Paul Abelman, She's Dead

3. 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.)

Voice production plays an important part in acting. When an actor is acting, he needs to keep in mind, the pitch, tone, inflection, pace, pause, diction, and breath control for voice production. When these are taken notice of, then can voice production be good.

Pitch is important. It is the relative tonal level, intensity and volume. Pitch allows the bringing out of the different emotions. For example, a high pitched voice with high intensity may be used for near-hysterical moments, whereas a soft, middle pitched voice is suitable for a shy character.

For tone, it helps to denote the quality of the voice, and what expression do you want to portray. Tone gives pitch quality. For example, a high pitched voice may both be angry and meek. It all depends on the tone. If an aggressive tone is used, even if the voice is high, or low, it would still be able to portray aggressiveness.

Speech needs inflection. Inflection is something like the fluctuation passage of the voice. Without inflection, speech would sound monotonous, boring and even cause irritancy. In addition, pace and pauses must be used to make speech comprehendible. For example, a speech without pauses for full-stops, commas, or a poem without suspensive pauses would make it senseless, unable to bring the meaning out to the listeners.

Diction, also known as clarity, is the enunciation of words. This is especially important in theatre work, where the audience needs to hear the speech of the actor to know what’s happening in the story on stage.

Cecily Berry believes that an actor should refrain from speaking with tension. She also mentions the importance of having resonance. Resonance is important as it helps to create a tone of voice that is projected and pleasing to hear on-stage.

These helps in characterization as it helps the actor portray the emotions and perhaps even to differentiate two characters that an actor might be playing at the same time. For example, if an actor is taking on the role of two actors, a middle-aged dame, and a man, he/she might use a lower voice for a man, and a higher pitched and faster voice for a dame to help differentiate.


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

This would depend a lot on the staging, the type of theatre and the script itself. If the script requires the play to be read out only, with words, voice would definitely be the most important ‘tool’ for the actor. Whereas, if the script focuses on a visual spectacle, by relying on purely movement, then voice will logically not be an important ‘tool’ for the actor.

In most plays, however, voice would prove to be important, as there is dialogue that comes together with the plot to propel play forward. Thus, voice is important as it helps the audience know what is happening, and the tone of the voice that actors use would convey the different emotions to the audience.

Voice also proves to be an important ‘tool’ for an actor if he is able to use it appropriately. Voice is able to make alive a script, through varying tones of the different aspects of voice production.

Voice is definitely one of the important ‘tool’ for an actor, but there are also other aspects like physical that holds equal importance in theatre.



Tan Li Rong