VOICE AND THE ACTOR - CRITERIA 2

Below are all the vocal health development work i have done on my voice in order to help me with my shows. i have taken part is shows such as ;

1. mother Figure - Rosemary
2. Teechers - Mrs parry
3. Mind the gap  - devised piece (ensemble)
4. Othello and i played the part of Bianca and Montano plus the Ensemble work
5. Antigone and i played the part of Antigone plus Ensemble 
6. Ensemble Shakespeare performance - ROMEO + JULIET / SHYLOCK SPEECH

Below is all the work i have done in order to help me develop my acting voice.

                        vocal health programme
                   
           Strengths                                       Weaknesses

Clarity	Breath control
Articulation	Projection
Pace	Pitch
Tone of voice	Line delivery

  Breath control is one of my weaknesses and I need to work on this because when I'm on stage saying my lines I run out of breath because I don't breathe properly from my diaphragm so I need to practise breathing from the diaphragm.
In order to do this i need to follow this step by step process in order to improve.

Step 1: I need  to stand feet comfortably apart arms by my side .
Step 2: then breathe in for four.
Step 3: hold it four four.
Step 4: breathe out for four.
And then carry this on from four to six to eight to twelve to sixteen to twenty four.
 I also practice breathing from the diaphragm  by laying down on the floor and breathing in from my belly and not from my chest and this helps me know the difference between breathing from my chest and the diaphragm.

Not being able to breathe with my diaphragm properly affects me in being able to be to control my breathing whilst delivering my lines. However because breath  Control is one of my weaknesses it affects one of my strengths because these are all connected. For examples, when I run out of breath it messes up my clarity because I would be rushing to get my lines out and some of the words can gets lost in the process Which makes my projection sound bad because while I'm trying to deliver my line and breathe at the same time.

In order to make my lines clear and easy to hear I will work on my pronunciation and making sure that I pronounce all of my vowels and my T's , P's and TH.  in order to improve this I will practice saying them and practise reading sonnets. For example ;

                        Death is a fearful thing. 

.   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   . 

to die, and go we know not where; 

To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot; 

This sensible warm motion to become 

A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit 

To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside 

In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice; 

To be imprison’d in the viewless winds 

And blown with restless violence round about 

The pendant world; or to be worse than worst 

Of those that lawless and incertain thought 

Imagine howling--’tis too horrible! 

The weariest and most loathed worldly life 

That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment 

Can lay on nature is a paradise 

To what we fear of death. 

  After working on my vocal weaknesses i research a few more things to do in order to improve them and make them my strength and i found theses exercises and what they do;

Relaxing the jaw - This is so important, it creates room in the mouth for the tongue to move freely, which is the part of our mouth that creates the shapes for us to articulate sounds, so it really helps with oral resonance. Try saying “ahhhh” with a tense jaw and then hear the difference when you allow the jaw to drop open. Do this a few times to warm up your jaw and it will help relax it.

Strengthen your tongue. Do exercises such as letting the jaw drop open and pointing out the tongue, touching it to the top lip, bottom lip, top teeth, bottom teeth, top gum ridge behind your top teeth, and the bottom gum ridge behind your bottom teeth, the hard palate and the floor of mouth. Repeat the sequence five times and don’t forget to breathe or make sure that the jaw remains relaxed!

Breathe consciously. Breath is the power behind your voice, but it’s so easy to allow it to become restricted – once in a while we all forget to inhale, perhaps if we’re stressed or shocked. That can lead to shallow, throaty vocal delivery, so try to let the breath drop in deeper and as you breathe out, sense how the stomach muscles contract to help the diaphragm push the air out of the body

Drink water. One of the most important points of vocal health is making sure you are well hydrated. Drink at least a couple of litres a day and carry a bottle of water around with you.

these helped me out because i started drinking more water and ding these exercises and it really helped me with my breathing whilst delivering lines.

i also did a few vocal projection exercises in order to help me with my projection on stage without having to strain my voice

these are the problems I had with my voice and how I worked on it for the shows that I have done through out the whole year;
mother Figure - Rosemary - playing this character was hard for me, especially because she is meant to have a received pronunciation (typically British) accent and because am Nigerian I already have my own accent so I had work on portraying a different accent. I watched videos to help me with the accent and got help from my teachers. I had to do some tongue twisting exercises to help me with articulating my words and to make sure that my line delivery was clear and people could hear me clearly. I did exercises such as the projecting exercise to help me because once I start saying my lines the volume of my voice drops because i kept trying to focus on the accent. but at the end of the day i pulled through and i was able to portray a clear and understandable character through my voice.
Teechers - Mrs parry -This is a loud, heightened and big character which means that i would have to project really loud and clearly deliver my lines whilst acting. at first i struggled with it because i would project loudly and act as a heightened character but my line delivery was bad, I worked on this by doing a few tongue twisting exercises a day;

• Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
  A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
  If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
  Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
• I saw Susie sitting in a shoe shine shop
• Where she sits she shines, and where she shines she sits.
• She sells sea shells on the sea shore;
  The shells that she sells are sea shells I'm sure.

Mind the gap  - devised piece (ensemble) + Othello and i played the part of Bianca and Montano plus the Ensemble work  - this was an ensemble piece i didn't really have lines but i had to work speaking together as an ensemble with my classmates.
Antigone and i played the part of Antigone plus Ensemble + Ensemble shakespeare performance - ROMEO + JULIET / SHYLOCK SPEECH - As i had been working on my voice all year round i didn't struggle with anything vocally with this play, i felt strong and confident with it.