

Now how does this relate to living longer? Lessac firmly believed that developing and using the human voice would, in fact, allow you to live longer. He died on April 7th at 101 years of age and roughly a month before that he was teaching at university in Croatia where he danced with his students in the streets!

I deeply regret that I never had a chance to witness this master teacher at his craft and am thankful that he has left behind a wealth of ideas that we can still access.

If you would like further information, check out the Lessac Training and Research Institute:

http://www.lessacinstitute.com/index2.html

Questions

What do we fear when we get up in front of large or even small groups of people? Is it that they will throw rotten fruits and vegetables at us, tie us to a stake and roast us over a hot fire or simply think less of us? Since the first two are fairly rare, I am assuming for most of us the answer is the latter. I have spent too many hours in my lifetime worrying about what people think of me, but if I remind myself what I am doing when I present it simplifies things.
"What are you doing?" you may ask yourself.
"I'm exchanging information." I respond.
"But you are the only one talking?" you query.
Ah, I may be the only one talking out loud, but every single person listening is having a thought as I speak and hopefully I am responding to those thoughts.

I recently worked with a presenter who wanted to become more comfortable with his material. We found that whenever he turned his material into a question and answer all of the technical elements fell into place. When he verbalized, "What are our objectives for today's session?" he began to breathe and add vocal variety and relax his body and connect visually with his listeners.

"So you actually want me to try this?" you ask incredulously.
"Why not? What do you have to lose? At least use it as a practice technique to see whether or not it changes your relationship to your material or the listener. I've found it even helps answer questions people have around structuring their content." I respond confidently.

Go on-- give it a try!

Santa

Last week, with my one-year old daughter strapped on my back and my four–year old son in tow, we spontaneously made our way into Santa’s workshop on Granville Island. After a rousing rendition of Jingle Bells, accompanied by maracas and bells jangled in a most rhythmically challenged way, my son had the opportunity of a life-time: to sit on Santa’s lap for a full ten minutes. Despite the fact that he has been writing his Christmas wish-list since April 28th, the day after his birthday, he was stunned into silence by the gigantic realness of this mythical being. When Santa came to that perfect of all questions, “What would you like for Christmas?” my son said nothing!!! Santa suggested board games to which Griffin blithely nodded his head in a euphoric stupor, despite the fact that he already has Candy Land and Snakes and Ladders, the two board games Santa proposed bringing.

Now, I don’t know about you, but in the event that I, too, lose my brain the next time I see Santa; I thought I should get down in writing what I would really like. Last year, he brought me the perfect present, a DVD collection of Playing Shakespeare (John Barton’s master class with Royal Shakespeare Company actors bringing life to the Bard’s sonnets, scenes and monologues).
This year I am dying for Patsy Rodenburg’s latest book, The Second Circle. I haven’t read it yet, but take a look at this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub27yeXKUTY

For those of you confused by the concept of “presentation/performance energy” this is the book for you. I’ll fill you in further in the New Year, if Santa is good to me. I know that what my son really wants is the Playmobil Red Dragon. Think I might have to track Santa down myself and fill him in.