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Vocal Warm-ups

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  Vocal Warm-ups  There is a story of when Sir John Gielgud was working with Peter Brook on Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale in 1952. Peter Brook was into doing lots of warm ups and improvisations sometimes all day sometimes. After 3 hours of vocal warm up and then improvisations where actors had to show emotions and induce and create an emotional reaction in the audience of Brook and his assistant. Brook would tell the actors what emotion they had to show. One actress was given fear and came out on stage and raised her voice and arms and showed great emotion as she improvised a speech about when she found her mother dead in her apartment two years previously. Brook was impressed. It was then Gielgud’s turn. He went up on the stage. He was given despair. He turned his back on the audience. Gielgud then turned around emotionless and forthright and said, “We open in one week and we haven’t even picked up the bloody script.”He then walked off the stage and sat down again.    Actors and st
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Breath Relaxes and Releases

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Breath Relaxes and Releases I once had a class with the great voice teacher Cecily Berry. We did the exercise below. After the class, she talked about how she done this exercise with prisoners in jail, with people suffering from anxiety and with older people who are dying. Once, I had a friend who was in his thirties and dying of cancer. He was a tough, New Zealander who had played rugby to a decent level. When I visited him in hospital near his final days, he was all skin and bones and weighed only 45 kgs. He could hardly communicate and his wife said he always seemed anxious. His wife left the room for a well deserved break. I told him I would stay there for a bit and we would just relax. I said, "Breathe in - relax. Hold. Breathe out - release. Now, breathe in and relax on 1-2-3. Hold 1-2. Now breathe out - release on 1-2-3-4. Again. Now, breathe in and relax on 1-2-3. Hold 1-2. Now breathe out - release on 1-2-3-4. Now slower. Now, breathe in and relax on 1-2-3-4. Hold 1-2. No
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The Voice Box

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Finding the Voice The Voice Box I once was running an improvisation competition (in the style of Theatresports or Whose Line is it Anyway?) at a school in Asia. Two girls from the Primary school came into my Black Box Theatre at recess. One spoke for the other. “She wants to be in the House Improvisation competition at lunchtime.” I said that I can help them by putting their names down on the list and then they can turn up at lunch and I will put them in a team. I then asked what house the girl was in. Her friend said, “She is in Red house.” I then asked why her friend couldn’t speak. “My friend has lost her voice. Can you help her find it?” she said. “We will look around and see if we can find it,” I said. “If we don’t find it, you can still perform. You can just use your hands, body, feet and face to speak.” I looked around the room and found a small white box we used as a container for small jewelry for plays. “I think I found it,” I said. “What’s that?” her friend said. “It’s a
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