Last Normal Day before Finals Week!!!

Greetings.

Today we reviewed all of the work we'd done over the course of the semester and gave positive and constructive criticism as is our style. We reworked:

• The nonesense poem
• The IPA work
• The final monologues
• Overall voice warm-ups

Hopefully we all do well next week. Monday our book reports are due, oh did you want a sneak peek? OK! :D

Stage Dialects

Introduction

As far back as I can remember I have always been fascinated by different dialects in media and performance. I seemed to have a knack for mimicry with my voice, especially now that I’ve taken a special interest in it as an adult. But it’s not nearly as easy as I supposed it would be when I was younger. My favorite dialects, from the beginning, have always been those derived from England. Like America, it had so many to offer because of its geographical diversity. Films like Marry Poppins, My Fair Lady, and The Sound of Music showed to me the many different sounds that England could produce. They also were the first to truly peak my interest in dialects. I knew that it would take hours of practice to truly cultivate a strong, believable dialect. Though, I never in a thousand years would have thought that the learning of a dialect could be broken down to a science as it is done in Stage Dialects, a book written by Jerry Blunt. 

Pretty intense eh? lol. See ya! :)

Monologues and Dialects Revisited

Greetings!

Today we showed off our hard work from over Thanksgiving break by doing our memorized monologues! And with dialects too!! It was fancy. I've been reading a book called "Stage Dialects" by Jerry Blunt. It's cool because it's taught in IPA, and that's what we've been learning all along in class!!! Makes it so much easier to be honest.

I'm trying to work on two monologues. The first is my old one from acting 1, Beneatha from A Raisin in the Sun. I was memorized, thank goodness, but still Sally saw where there could be some improvements. She pointed out that sometimes, putting emphasis on different vowels or consonants can completely change the tone of a monologue or the sound of a character. I tried it a few times, and of course I heard what she meant.


I'll keep toying with it.
Okay!! Gotta Go.

Cool Dialects Lady!!

Nov 7

I have recovered, slightly, from my earlier illness and today promptly worked on picking out a monologue to consider for final exam! I am caught between an old favorite and a new character that I've been suggested. I think I'm leaning towards Beneatha from A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. She's the old favorite:

Me?...Me?...Me, I’m nothing…Me. When I was very small…we used to take our sleds out in the wintertime and the only hills we had were the ice-covered stone steps of some houses down the street. And we used to fill them in with snow and make them smooth and slide down them all day…and it was very dangerous you know…far too steep…and sure enough one day a kid named Rufus came down too fast and hit the sidewalk… and we saw his face just split open right there in front of us… And I remember standing there looking at his bloody open face thinking that was the end of Rufus. But the ambulance came and they took him to the hospital they fixed the broken bones and they sewed it all up…and the next time I saw Rufus he just had a little line down the middle of his face…I never got over that…

That that was what one person could do for another, fix him up—sew up the problem, make him all right again. That was the most marvelous thing in the world…I wanted to do that. I always thought it was the one concrete thing in the world that a human being could do. Fix up the sick, you know—and make them whole again. This was truly being God.

Cruddy Day for a Voice

Greetings.

Today it rained a lot. It was cold and yucky. In other words: not very good voice work weather. And speaking of weather, I was under it a bit. I sat this class out and slept it off in the lounge or at least I tried to. It wasn't very comfortable so I ended up coming back and listening to nonesense poems anywho.

Voice was shy and

lots of cough drops

feeling ill

Bleh.

Finally!! The Play is Over!! Well Almost.

This is the last weekend for the play! I loved the experience, but let me tell you it's been some hard work. Well here, you can see this paper I've been slaving over! :D

Tartuffe

This was an exciting, fun play to work on. The outcome was wonderful and the experience was memorable. Tartuffe the play was filled with twice as many voices as there were characters. It was a thrill to watch actors transform into their characters and traverse the tiers within the vocal choices for those characters. It would begin with a simple notion, back in the acting studio, while rehearsing. Then it transforms into multi-faceted living breathing characterization. Speaking as a novice, the experience was stressful, yet invigorating. I didn’t know how I’d handle it initially; the vocal strains and demands of practice and the performances were totally new to me. But it was a learning process.

The vocal journey was not in itself cumbersome, however, intense ongoing session of hard work were required. Vocal capacities were put to the test across the board or ‘stage’. Stressors, illness, and use threatened to tamper with the vocal works in progress of many actors. However, we were soon encouraged that the finished products were things we could be proud of presenting onstage come opening night.

Dorine was my favorite character. As portrayed by Stacia Sexton, she owned the stage whenever she spoke. I admired that very much. Her voice was not merely ‘loud’, it carried and had depth. The most noticeable quality to me was the range of her vocal variety. She could go from zero to one hundred in seconds and back again. Stacia was very conscientious of the well being of her voice as well. She understood that she needed to take good care of it. There were times, however, when I noticed she put some unnecessary strains on her vocal folds through glottal actions, as a result of some character choices. For emphasis in certain puns and jokes, she may have forcefully growled out words. The effect was hilarious. However, I question whether she felt some soreness afterward. For example, she yells a response to her master Orgon at the top of her lungs in a guttural, rasping voice, “Let’s reason without boiling over, sir!” The audience laughed boisterously, but it sounded like it could have hurt. She is also a character with a sizable amount of lines in the play; which often calls for closer care of one’s voice. In the long run, though, I sense she preserved her voice to the best of her ability.

I feel that Dorine led with a sort of vocal energy that can be described as: witty, sarcastic, at times, and overtly comedic. Dorine lives for the moment, and she loves to feed the flames. Every fiber of her acting voice radiates that. This also played a part in the believability of the character. I knew Stacia was Dorine onstage. It was completely believable and incredibly well done.

Breathing Deeply

Greetings.

We talked about the breath and how to manipulate it through counting seconds of inhale and exhale. It was pretty cool. But it was extremely hard to stay awake because it was so darned relaxing. I found the I breathe easier on my back, but it makes me fall asleep. It's difficult for me to lay on my side for too long because I have very prominent hips... lol. It's also a bit hard for me to lie on my back and breathe deeply because it feels laboured.