Paul Abelman, She's Dead - Vocal Use and Variety

1. What are the aspects of voice production that an actor needs to keep in mind when he acts? How does voice help in characterisation? (Read up on the works of Cicely Berry and Patsy Rodenburg for reference.)

Cicely Berry, in Voice and the Actor, stated that an actor must not have tension in his voice, as it can limit his emotional range and the quality of the sound he makes. The actor must relax his voice by humming or other such exercises in order to make the full use of his voice. Tension restricts emotional expression, and has a certain stiffness that will, firstly, make the actor sound unrealistic and nervous, and secondly, input a certain emotion into the character that is usually not supposed to be there. Therefore, an actor needs to keep in mind that his voice must never be tense.

Patsy Rodenburg spoke of exercises in exaggerating the voice to find out the actor’s range and the intensities of emotions that a piece of text and/or a character needs. This intensity of voice is another aspect of voice production that an actor needs to keep in mind, as the intensity of a character’s voice might change the interpretation of the text, the character or both entirely. By varying the intensity of voice, the actor will also keep the audience captivated as the variation is interesting, in addition that making the character more three-dimensional as they have different intensity of emotions – reflected in the actor’s voice – just as the people in the audience do.

Voice helps in characterisation in that a character’s emotions and mood is shown to the audience mostly through her voice, particularly to the audience in the gallery or the back rows. The voice of a character – it’s tone, pitch and volume – tells us how a character is like: a character with a soft and mousy voice is certainly different from one who is loud and authoritative. Characterisation is built upon voice as physical movements and voice might contradict each other, thus showing that the character isn’t sincere. The words in the script can mean many different things when spoken in a different tone of voice, building on the character and, particularly, the actor’s interpretation of the character and her emotions.

The voice is the main medium in which the characters’ mood, emotion and personality are expressed in theatre, and characterisation lies heavily on these things. Thus, as voice helps greatly in characterisation in that aspect.

2. Is voice the most important ‘tool’ for an actor? Why or why not?

Yes, it is. For one, the tone and pitch of an actor’s voice is what brings the play’s dialogue to life, give meaning to the words and communicate the message of what the character is trying to say to the audience. She’s Dead is an excellent instance in which the actor’s tone of voice is expected to change throughout the play, and there are many different interpretations to the text that the actor can use. It is the actor’s voice that will be able to communicate the most about the shifting characters’ motivations and emotions to the audience. Body language is sometimes too subtle for the audience to fully grasp the meaning of the play or the characters’ actions. Vocal tone and pitch can also express the relationship between the characters, such as the second scenario in She’s Dead, in which 1’s tone must be conspiratorial and friendly so as to make that exchange make any sense.

Another limitation of body language – especially the most expressive, facial expression – is that it cannot be seen from afar. However, a good actor can project his voice out so that even the audience from the very back can hear his tone and the emotions carried in it. Thus the audience will be able to understand the play in its entity, though they might not perceive the changing facial expressions or subtle body movements of the actors.

Secondly, the voice is the most important tool for an actor as, in real life, most of us communicate to each other mostly by voice. Therefore the first thing that an audience would note would be an actor’s voice. Body language is usually secondary to the dialogue and vocal tone in the audience’s mind, thus an actor should make use of this habit to express the character’s motivations and feelings. It is the first thing that the audience notices and focuses on, thus it is the most important tool an actor has.

Thirdly, a play is mostly written in a form of dialogue. A character’s reasons and emotions – what the actor is supposed to express to the audience – is expressed as dialogue in the play itself. An actor thus must put the most attention to his voice and the dialogue in order to express these emotions in the words to the audience.

Lastly, words and tone tend to have a uniform meaning that most of the audience would understand in the same way, while body language can be interpreted completely differently between the actor and the audience. The voice is thus the most important tool of the actor as it gives clarity to his performance that body language and facial expression might not bring across.

~ Justine