The book, Voice and the Actor by Cicely Berry explains the importance of vocal training to a professional actor. The actor relies on his or her voice to bring emotion to a character. It is taken for granted that the speaking voice is important to convey precise thoughts and feelings. Cicely Berry says that there are four factors that condition the voice: environment, ear, physical agility, and personality.
Environment plays an important factor to one’s voice. For example, one’s environment can have influence on one’s accent or the way he or she pronounces words. Children learn to first speak unconsciously through sign language and they are influenced by sounds heard around them. However, speaking for a child is an imitative process. So, the way a parent speaks to a child can definitely influence how a child speaks.
Cicely Berry defines the use of the ear as the perception of sound. Some people can hear certain sounds easily and pay more attention to the annunciation of words. You can hear different tones of the voice. For example, personally, I can reach a very high pitch when I start whining. Ear can be tied into environment because the child uses the ear to develop the voice. So, when a child listens to how someone speaks, if the parent usually speaks in a rough tone, then the child is will most likely develop those characteristics.
Physical agility is defined as varying degrees of muscular awareness and freedom. This is due to the environment as well. This might mean the person’s personality. For example, a person who is an introverted person has trouble speaking and cannot easily convey what he or she wishes to say. The author says that if there is a reluctance in speech, that the muscles will be affected making them less firm. So, it seems like any muscle, muscles in the mouth, and throat need to be exercised vocally as well. The author also provides the example of people who think more quickly than they speak. They trip over words and do not convey their message. So, the author says that the actor must learn how to relate the mental intention to the physical action. In class, this is done through vocal and breathing exercises. In every acting class, exercise facial muscles, the brow, the tongue (inside and outside the mouth), and the lower jaw. practice breathing in an breathing out humming sounds. Also practice vocal exercises pronouncing words that we usually mispronounce on stage. For example, a student saying “waw,” it sounds like “wah.” Also, students practice their annunciations by practicing tongue twisters such as kinky cookie and giggle gaggle. We exercise the tongue and lips with vocal and facial exercises. The facial exercises include stinking our tongue out and making our face very small.
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The author says that personality affects how you unconsciously form your own voice. So, by starting out with imitation, your emotional reaction to family and environment, your sensitivity to sound, and your own individual need to communicate, evolve your personal voice and speech. The author also says that a person is not aware of the way that they sound and jokingly says that the listener is shocked when he or her hears their voice for the first time.
The author says that to make a sound there needs to be something that strikes and something that is struck. Something needs to resist the impact to a greater or lesser degree and vibrate accordingly. Cicely Berry says that these vibrations will disturb the surrounding air and set up sound waves that you receive through the ear and interpret them accordingly. So, the emptiness of a space and the density of the walls can determine how well the voice can be amplified. For example, in a stone building such as a church, the voice is amplified more than other buildings whose walls can absorb the sound. In class vocally, we have created enough space between the actor and the audience in the stage to help amplify our voices.
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The author also says that breath is the initial impulse with a person’s voice. So, to exercise the speaking muscles, it is useful to practice breathing and speaking exercises. So, the voice can be affected by how the person uses his or her breath. Relaxation, breathing, and increased muscularity of the lips and tongue can help affect a person’s voice. These exercises are very useful to the person because they become much more aware of their own voice. The author also says that tensions and limitations come a person’s lack of trust in themselves. So, breathing and speaking exercises can also help a person’s confidence in improving their voice. Where the energy lies and how a person uses that energy affect voice. Practice Edmund Jacobson’s theory of relaxation. It is believed that maximum contraction produces maximum relation. To relax all muscles in the body, the class practices the sun salutation before practicing vocal exercises. This is to relieve any tension that the student could have during the day, so that the vocal exercises will not be affected. Also, with the use of Hatha yoga, students learn that the maximum stretch can produce the maximum breath.
From reading Cicely Berry’s book, it seems that the voice is a muscle that needs to be exercised and vocally trained like any other muscle in a person’s body. Breathing exercises in class help practice vocal training. Personally, in class breathing exercises have made me more aware of how my voice sounds and which areas could use improvement. Overall, I find this book very valuable. It is also obvious that Cicely Berry’s teachings are also used in class. I felt that reading Cicely Berry’s work helped me understand the importance of breathing and speaking exercises and how important it is for the actor to practice speaking correctly. Also, I have learned that how we speak in real life is much different than how we speak on stage.
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Bibliography
Berry, Cicely. Voice and the Actor.
Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc
New York, NY 1974
