Light Reading

I finally got around to cleaning my room today and filing the horde of papers strewn about my living space. But what's more exciting (for me) was that I've officially compiled all of the books I'll be taking with me to Vancouver in May to Canada's National Voice Intensive. I'm very much looking forward to this experience, and having the stack sitting here on my desk makes me feel like things are beginning to happen. These books will serve as valuable references for the work that will go on during our five weeks there. Here's a list with brief descriptions of each book.

These are the four plays with which we'll be working. All are by the homie William Shakespeare.

The Merchant of Venice

Twelfth Night

Julius Caesar

Antony and Cleopatra

These plays, along with various Shakespeare sonnets chose by the participants, will be our primary source material for all of the text based explorations.

Freeing The Natural Voice (revised and expanded) by Kristin Linklater - Since the primary work of the Voice Intensive is based in the tradition of Linklater, this book is a wonderful reference for examining the vocabulary, progression, and function of voice practice.

The Eloquent Shakespeare by Gary Logan - This is one of the most valuable publications available for any actor who wants to work with Shakespeare. Many of Shakespeare's words have foreign or double pronunciations, and this book is magnificent in decoding them. (Plus, Gary's my homeboy!)

Shakespeare's First Texts by Neil Freeman - It's a wonderful guide to the structure of Shakespeare's verse. This book is quite helpful in making sense of how Shakespeare used phrasing, punctuation, and persuasion.

Shakespeare's Lexicon and Quotation Dictionary by Alexander Schmidt - This two volume set defines every word in every single one of Shakespeare's plays, poems, and sonnets in the given contexts of each work. If you're an actor who works with Shakespeare and you don't have these, you're kidding yourself.

Speech Sounds (2nd Edition) by Patricia Ashby - Last year during my training as a voice teacher, we had rigorous sessions of learning the International Phonetic Alphabet, or IPA. This book is a clear and simple resource that allows easy access to IPA without making it feel cumbersome or intruding on the spontaneity of the voice work.

The Viewpoints Book by Anne Bogart and Tina Landau - This is coming with me to help me shake things up a bit; not too much, and not in a rebellious way, but simply to keep folks on their toes.

The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare - While the Voice Intensive participants are working on their monologues and scenes, I'll be working on this. I've been cast as Polixenes in a production of this play at the Delaware Shakespeare Festival, and I'll be primed to begin after time at the Intensive.

Tomorrow I'll be heading to Brooklyn, the home of our current Emcee of the Month, Joell Ortiz. My friend Mariana's party is Saturday night and I'm not missing it for the world. If I bump into Joell, maybe I'll tell him what I'm doing over here to see what he thinks. Who knows, I may just get an interview or something!

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.

Emcees of the Month: Pac Div

For me, live performance is the most impactful aspect of emceeing. Here's a clip of Pac Div's show at The Voodoo Lounge in San Jose earlier this month.

My training and experience is in professional acting with a concentration on voice teaching/coaching (speaking, not singing). As a voice teacher, my hope is to guide my students to an honest and natural experience of voicing the physical and emotional impulses that are inspired by their on-stage circumstances. There are many traditions of vocal training that attempt to accomplish this for their practitioners; I happen to practice in the Warren/Linklater tradition (try this). From these traditions have arisen numerous theories, ideas, and insights as to how best free a performers' voice.

However, most of the emcees I find impressive and engaging have had very little formal performance training, if any at all. So as I watch these emcees perform, I'm continually astounded by their ability to make real and truthful connections to the impulses that live inside of them. And sure, there are some technical items here and there that could benefit from training. (I'm looking at you, Mr. Greene! Hoarseness after a show is not healty! Holla at me!)

But all things being equal, the most skillful emcees are making brilliant vocal connections.

I'm writing a thesis right now that hopes to examine this in further detail. My hope is that it can evolve into a significant publication. It's gonna take some time, but I'll get there!

For me, this is a very clean, simple, and traditional example of emcee stagecraft; nothing fancy or clever, just one and one equaling two. I'm impressed by the sense of grounding each of them have when their turn to rhyme comes around. There are emcees who have a habit of flopping around the stage as they rhyme, failing to see anyone in the room, and making an honest connection with an audience incredibly difficult. These cats have that covered. They see their audience and are quite successful at communicating to them during their verses.

I will say, however, that I would like to see them explore their attention to the audience when they aren't rhyming. It's a tricky thing to do. I have experienced many moments on stage in which I'm not speaking for long periods of time. The challenge is how to stay engaged with the room while allowing other performers their space to play the scene. There are many avenues they can take, and I'm sure they are developing with each performance. (Get at me, fellas, if you get stuck! I'd be happy to help!)

But yea, I dig these cats. I hope they do a show in Philly soon, 'cause I'm in there.

peace.