Tuesday, September 8

VOICE
We did just one day of basic British RP, so that the fellows auditioning for Blue/Orange would have at least a little bit of information on the dialect before the auditions/callbacks.

We have a whole long packet of information just from today, but here are a few bits of information from it (I'm going to try to explain this without using IPA so that people who don't know it can still sort of follow along):

- The first vowel in "apple" (and other words with that vowel) have basically the same vowel, but it's a more open sound. And for people with midwestern dialects (like my own bad habits), we need to be particularly careful to not go into an "eeyah" sound.
- There is a list of words called that "ask list" (but pronounce the vowel in "ask" as more like the British long vowel...) which all have a vowel shift to something that's kind of like the "ah" in "father", but with the jaw higher than in Standard American, and with the jaw open. Voice Professor gave us a 2-page list of words that this rule applies to (e.g. after, answer, chance, dance, fast, glass, grasp, laugh, past, task, witchcraft, etc.)
- The vowel in "no" (and other words with that vowel) changes from the American "oh-oo" diphthong to more of an "uh-oo". You have to keep it SUBTLE, because over-producing it makes it sound really "stagy". In upper class dialects, it shifts to more of an "eh-uh".
- The vowel in "all" (and other words with that vowel) is similar to the American vowel, but rounder. The lips should be round. Don't let it drift to the "ah" sound.
- The vowel in "not" and "God" (and other words with that vowel) has to be a round sound (which it really should be in Standard American, too, but in many regional American dialects it sounds more like the "ah" in "father"... It needs to be rounder than that). It should be short and quick, and should not drift to the "ah".
- In words like "nurse", "star", "poor", "here", "air", "mother", and "your", no "r"-coloration is used. Drop the "r" sound and just say the final vowel. The exception to this is if the word directly after it starts with a vowel, in which case a "linking r" is used. This basically means that the "r" gets put on the next word. For example, "better off" would sound more like "bettuh roff".
- In "pity" and other words ending in the long "ee" sound, they shift closer to the short "i" sound. If the final long "ee" sound is used, it must be precisely produced without the hard regional American ee quality.
- The vowel in the word "what" needs to be the same as the vowel in "not" and "hot". This is an important shift; using the "uh" vowel sounds, as in the word "hut", is very American. This only applies to this one word.
- There is occasionally an intrusive "r" added to words ending with the "ah" vowel. For example, "Cuba" might be "Cuber", and "idea" might be "idear". Some characters will use this, and some won't.
- A tapped "r" can be used: 1. between two vowels. 2. in the initial position. 3. after a consonant. 4. in the final position when followed by a vowel. ("very", "married", "ridiculous").
- "t" is sharp, precise, and explosive
- prefixes and suffixes shortened in unstressed syllables ("enough" shifts to "ihnuhf")
- words ending in "ary", "ery", "ory", and "ony" suffixes drop the penultimate (second to last) syllable. (So "elocutionary" would become "eh-luhk-YOO-shun-ree").
- words ending in "ile" should be pronounced as "eye-uhl". (e.g. "futile" would be "fyoot-eye-uhl", not "fyoot-uhl")
- liquid "u" is always used following the consonants t, d, n, s, and l. (tune, news, duke, suit, etc.)
- "can't you", "won't you", "don't you" -- very precise with a strong "t" (avoid the "choo" sound)
- "did you", "would you", "could you" -- very precise with a strong "d"
- the vowel sound in the pronouns "me", "he", "she", "you" is shortened
- "again" can be said as "uh-gehn" or as "uh-gain"
- the vowel in the words "hurry", "worry", "courage", "Durham", "burrow", "furrow", "borough", and "burro" shifts to "uh"
- "wh" is pronounced as a voiced sound in all spellings, so "which" and "witch" should sound exactly the same, with both "w"s voiced as in the word "we". (Which is pretty normal in General American, but not correct in Standard American)

Melody: Pitch shifts internally within words. Operative words slow down and use internal pitch shift within these words for emphasis.

Rhythm: clipped quality; Precision of consonants is critical; non-operative words eliminate from stress. G.L. Plescia explains it as a "rattle, rattle, bing" rhythm. (e.g. "I'm so sorry I was late; there was a traffic jam." The words "I'm", "so", "I", "was", "there", "was", and "a" are rattled off quickly. The words "sorry", "late", and "traffic jam" are "bing" words, meaning that they take more time)

Resonance Let the sounds ping off the front teeth; a distinct shift of vocal placement forward to the front of the mouth at the lips and teeth (vs. Standard American dialect, with resonance/focus at the center of the mouth). Also, there is lots of space inside the mouth, particularly in the production of vowels, thus creating rounder, more open vowel sounds.


Anyway. We all brought in monologues to work on with the RP Dialect. We each tried to do the first two sentences of our monologues using the dialect.

The hardest thing for me, by far, is keeping my forward placement (I have the same problem in Standard American, but it's a bigger deal in RP). For some reason, it's really difficult for me to stay forward without falling back. It's definitely a bigger challenge for me than any of my classmates. I don't know why. I have a really difficult time hearing when I'm doing it wrong vs. right. I have a feeling that's going to be my biggest voice struggle this semester.



MOVEMENT
Two-Shots-Up made us a new mix CD for jumping rope and stretches, and it's awesome. It has Spice Girls. And "Hey Ya". I'll leave it at that. Thanks Two-Shots-Up!

I re-injured one of my hip flexors this past weekend (and I have no idea HOW... but it required an emergency drug store trip for some tiger balm), so stretches were especially difficult for me today. Some days, I think that stretches and my body just were not made for each other. But then we'll do other things (like crossing the mats by doing tripods) that don't bother me at all and seem to cause everyone else pain. So maybe my body thinks every day is "opposite day".

We did Little Bears. I was partnered with Killer, and it was fun. It felt like there was a lot of bounding going on with us, which was fun.

It's interesting to see how different combinations of partners produce different results. When D-Train was paired with All-the-Way, it was very fluid, with a lot of interesting lay-back lifts. But when D-Train was paired with O.D., it was completely different. Sometimes it looked like D-Train was a tree and O.D. was a koala. Very cool.


ACTING
We started blocking The Greeks today!!!

We blocked the first several pages of Electra. I'm in the chorus, but even being in the chorus feels pretty demanding. The text requires so much movement to keep it alive. We have to react physically to nearly everything that happens. It's really interesting, and it's not going to be easy.

As a chorus (at least, for this play), we have to develop a silent chorus language in order to be able to communicate non-verbally.

A good note about focus in a scene: we can only move while someone else is talking IF we keep our eyes on the speaker. Otherwise, we steal focus.

Acting Professoressa says that if we want to stage ourselves, then we need to find out where the transitions are and move on the transitions. I'm planning on marking up my script tonight to help myself with that.

Tomorrow, we're going to start blocking Andromache, and then we'll start Helen on Thursday.