Voice Part 2: Space Change

An update from the land of jam!

We'll be meeting at a new location this weekend:

Sunday, 12-3PM
Dance Theatre Workshop
219 West 19th Street (btwn 7th & 8th)

To attend, please RSVP to melissa@theanthropologists.org.

Will we see you there?

Luxuriating in the Voice

Today's jam, while cut short by an unfortunate scheduling mishap on the part of the space (arg!), was nonetheless fruitful.

The first part of the session was spent doing floorwork, focusing on the ribcage and breathing and freeing the voice.  We used several of Cicely Berry's exercises for this work.

Second, we explored Tina Landau and Anne Bogart's vocal viewpoints, helpful for expanding our vocal ranges, be it pitch, dynamic, tempo, etc.

Unfortunately, our work was cut short at 3PM.  But, when all was said and done, it did feel luxurious to have so much time working on these varying elements of the voice, even before invoking any text.  I'll let the jammers who attended comment on their personal experiences with the exercises but it became evident to me as a theatre practitioner & director that I need to challenge myself to keep finding ways to engage and train the voice as well as the body.

To sign off, here's another quote from Ms. Berry that I thought was particularly salient:

"It is curiously difficult to work on our own voice both boldly and creatively, because it means we have to let go of our own patterns.  Let me explain: given that our voice is our sound presence, and is the means by which we commit our private world to the world outside, it is tied up with how we think of ourselves -- our self-image -- and with the image of ourselves we wish to present.  It is therefore bound absolutely to our own self-confidence, and so is particularly sensitive to both criticism and to feelings of unease."

There's the rub

In preparation for today, our first jam session devoted exclusively to the voice, here's a great quote from Cicely Berry's seminal text: The Actor and The Text.

"For it seems to me there is so often a gap between the life that is going on imaginatively within the actor to create the reality of the character he is playing, and the life that he gives the text which he finally has to speak.  It is as if the energy and excitement that an actor feels when working on a part is not released fully when he commits to words, when he is bound by the language set down."

Yes!  There is the rub!  As an audience member or a director or merely a listener, there have been countless perfomances I have witnessed which have suffered from this problem.  It might sound contradictory even - an actor could have lovely diction and resonance but the speeches remain technically proficient and not connected to character or emotion.  (Broadway's current production of Hamlet anyone?)

Today we'll be starting at zero and really investigating our voices and their capabilities so that in the future, our experience with text can be better informed and infused with that essential energy.

Tips for the First Time

If you haven't been to jam sessions before, here are a few things that you should know.

LOGISTICS

1. You don't need to RSVP, but we do appreciate it!

2.  Bring or wear clothes you can move and work in comfortably

3.  We ask for a $5 donation to help cover the space rental cost.*

*Why?  Space is expensive in NYC and nice, clean, safe space is sometimes tough to secure! This is a suggested donation but it helps to ensure that we can keep offering and organizing the jam sessions.  We hope, in the future, to be able to find a more permanent home and to be able to offer the sessions for free.

SO WHAT DO YOU ACTUALLY DO?
Jam Sessions are all about experimentation.  They are designed as a laboratory for actors, directors, really anyone who attends.  We often start the day with a plan and end in a completely different place thanks to discoveries made along the way.  Usually, jam sessions are led by me (Melissa, the artistic director).  Sometimes jam attendees will lead a warm-up exercise or a section of the jam session.  The jam sessions are here for everyone's benefit.


WHAT ARE THE TOOLS YOU USE?
- open movement-based improvisation
- guided movement-based improvisation
- principles of Viewpoints, some Laban and Biomechanics
- choreographing tools (Liz Lerman, Doug Varone and others)
- composition work
- experimenting with dialogue and monologue
and lots more!


Have other questions?
Have something to add?


Please continue the discussion in the comments section!


 

The Voice

For the last jam sessions of 2009 we've decided to tackle the voice!

Over the summer we decided to try and get more in-depth with the jam sessions and do "rounds" focused on a theme or skill, etc.  We devoted the last round to Storytelling (you can read various entries on the site about those endeavors).

The Anthropologists is a movement-based company and most jam sessions are centered on our bodies, how we move, etc.

For the end of the year, we'd like to shift focus a little and turn our attention to the voice.  We'll still, of course, be very connected to our bodies, but we'd like to expand vocally and we hope you'll join us on this journey!

Voice Part 1 (Nov. 22):  Vocal qualities, voice sourcing and primal sounds
Voice Part 2 (Dec. 6): Continuation of Part 1, adding text (monologues or poem, users' choice!)
Voice Part 3 (Dec. 13): Multiple voices, Group Song

Will we see you there?

Last dates for 2009!

Here you go, folks:

Sunday, November 22, 1-4PM at Panetta Movement Center
Sunday, December 6, 12-3PM at Panetta Movement Center
Sunday, December 13, 3-6PM at Battery Dance

To get the full details, are you on our email list?  If not, contact melissa@theanthropologists.org.

Storytelling Part II

Storytelling continued today with a dynamic and invigorating jam session!  We had three new jammers join us, which is always wonderful - we thrive on that new energy and perspective.

For today’s work, we took one story - the Brothers Grimm’s version of Rapunzel - and split up the jammers into three groups - two groups of three and one of four.  Each group had to devise a retelling of the story or part of the story and each had a different lens with which to tell it:

1. 
   
   Narrative voice
   
   
   
2. 
   
   Genre
   
   
   
3. 
   
   Time Signature/Tempo
   
   
   

It was a great exercise in perspective and again, there was a wonderful payoff in seeing a story that you knew taken apart, reassembled or re-imagined.

Highlights (there were so many, really):

1. 
   
   GENRE: The delicious and detailed French-speaking version with a Rapunzel that provided her (his?) own sound effects. It managed to humanize the “evil” witch all the while make smoking a cigarette a la film noir seem new again.  It also gave new meaning to the song: “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.”
   
   
   
2. 
   
   NARRATOR: The giddy and quirky version interrupted by an inquisitive narrator that used feet to act out the critical points of the story.  It was a great reminder that sometimes the simplest act can have a magnetizing effect - no need for costumes, light, set, etc.  At that moment, all we wanted to watch were the feet!
   
   
   
3. 
   
   TIME/TEMPO: This was a beautiful and haunting deconstruction - I wished we had more time to let this one keep unfolding (maybe next session, guys?).  It’s outside narration and morphing characters really tied into the primal and emotional elements of the story.  The group used great imagery - Rapunzel and her hair dragging her Prince across the floor.  Economy of text and use of still moments made this really mesmerizing to watch.
   
   
   

I’m really looking forward to our next session at the end of this month.  Perhaps we’ll continue with Storytelling through the end of 2009.  There seem to be so many places to go!