Time out for inspiration

I spent an exhilarating weekend out of town, meeting up with two theatre people who have provided inspiration over the years. This gave me an opportunity to discuss my critical links ideas for improving voice training with my trusted former colleagues and collaborators.

My actor friend told me of a fellow in his company who had a voice that was lacking in flexibility, but was able to pass the audition without the director being able to identify the problem ahead of time. Speculation is that the actor had major coaching for his audition piece, but once cast did not have a clue how to speak the Shakespearean character he was assigned to play.

The actor's problem was that he was trapped within his own voice/dialect. His bad speech habits infected his acting to the point that every role would sound the same, and not a pleasant sound as I heard it described. Yet, this actor had been able to take on another voice for one audition. This situation is fascinating, as it is taking place on a professional level. Certainly one sees/hears this sort of thing at the amateur level quite a bit. It becomes a great challenge to correct habitual speech patterns. The younger the actor, the more chance you have of making it a total change from poor to quality speech.

I also spent time with my friend Terry, who is a fellow theatre educator, now teaching in a high school in the state of NY. We spent some quality hours sharing ideas, experiences, lows and highs of theatre teaching. His energy and talent have inspired me from the first time we ever sat down to talk theatre a few short years ago. We are on the same wave length in terms of theatre theory and practice and it is always a joy to brain storm with him.

I advocated that he join the Educational Theatre Association, as it can only enhance his program. He's only been at this school for a year and a half and has had a whole lot to put together in a short time, but I'm sure he will find EdTA and the International Thespian Society will provide resources and experiences that he will find invaluable.