20 February 2013

Miss Pronunciation XX

Miss Pronunciation sits the Fence

This Miss Pronunciation is going out to one Gareth Trew who Tweeted “Thought of Miss P today -- what is the correct pronunciation for territory? Terreh-tawree, terreh-tree or terreh-chree?”

GT (and this is why I really admire you: your initials represent my favourite beverage) - The most accepted pronunciation in British English is ter ə təri . The second schwa is also often left behind in the movement from the tongue to lips in (t-r).......

HOWEVER

Straddling the fence between said territories is Miss P - she seems to be stuck in this predicament of late - who would like to add that you were also correct on the first count - ˈter ə tɔːrɪ (Terreh-tawree)

In saying this, under no circumstances should one resort to sloppy muscularity and promote the pronunciation (or rather the enunciation) of your latter suggestion. Get the lips out of the way of the ‘t’ and we should never have to endure a ‘tr’ sound as ‘chr’ - I'm beginning to sound like June Dally-Watkins....

My trusty Longman’s also informs me that in Gen. Am. one can go for ˈter ə toʊrɪ (terre-tao-ri) - which is fun, but not for use in our dialect.

Do you have a question on Pronunciation? Send through to Miss P via email or tweet at 

@LoveVoice_by_AB

18 February 2013

La Répétition and Voice Work


Weimar Berlin Cabaret Show
 In French they call the rehearsal “La Répétition” - the repetition. This idea used to repel me as I had been trained to think of the rehearsal as anything but this.

As my knowledge of the creative process and of voice work dramatically expanded through working with Present Tense Theatre, I have come to cherish the repetition; for it is through repetition that we truly find what is missing.

The same can be said of our voice technique.

When all is said and done, voice work is not a linear accumulative process. We may learn a series of skills one week, but then those skills need to be constantly revisited, within a framework of knowledge accumulated in between visits, and with ever-constant curiosity to really form a solid technique.

Much of the time voice work is about unlearning habits. Those of us who have come up through a system of “voice beautiful” have had to undo habits that we were drilled in from an early age. It was something that my first acting lecturers could never achieve and I never found my own true voice until I worked with directors Bryce Ives and Nathan Gilkes only a few years ago using the their own version of “La Répétition”.

Until then I had been frustrated, always putting in the work, thinking that a cerebral knowledge would suffice and was, in fact, superior. It was through the repetition that my own voice started to connect to my breath for the first time wholly within the creative process, and not just as an exercise.

Does this then make voice work boring? Anything but.

It means that in our voice work, as in our performance work (in my world they are one and the same, but some beg to differ) we can find rhythms, patterns, tempos, peaks and moments of shatter. It means that we can more closely align our daily voice work with our performance work, closing that frustrating gap. It means that we can spark our curiosity at the outset of every voice session and carry it onto the rehearsal room floor.

6 February 2013

Miss Pronunciation XIX

Miss Pronunciation Rues the Day (or rather the month)


This latest pronunciation post was inspired by a twitter from one Ms. Frost. 

It’s difficult to know quite how to pronounce this one and so, let’s try to set it straight: not all words have one absolute correct pronunciation.

This one falls within that category. Many times over.

The most traditional of tongues might go for really hitting that medial ‘r’ - Feb-roo-ery - fɛb ruː ͜ əriː

However......

Although sometimes critisised, the form Feb-yoo-ery - fɛb juː ͜əriː- is quite often heard amongst the most educated speakers - especially in American English and (according to my trusty Longman Pronunciation Dictionary) also preferred by them.

Do you think it stops there? Oh no..... Other pronunciations may be:

- feb-ru-ri (fɛb rʊ rɪ)
- feb-re-ri (fɛb rə rɪ)
- feb-ye-ri (fɛb jə rɪ)
- .............and even febri (fɛb rɪ)

As for Miss P - she really doesn't care - as long as the sun is shining and she can spend those last Summer days at the beach .

5 February 2013

Being Present



It’s just so easy, isn’t it?

You have the time set aside for a good voice/movement session.

Water. Check.

Yoga mat. Check.

Text. Check.

But did you forget to bring the most important thing to your practice?

I’m talking about YOU.

Are you really here, in this space, at this time, in this body?

Pontormo, Two Studies of Male Figures

It’s so easy for the mind to wander: to lose our mindfulness. 

How are you going to stay present?

Recently I’ve blogged about curiosity - and this is one way to keep yourself switched on. find new things, a new movement, a new muscle in everything you do....even that old spinal roll - I’ve been doing them for 20 years now, and I still manage to find a new tidbit every day.

Give yourself an intention for every session - something you can come back to if you switch onto auto-pilot. It could be something as simple as making sure all the breaths are silent and unrestricted, focusing on your weight distribution or the movement of your top lip.

Give yourself a ritual focus at the start of your session. In my studio we go for multi-sensory stimulus, but it could be simply listening to your space for one minute.

Get rid of distractions. You know: the phone, the dog, the TV in the background (get rid of that all together!). Clear your space of interruption. At the opposite end of the spectrum, you might choose to welcome these things into your space and use their ambience as a focus for your voice to play with....... that’s another blog all together.

Don’t go for whopping great chunks of time. A half-hour to whole hour session for the serious actor should be enough to tune in, without tuning out.

Just like everything else in your voice-body work, it will take repetition and patience to achieve this - so don't expect a super focus from day one. Allow outside thoughts to skim over the top of your mind like a stone - why waste energy trying to block them out all together?

And whatever you do WATCH THIS CLIP of Patsy Rodenberg explaining the true meaning of presence (or Second Circle) so you can assess and adjust accordingly at any time......

Love your work, keep it up.