Voice

Have you ever taken an improv class? My first improv teacher, Diana Mady Kelly (University of Windsor, School of Dramatic Art) blew my mind wide open early in my career by introducing me to the power of “yes, and…” A student of both Viola Spolin and Uta Hagen, the grounding in “working in the now” Mady Kelly taught me informed all my work since and has made me a better voice over actor. 

Improvisation, or improv, is a form of live theatre in which the plot, characters, and dialogue of a game, scene or story are made up live and in real-time. It is a fantastic way to tap into your observation skills, and allows you to focus on being grounded and connected to places, people and actions as they are created. This handy instrument in the actor’s toolkit can help make you a better voice over actor in several ways. 

Get Out of Your Space and Comfort Zone

Voice acting can be a very isolating profession, whether we are in the midst of a pandemic or not.  Especially with the growth of home pro studios and self-direction, it is not unusual for a voice actor to have very little interaction with their fellow humans (immediate family notwithstanding).  Joining an improv group or taking improv lessons, means you get out of your personal space and comfort zone (both physically and emotionally). In the current covid climate, exploring online improv troupes and groups is a way to connect and create.

Improvisation schools and troupes are popular, as are theater sports (competitive comedic improvisation) and all have one thing in common.  Stepping out of your personal booth (and other boundaries you may have erected) and teaming up with other actors in the pursuit of story-telling.  This collaboration allows actors to “play” off of one another and build stories together – the more elaborate and interesting the better. You’re encouraged to flirt with the unconventional and adopt the eccentric.  Improvisation is a safe space for pushing the boundaries of your own imagination with others who have your back and play along. Literally. 

To Improvise, Be Fully Present In The Moment

Improvisation is fast-moving and always changing.  To do it well, it means that improvisers must be fully present in the moment as the scene, story or game evolves.  Because while being present is just good advice for generally living life, if an actor isn’t paying attention, their contribution or lack thereof can grind the improv to a halt.  Lack of comfort in staying and playing in the now leads to awkward moments when everyone realizes things aren’t going well whether the medium is theater, film or voice work.

Being able to stay connected and grounded  in the here and now benefits the voice actor once back in the booth.  Paying attention to the copy, being present in the world of the project can make for less mistakes, less overthinking, and more relaxation and engagement for the actor.

Create A World to Connect With By Improvising One

Improvisers make up worlds from nothing.  This imagining and then describing what exists and is happening in the world around them, is what brings the improvised story to life.  Like children at play, improvisation happens when actors imagine whole worlds to connect to – full of people and places and activities that then exist collectively in the minds of the audience as they are being created. I call this “world building” and I use it in the booth every day.

Voice actors spend their performance time in small quiet spaces talking to imaginary people.  By deciding who they are, who they are talking to, where they are, and what circumstances led them to talk about the product, service or subject, a voice actor fully embodies a character and brings a script to life.  All voice over acting IS acting, and a nimble and strong imagination is a valuable asset in any genre, be it commercial, corporate, animation, gaming, audiobooks, e-learning, etc. Improv can greatly enhance the care and feeding of the imagination.

Improv Helps Actors Stay Open to Possibilities

The first rule of improv is to always say “yes, and…”  This means whenever fellow improvisers are developing a story, the job of the actor is to agree to whatever direction the story takes and to take it further in the service of the story’s telling.  In order to effectively agree and participate, the actor needs to stay open to possibilities and new directions as they are introduced. This openness allows for creativity to flourish.  The actor can drop preconceived ideas about what is happening and simply “go with it” to find new ways to connect and explore the story.  

This is especially helpful for the voice actor in finding new, fresh ways of delivering the script authentically.  Staying open, in the moment and “yes-anding” helps you better work with directors and creatives in a session. You find previously undiscovered voice over performance options whose existence you might not have been aware of until that moment.  And in those moments, real brilliance is possible.

“Once upon a time…”  In every culture, throughout the history of human-kind, knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material has been received, preserved and transmitted orally from one generation to another. This oral tradition or oral lore is human communication handed down over time in the form of speech or song as myth, folktales, prose, adages, ballads, chants, or verse. And voice acting, in the truest sense of the word, has been a core element of the human oral tradition since the start of time.

Oral traditions make it possible for us as a society to pass knowledge across generations without writing. We use them to help people make sense of the world, teach children and adults about important aspects of culture and preserve social values and collective memory.  They are essential for keeping cultures alive.

Oral Traditions Regularly Influence Our Daily Lives

Although the telling of Beowulf, Aesop’s fables, Sassquatch and urban legends are what we often associate with the oral tradition, it isn’t all myth and folklore.  Oral traditions regularly influence how we live our daily lives.  These sayings and practices underlie many of our belief systems and you can find them everywhere:

In Customs:

Blowing out candles at birthday celebrations

Taking a gift when invited to someone’s house for dinner

Tip a waiter or waitress for good service

Greetings like a nod, bow, smile, handshake or verbal greeting

Removing shoes before entering a home

In Superstitions:

Find a penny, pick it up and all day long, you’ll have good luck

A black cat crossing your path will bring bad luck

Break a wishbone and the person with the bigger portion will have good luck

Knock on wood for good luck

Step on a crack, break your mother’s back

Finding a horseshoe brings good luck

Blow out all of the candles on your birthday cake with one breath and your wish will come true

Make a wish upon a falling star and it will come true

And we all know these adages, don’t we?

A watched pot never boils

Actions speak louder than words

Don’t bite the hand that feeds you

Don’t judge a book by its cover

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

The grass is always greener on the other side of the hill

A penny saved is a penny earned

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it

Good things come to those who wait

There’s Something About the Human Voice

It is challenging to describe its power, but we all are wired from birth to understand there’s something about the human voice.  As a primary mode of self-expression, how we chose to use (or limit) this instrument says alot about who we feel we are as people.  The richness and power of the human voice reveals much about our perceived strengths and weaknesses, engenders empathy, understanding and connection.

Often we talk about it in musical terms of tempo, tone and pitch.  Even in isolation, these elements of vocal production can have a sophisticated influence on an audience.  Take tempo for example. Without varying the pitch, or tone of voice, adjusting the tempo can send clear messages about urgency, or excitement, intensity or mood.  Add in tone of voice and now you have an entire palate of emotions with which to color the message from concern to happiness to sarcasm to elation and everything in-between. 

Pitch has a rather interesting impact on the human psyche. It has even been shown to have a direct impact on who we choose as leaders. According to the American Scientist, though a voice’s pitch, the perceived “highness” or “lowness” of a voice, is fundamentally is an expression of physiology, reflecting the fundamental frequency at which the vocal folds are vibrating, “males with lower-pitched voices tend to be perceived as more attractive, physically stronger, and more ‘dominant’ (a term offered by the experimenter to mean, loosely, ‘respected,’ ‘commanding,’ ‘more likely to be followed,’ or something along those lines). For females, the standard is dichotomous: Women with higher-pitched voices tend to be considered more attractive, whereas those with lower-pitched voices are perceived as more dominant.”

Voice Acting Safeguards Oral Traditions by Maintaining Their Every Day Role in Society

There is a great article on UNESCO’s Intangible Public Heritage site that addresses, in part, the challenges of maintaining oral traditions.  And this is where voice acting is vital. The article notes that “like other forms of intangible cultural heritage, oral traditions are threatened by rapid urbanisation, large-scale migration, industrialisation and environmental change.”  In order to preserve oral traditions and expressions, opportunities for stories to be passed from person to person are essential. Voice acting does just that.  By voicing stories, VO pros safeguard oral traditions by maintaining their every day role in society.

And thanks to the advances in gadgets and platforms, oral traditions are not only being preserved, but enhanced.  Communities may use technology to help safeguard the full range and richness of their oral traditions, including differences in text and styles of performance. Recorded media and other communication technologies can be used to preserve and even strengthen oral traditions and expressions with a much wider reach, broadcasting recorded performances both to their original communities and to a more global audience. What was once only available in a live performance, elements such as uniquely expressive features including the tempo, tone and pitch voice actors master, can now be recorded as audio or video, as can interactions between performers and audiences and non-verbal story elements including gestures and mimicry. 

Audiobooks and Podcasting Are Now Dominating Our Storytelling

So does the video content consuming a lot of our attention these days mean that we are losing our solely oral traditions?  I’d say no. With markets in 2020 projected to be $3.5 billion and $1.1 billion respectively, audiobooks and podcasting are now dominating our storytelling.  

In much the same way radio has done, phone-friendly popular audio items build on an important feature for passing on stories – intimacy.  They tap our deep human need for the voices of others. Writing for Counterpunch, B. Nimri Aziz, a New York based anthropologist and journalist, notes “It’s often a very private experience, attested by the ubiquity of slinky earbuds and chunky wireless headphones that envelope each wearer in his and her personal world.” 

History is built on stories. Legends like Atlantis, Big Foot, Hercules and Robin Hood and others through prose/literature, riddles, ghost stories, creation stories and more remain popular thanks to story-tellers.  As UNESCO notes, in many societies, performing oral traditions is a highly specialized occupation and the community holds professional performers in the highest regard as guardians of collective memory. I, for one, am happy to keep that tradition going.