Voice with Charmian

Physical preparation: relaxation and alignment

Breathing: release, free, center

resonance: humming, vowels and singing

Pitch: range~story telling

Articulation: using poems and words from text

Books:

• Patsy Rodburg ~ The Right to Speak*
• Cicely Barry ~ The Voice and the Actor*
• Barbara Houseman ~ (can't remember name of book but has good exercises and pictures)*
• Kristin Linklater ~Freeing the Natural Voice

*Have worked specifically with Charmian

Phonetic book for consonants: need to get an American speech method and not British

• Clifford Turner
• Edith Skinner

How do you take care of your voice (especially before performances)?

• Steam off boiling water with towel over head
• Do not take strong medical sweets, herbal is ok as well as lemon and honey
• COMPLETE vocal rest- wear a sign
• During warm-up a lot of breathing and gentle humming to warm up resonance

For strained vocal cords do the above and ensure the actor that it is not going to be their best vocal performance ever. If you want to do it as a profession you don't want to continue straining the vocal cords.

**If you are desperate: turn up the mics so that the actor does not push it.