Vocal Awareness

When looking at vocal awareness, we first established what the properties of voice were...

• Tone/ Timbre
• Volume
• Pitch
• Pace
• Accent

With this knowledge and the things we gained from practising using them, we went on to do a directing exercise. Within this we paired up and then each chose a monologue from one of the characters in the play 'Gotcha.'

For my partner I picked a 'sentimental like', reflective monologue from the kid's point of view. Upon practice my partner responded well to the direction I gave her to go with it. The direction I have to her were all well linked together and so made sense to both her and I. 

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As the monologue I selected for her was a reflective one, I gave her directions such as 'soft tonne', and 'quietly spoken.' I felt these accompanied the piece well as they made it seem more realistic by creating a real life like scenario. 

I also gave my partner the accent as a key voice property. When doing previous work with Barry Keeffe's Gotcha, I had established that personally I imagined the kid to have an east- London accent. As a result, when directing my partner, this was something I asked her to do. In the directing stages, this is something she found quite difficult but with practice and the right direction, she performed it with this voice property very well.

As we had similar ideas for both the kid (her character) and Ton (my character), we found it fairly easy to work with and direct each other. This helped us a lot as a lot of direction wasn't needed, even at first, so we both had more rehearsal time but still directed each other when it was needed.

Initially it was odd, directing and being directed by a peer but once both my partner and I got into it, we worked very well together. I personally found it easier to relate to someone in the position as I was.

I learnt a lot about vocal awareness and the importance of voice properties through doing this task. For example in Gotcha, if Ton were to use soft tonnes and a quiet voice, as a pose to harsh tonnes and a loud voice, the way he was portrayed and the audience's perception of him would change hugely.

Another example is if Lynne was to have a Northern accent she may be put across differently, e.g. more easy- going than if she had a North- London one.