Speaking Shakespeare

"Fear no more the heat o' the sun,
Nor the furious winter's rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages:
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust."

My Uncle Tim and I had a debate several years ago (he's an award winning high school English teacher), it centered around this key question, "Is Shakespeare over-rated?"

My answer continues to be: "NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!", but my students, along with my uncle, would disagree. Most of them feel that understanding Shakespeare is not worth the effort. Although I may spend weeks guiding them through the text, allowing them to put the images into their bodies and their own words, in the end their presentations can lack specificity and understanding.

Every time I explore Shakespeare, my respect for language, communication and words grows. I continue to use sonnets, soliloquies and snippets of dialogue to open the voice and connect it to thought. As a thirteen year old, I refused to sunbathe because, "I want to be a Shakespearean actress!" That feeling hasn't changed and although I have spent the past fifteen years trying, without success, to convert my husband, my uncle and my students, I haven't been as successful as I would have liked.

I shall continue with my mission and as the summer wraps up, I suggest trying out a few lines. The lines above work splendidly spoken to the stars at night or used as a warm-up to try out the accoustics in a new lecture hall.

While you are at it check out Patsy Rodenberg's "Speaking Shakespeare" for great exercises in opening up your range of expression.

Eyes and Breath

Every week, or sometimes every other week if life is too crazy, I talk to my dad on the phone. We usually talk for about an hour and our conversations meander through the events of our lives, movies we've seen, gorgonzola, Miss Petrona (his racing horse), family activities, Rosie and Harpo (cats) and eventually, eyes. Why eyes you ask? Eyes end up being my favourite topic. You see my dad is an optometrist and I spent much of my childhood in his office. First, playing on the big green leather chair that adjusted up and down, getting my first pair of glasses, then my first pair of contact lenses, and finally, working as his assistant one summer. Being extremely near-sighted, I have spent many moments of wonder in his office as I receive a new pair of glasses or contacts and suddenly see the world with new clarity. The leaves of trees are distinct and I run around reading every word on every street sign. The world feels exciting and new once again.

One exercise that we do in voice work is a very simple one. We close our eyes and focus on the breath. Once the breath becomes more even, relaxed and deeper, we are asked to open our eyes and look around. If I lead the exercise, I will ask people if it was harder to stay connected to the breath with their eyes open. The answer is invariably, "Yes!"

Dad says that one exercise he suggests for the eyes is to place a #2 pencil in front of you. Begin moving the pencil around and try not to "look at" the #2, but allow your eyes to follow the number. Most people are confused by the idea, but as I was observing my breath this week I noticed the same thing, for the first fifteen minutes I was "trying to breathe". Then all of a sudden I didn't have to think about it, the rhythm became natural and easy and when I opened my eyes, it took a moment to re-discover the connection, but when I did, everything looked a little clearer. Like getting a new pair of contact lenses.

Sometimes I work so hard to see things that I forget to breathe. How about you?

Slow and Steady

I told my husband I would be done teaching by 5:10 pm sharp. "I'm never late!" I assure him.

5:35 pm and he has driven around the block six times, our one year old is pulling at his seat belt trying out his best Houdini moves-- and shrieking.

"You said that you are never late!" My husband accuses as I slip into the back seat, trying to avert the crazy rush-hour drivers.

"Sorry," I say, while attempting to soothe our one year old, "there were tears." On the ride home, I try to explain to my husband the students' frustration as the term comes to an end. Final performances are looming, they want the work to be perfect, but find they are still struggling to find some release in their throat or an emotional connection to words or freedom in their range.

Voice work is challenging because it requires exploration and sometimes just plain dedication. After four or five months of taking classes, a student may begin to understand what is possible but feel very far from achieving that possibility.

* * *

In a beautiful suite above Coal Harbour, we sit on chairs along the perimeter of newly washed living room carpets. We massage our jaws and flex our tongues, experiment with the rhythms and music of commercial tag-lines. My accent reduction pupils feel the same sense of frustration as the acting students. It's just good old-fashioned hard work today.

What we lose sight of is that tomorrow there may be a revelation, a giant leap forward, a triumphant step into new and exciting territory. That land can only be reached through the work, day after day, after day, after day, after day the work begins to unfold and flourish.

Accent Reduction

I'm spending Saturday mornings working with a wonderful couple from Columbia who are polishing their standard American. I think if someone were to walk in on one of our sessions they might think that we are from some strange planet. Mirrors poised, we watch our mouths shape new sounds. We sing "It's a small world after all" and feel the weight of the vowels.

As I am teaching IPA to acting students, one curious young woman asks, "Do you really love language?"
"Yes!" I shout in response. I'm reminded of this interchange as I help this couple contemplate the sound "r" for over thirty minutes.

In the process of sharing the accent reduction work, I found a very helpful website that narrates simple news articles in an appropriately slooooowwww fashion. Print it out and then listen along. Once you have done this a few times, tape yourself and begin to identify the differences.

http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/index.cfm

Keep it up!

I've just finished teaching at a summer intensive where I had the opportunity to introduce voice work to aspiring actors. I felt lucky to be sharing such empowering information, on the other hand, it was hard to leave people when they were just beginning to feel something new, taste some potential. The scope of voice work is a lifelong exploration.

I became aware of my own desire to delve deeper into the work, and due to time constraints (and a very active and demanding 15 month old) I realize that my private exploration will have to suffice. I'm trying to make time to re-commit to my own practise.

Here's a simple physical and vocal session that is easy to follow:

http://www.uiowa.edu/~shcvoice/vocalfreedom2.pdf

So to the SFUers who are missing "Vocal Practise" and the "Summer Intensive" gang who are heading back to jobs, family and other provinces, here's a little workout to keep you vibrating!

Yawning

Memory. I'm fourteen and I have spent almost all afternoon lying on the front lawn in my pink and black striped bikini reading Moliere. We live on 5th Ave. (Puyallup, WA. not New York City) which is one of the busier streets in the little town whose only claim to fame is hosting the state's fair every September. By the evening I have absorbed enough sun tan lotion, car exhaust and UV rays to make my brain function at less than optimal levels. This puts me in the mood for one of America's great summer past-times: a cheesy, fluffy summer flick! As the streets take on that neon pink and orange hue, the popcorn and pop comes out as I plop myself down on the floor and indulge.

I've gotten quite sensible in my older age and, when given the choice, I will usually opt for "An Inconvenient Truth" over "Spider Man III". As soon as the temperature hits thirty, though, I am gone. All of a sudden, my craving for things light, fluffy and downright fun emerges. What does all of this have to do with voice, you ask? Well this week's "Question of the Week" seems to suite my humour. It's not particularly heavy and the answer is a whimsical one, at least according to the sites I will direct you to.

In the midst of this heat wave, ten bodies filled a hot studio and began to breathe, with relish. Now what happened was predictable, everyone began to yawn. Big juicy yawns. When asked why this was the case, I gave my usual response, the physiological theory, "we yawn because we want to draw in more oxygen." Usually this does the trick, but this particular group was keen and the questions continued. So I thought I would track down a little more information. Here's several cute and helpful sites that informed me that my theory is purely that-- just a theory. In reality, no one has discovered the definitive answer for why we yawn.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/question572.htm
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/yawning.html
http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/talk/qa/yawn.html

Just remember, though, whether we know why we yawn or not, it's ability to open up the soft palate and create more space in the lungs is helpful for voice work. So yawn away!

Inspiration

The long Canada Day weekend is over, the maple leaf tattoo I temporarily affixed to my shoulder has rubbed off and I am back in the office! We’re in the midst of planning blogs, podcasts and fall workshops and as I update my suggested reading list, I realize that one of the seminal voice texts, “Freeing the Natural Voice” by Kristin Linklater, has been updated. It has taken me awhile to track it down, but as I peruse her new website and check out her brief video outlining the key elements of voice work, my passion for this type of training is rekindled. So for a little inspiration, check out the audio/video component and the intro, and for those of you who continue to ponder, “Do I breathe through my nose or my mouth?” check out her voice notes section:

http://www.kristinlinklater.com/audio.htm