A Quick Thought About Questions

There has been some concern at the Voice Intensive this year about disclosure of confidential events that occur during the daily sessions. This past weekend the core faculty had a very thoughtful and multi-layered conversation about this new phenomenon of social media and networking. During the debate, I offered to the faculty that I maintain a blog that looks into questions about music, politics and theatre. I wanted to make it clear that I recognized their concern and asked their advice for how I should proceed with any thoughts on our work this month.

David replys, "Ask the questions, 'What is music? What is politics? What is theatre?'" In other words, how can I be in process with my blog in a form parallel to my process associating at the Voice Intensive.

Crap, David. You gonna make me think!?

In the coming weeks I hope to look into some of these questions with more detail. Please stay tuned.

And I'm sorry about yesterday. Blame it on Susan!



peace.

Handle My V.I.

Yes! The Voice Intensive is among us!

Today I had my first meeting with David and the other two associate instructors for this year's Voice Intensive. This year the associates are Patricia Darbasie, David Huber, and myself. The energy between all of us felt incredibly positive and progressive, and since we've all been so influenced by David (Smukler) and his work it's fascinating how we almost effortlessly complement each other's vocabulary and perspective. And of course it was refreshing to see David again. That's my homie.

Tomorrow we meet up with some of the senior faculty to discuss our roles as associates. From what I remember last year, the primary role of an associate is to "hold the work", which means to be a model/guide/ear/witness to the participants' journey throughout the Intensive. I've often described it to some as a liaison between the participants and the senior faculty. Because some of the sessions can have over 20 people in a large room for two hours, we serve as a second or third set of eyes and ears in order to appropriately address specific challenges of our work and communicate our observations with the primary instructors.

Most of this communication helps the associates in our paths to becoming better teachers ourselves, especially for me. I'm most certainly the least experienced of the associates this year, as both an actor and a teacher. So the evolution and clarification of how we talk about what we're doing is extremely helpful. This past year in Philadelphia for me has been about how to grow my experience simultaniously as actor and teacher; most won't respect me as the latter without the former. The Voice Intensive will be a much welcomed outlet for my desire to teach.

I'm so thankful to be here.



peace.

p.s. If you don't get the reference of this post's title, see here.

Vancouver!

So here I am back in Vancouver. I just got off the bus at the University of British Columbia to have the first meeting with David and the other associate instructors. It was quite an emotional moment arriving here. This place really means a lot to me.

More tonight.



peace.

Travelling Man

Tomorrow, I leave from Raleigh-Durham International Airport and head to Vancouver for five weeks to work as an associate instructor at Canada's National Voice Intensive. My bags are packed, my bike is stowed and my cat is secured. My flight leaves RDU at 10:14am and including travel to the airport, I can look forward to approximately 16 hours of travel time.

Considering that 150 years ago it took 16 months of travel to cross North America, I don't think I have much about which I can complain.

Tonight though, I leave you with DJ Honda and Mos Def for company. Consider it my theme music for tomorrow's journey. And to quote I'm Gonna Git You Sucka... :)

peace.

West Bound and Down

Tomorrow I embark on an almost two-month journey to Vancouver and Canada's National Voice Intensive. First, my cat Mo and I will be driving from Philadelphia to Richmond, VA to visit my brother and his family for a couple of days. I'm look forward to seeing my niece and nephew, Cassidy and Tavon. They're always a bunch of fun, and since I'm a professional at playing pretend I usually fit right in.

After that all of us will be heading down to our home on the coast of North Carolina to visit my parents for about a week. The hope is that my brother and I can take our motorcycles down with us and so that he, my dad, and I can all ride together for the first time. That would be mighty nice!

Then on May 4th I will fly out to Seattle then take a bus across the border to Vancouver, where I'll be living and working until June 11th. I'm back in Philly on the 12th, then attending the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia auditions on the 13th. Whew!

In a way, I sort of turn off the rest of the world when I'm preparing to travel. There are a lot of things I have to think about and remember in order to feel comfortable and prepared. Just today I've had to do laundry, call the airline to inquire about baggage, pick up the trailer to tow my bike, audition for a wonderful acting opportunity at the National Constitution Center, and obviously pack my stuff. Tomorrow, there's even more to do, including the trip itself.

So allow me to apologize in advance for any lackluster discussion or observation in the next couple of days. Things will pick up, I promise. Vancouver always brings a lot of stuff out of me. You'll see.

Until then, I give you the song I sing to myself every time I travel more than 200 miles in a car. It never fails getting stuck in my head for at least 20 miles.

One of these days, I'll do a real Bandit run to somewhere; hopefully with less involvement from law enforcement. That would be bad.

I've give a travel update tomorrow. Let's hope all goes well!

peace.

Quick Study

In preparation of working at the Voice Intensive this summer, I've been reading the plays chosen to provide material for the program's text-based explorations. Each year, four Shakespeare plays are used as the source of all the scenes and monologues examined by the participants. This year the four plays are:

Julius Caesar

Antony and Cleopatra

Twelfth Night

The Merchant of Venice

Tonight I would like to take the opportunity to advocate a Shakespeare resource that I have found exceedingly valuable in getting through these plays, The Complete Arkangel Shakespeare.

The Arkangel is a collection of unabridged, fully dramatized recordings of all 38 plays in the Shakespeare canon. There are close to 400 actors in the series, most of whom are current or former members of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Reading an entire play by Shakespeare has always been difficult for me. It's incredibly easy to be swept away by the poetry and imagery, eventually losing any sense of what's actually happening. In addition, keeping up with the meanings and contexts of some of the more antiquated words and phrases can be quite a task that almost always requires two or three readings of a passage or scene.

However, since I've been listening to the Arkangel recordings and following along with my text, I haven't had nearly as much difficulty as I would with the script alone. The story has actual movement and texture due to the opportunity of listening while reading. I can more easily differentiate the characters; their voices don't get lost in my own. And the language isn't as laborious now that actors are there to give it context. I'm finally able to experience the plays as an audience member rather than a scholar; it's much more satisfying.

I've already gotten through Merchant and am now making my way in Antony. And I've been able to read them in record time. If you have the means and the need I wholeheartedly suggest picking up this series. It's fantastic.

peace.

Vancouver Trek

This week I found out I'll be heading back to Vancouver to serve as an associate instructor at Canada's National Voice Intensive, (check this) and I feel like I've won the lottery or something. As I've mentioned here before (here!), my experience at the Intensive has immensely influenced the way I approach my practice of theatre. As I told someone in conversation recently, I think CNVI is the closest thing to a pilgrimage I'll ever have in my life.

It's a pilgrimage of practicality, mind you. I think there is a stigma that exists in the world of theatrical education that views voice teachers as the pseudo-shamans of actor training. Supposedly, we are closer to spiritual healers than acting teachers, who pass off our work as a form of quasi-ethereal enlightenment or awakening rather than functional artistic awareness.

For the Intensive, nothing could be further from the truth. The work there is designed for professional actors or actors in training who desire a "re-inspiration" ("re" meaning "again", "inspire" meaning "breathe in") of their work. The practice gives the participants a way to reliably access the wealth of their actor energies with a repeatable, yet malleable, progression of voice and text explorations. And yes, it's true some of the work can have therapeutic resonances, but the foundational purpose is, and has always been actor training.

I just ordered a few books that I'll be needing for the Intensive and I'm making plans to let my cat live with my parents for the month. I don't know how my blog will function while I'm there; my access to internet will be limited. But I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

We'll have a new Emcee of the Month tomorrow! YEEEEEEEEAAA SON!!!

peace.

Voice Intensive, I miss you.

Canada's National Voice Intensive is a five-week voice, speech, and text workshop that's been happening in Vancouver, B.C. every summer since 1986. Under the brilliant direction of master voice teacher David Smukler, the Intensive has served as a safe and accessible laboratory for participants and instructors to explore and examine the limitless textures and nuances of the human voice. Although CNVI is primarily focused on voice for the actor, it has served participants from numerous professional disciplines.

I've had the unique pleasure of attending in the Intensive twice; once in 2006 as a participant and again as an associate instructor in 2010. I have little doubt my path will guide me there again in the near future.

Today I had the chance to reconnect with a couple acquaintances from both of my CNVI experiences. I am always pleasantly surprised at how much these conversations allow me to remember ('re' as in 'again', and 'member' as in 'body'; so 'embody again') the wonderful and inspiring times I've had in Vancouver at the Intensive. I'm pleased today.

For more information on Canada's National Voice Intensive, have a look here. I'm on the homepage!!!

peace.