Quick questions on Voice as performance skill: HSC Drama

A typical pre-performance vocal warm-up runs 10 to 20 minutes:

In performance, the voice carries multiple kinds of meaning at once.

The diaphragmatic muscle and the surrounding abdominal muscles power the breath that carries sound. Untrained voices tend to breathe from the upper chest, which produces shallow, easily-tired voices. Trained voices breathe from the diaphragm, producing sustained, controlled tone.

Sound resonates in the head, the chest, the mouth and the nasal cavity. Different resonance produces different vocal qualities. Resonance exercises:

The clarity of consonants and the precision of vowels. Articulation depends on the tongue, lips, jaw and teeth. Exercises:

The melodic range of speech. A common amateur fault is a flat pitch range that does not change with content. Pitch exercises:

The speed of speech. Skilled performers vary pace deliberately. Slow pace adds weight; fast pace adds urgency.

The dynamic range from whisper to shout. Both ends matter. Controlled whispers carry intimacy; controlled shouts carry urgency.

The pronunciation patterns specific to a region, class or character. HSC performers may work with Australian English (received standard, regional Australian, working-class Australian), British received pronunciation, American accents, and specific dialects. Accent work requires careful study; faked or generic accents read as inauthentic.

The voice signals who the character is. Age (young voice versus older voice through breath quality and pitch), social class (vowel sounds, articulation), region (accent), education (vocabulary and articulation), and individual quirks (specific patterns).

Anger, grief, anxiety, joy, calm. The voice reveals emotion through breath quality, pitch shift, pace change and resonance shift.

The voice marks the structure of the play. Pauses signal weight, rising pitch signals questions or urgency, falling pitch signals resolution.

Direct address requires a different vocal placement than dialogue with another character. Public speech (a king addressing his court) requires different placement than intimate speech (two lovers).

Voice director at the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1969 to 2014. Berry's books (Voice and the Actor, 1973; The Actor and the Text, 1987) are standard references. Berry emphasised the connection between voice work and text work; the voice is not a separate technique but emerges from the text.

Scottish voice teacher. Linklater's book Freeing the Natural Voice (1976) and her teaching at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the American Repertory Theater shaped a generation of trained actors. Linklater emphasised releasing the "natural" voice from physical and psychological constraints.