Karantonis, P and Langley, M (2014) Dialect, dialectics and vocal poetics: envoicing the other and transforming the self in/as actor training. In: The Voice of Training: Performer Training Working Group Interim Event (TaPRA), 7 May 2014, University of Portsmouth.
Abstract
This paper will consider the very practical phenomenon of how actors build a stage voice and prepare for accent and dialect work, within the professional demands of the industry that present in Higher Education. How many times will a director say: "I don't want this rehearsal to be about the accent"? However the reality is that what the director really means is that s/he does not want the actors worried about getting the accent right. One of the arguments we make in this paper is that until the actor engages with the technical demands of the form, they cannot fully access the meaning of the text. Actors must engage from within, with what Cicely Berry calls the ‘muscularity of the word’ so all the technical and physical demands of its delivery release the comprehension. In order to do this however, they need to release a deeper imaginative process of voice work that often falls into tension with notions of their own identity. The praxis element of this paper will consider how a wide range of disciplines can complement actor voice-training by unlocking an individual voice in order for the actor to imagine finding the voice of the poet. Aspects of music and postcolonial theory will be considered here, with the importance of imaginative play in the discovery of canonical poetry as a sonic ‘sign taken for a wonder’ (to paraphrase Homi Bhabha).
| Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Divisions: | Bath School of Music and Performing Arts |
| Date Deposited: | 18 Sep 2014 12:38 |
| Last Modified: | 07 Dec 2023 16:50 |
| URI / Page ID: | https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/4879 |
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