ANIMATING THE ANIMATORS WORKSHOPS

Core Skills Workshops for the Puppeteer
VOCAL SKILLS
Delivered by Annemette Verspeak
Workshops conducted between May 23rd and June 6th 2005



As a voice coach my freelance work includes working with all 'voice-users', actors, singers, business people, teachers, occasionally dancers and puppeteers. Only that I'd never done any work with the last category. So when I was asked to do the Animating the Animators workshops I thought I'd better go and see a puppet show. With the use of voice. And that is what for starters proved difficult. I called around to theatres to enquire and came clean on my intentions, especially since lots of them asked how old my child was and I had to say 'It's just me', as I don't even have a child I could use as cover. However, as I dug for details about the use of voice in the shows it turned out that only one of maybe five current shows really had voice in them. The rest were either to music, pure object manipulation (with voiceless objects) and one said that they get ‘real actors’ (sic) to record the text and that it might be interesting for me to see how well the puppeteers synchronise their actors. Whilst he may very well be right it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. I was later told, ‘Well, doing voice work with puppeteers is going to be a long uphill climb for you.’

I went and saw a lovely show at The Little Angel (with lots of voice) and I learnt a bit about the condition and perception of voice work in the puppeteering world. And it is not unlike other artistic environments where voice is not an obvious or main skill or tool (as it is in singing or acting). In my work with dancers, for instance, a similar picture emerges: generally they have had no training in voice and there are few places to receive it to any suitable level particularly as they are far from novices in performing itself.

So I set out to cover 'everything' in one day:

• basic voice craft,
• how to free your voice in physically difficult positions,
• warm-ups,
• using voice (safely) for characterisation,
• individual restricting habits and
• text interpretation.
  

Small groups at each venue meant I needed to slightly amend my workshop plans but that that the participants got the best-case scenario of having plenty of time to work individually.

I started the workshop with a chat to introduce ourselves, talk a bit about our daily work and to give participants the opportunity to bring forward any wishes they might have for the content of the day. What emerged was similar for all three groups:

• the feeling of not really knowing what they were doing vocally,
• difficulties with odd physical positioning and
• a lack of method for creating different character voices, the consequence being that all characters melt into one 10 minutes into a show and/or all shows end up with similar voices as we are habitual beings and mostly go to the same places every time we look for 'funny voices'. For example one participant said 'My characters always just end up with a French accent'.

This was in line with what I had imagined being the issues and we could
start. Most participants were puppeteers although there were a few exceptions
such as an art therapist (who uses puppets as a part of her work), a director for youth theatre and one person studying anthropology and within that different cultural and historic elements of voice.

The first section of the day was for Voice Craft. First we briefly went through the anatomy and physiology of the voice as I believe factual knowledge makes it easier to get acquainted with one's own voice. Voice work, as it is very individual, is very complex and can sometimes become mystified, but if the muscular function is known it makes it easier to understand and work. In order to have a free voice it must be rooted in a free body so first we looked at ideal posture. The principles here are the same as for dance and movement: soft knees, a loose, dropped pelvis, a long spine and the head balancing on top with a free neck (which can all be said in one sentence but often takes years to obtain!).

Then we looked at the voice being a wind instrument and as such driven by breath. We found the muscles that facilitate breath and very importantly support the out breath. We worked on getting the breath as low as possible in order to use it most effectively. Within that we also looked at individual inhibiting habits connected to breath e.g. lifting the shoulders on the intake of breath, straining of the neck and throat, high breath etc. These issues are difficult to identify on your own as our physical habits are deeply rooted in our being.

Next we looked at resonance, meaning feeling the vibrations of the voice in chest, back and skull. Enhancement of resonance gives a richer tone and a sense of being grounded with the possibility of monitoring oneself from physical feed back rather than only judging the sound on auditory feed back. The lack of being 'in touch' with your voice in this manner can be felt when you've talked a lot in a loud sound environment e.g. at a concert or in the pub. In the situation you adjust your voice to being heard and not what you can feel in your body, hence you don't feel that you are straining in the moment but you might feel hoarse the next day or even lose your voice temporarily.

Having a grounded body, low breath and a rich sound we then went on to bringing the voice forward for clarity and projection. We also looked at why this might be difficult from an emotional point of view. There is a 'risk' involved in being open and honest and as voice is a very personal thing we can feel very vulnerable taking that risk vocally and I think all participants did at times. In our (western) culture today there is a tendency to be 'cool' and hold back and not be too enthusiastic about... well, anything. Vocally, this means that for most people it is relatively rare that we use our voices in a free and open manner with no strings attached and hiding nothing, i.e. not trying to impress someone, be charming, seem strong etc.

Next we looked at physicality and voice. By now the participants had an idea of what to look for for effective sound production, namely a solid stance for grounding, freeing up the 'channel' from the centre of their body through an open back and chest, a long spine and a free neck and an open space in neck and throat from which to let the sound pour out. We looked at 'real life' examples of positions they might have to work in and with the basic knowledge and skill they had now acquired they could adjust themselves into positions causing less strain on both body and voice and which could more easily be sustained over time.

After lunch we went over some of the basic exercises from the morning's craft session to give the participants a suggested warm-up for future use. These included getting the breath down, warming up resonators, being mindful and alert, on voice and ready to give fully to the audience.

Then it was time to look at text. The participants had all been asked to bring a piece of text to work on. The individual work we did is perhaps at the same time the most exciting work we did and also the hardest to describe. We looked at how to approach a text through asking questions.

• Why is the character speaking at this point?
• What are they hoping to achieve by this?
• What, as the performer, do I want the audience to think/feel/know?
  Also we looked at being very specific with the text, hence letting the text do the work rather than feeling the need to be 'original'.

In some cases the text was in verse and we looked how to not get stuck in rhythm and rhyme but again to focus on the sense.

We married this with looking at individual habits technically and emotionally;

• What happens to the breath under a bit of pressure?
• Where does the body tense up and why?
• Where does one pull back from being vulnerable and taking risks?

This was the part of the day where participants had the chance to apply the more technical work from the morning and, if successful, get a real sense of the difference this work can make and what they personally need to work on. This is also the bit that takes real courage and sometimes leads to lots of giggles and even tearfulness.

We finished the day with a little chat again and any questions that the participants had.

I must emphasise to anyone reading this report that this work is very difficult to describe like this, as it is 95% practical and hands on and I don't think any length of words will do justice to the sensation and the outcome of actually doing the work.


Delivered by Annemette Verspeak