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.
