Vocal Essay

The voice is and actors main tool, as well as the body or the face, and in this essay I shall be explaining how to keep a healthy voice and what to stay away from.

The first thing I will talk about is what you consume, this is because what you eat or drink can affect your voice in different ways as your oesophagus and trachea are so close together:

Alcohol - Alcohol can cause "Vocal Strain", you can put you vocal cords at risk of drying out because the muscles in your throat can become restricted. Drinking Alcohol and using your voice daily can cause permanent damage to your voice, and it can also change your vocal range.

Coffee - Coffee in excessive amounts can cause discomfort, but saying this it isn't the worst effect, coffee can tighten your muscles which results in your vocal range being restricted.

Milk and Dairy Products - Milk contains lactic acid, which can create a thick layer of phlegm, this can stop you from having clean and clear sounding vocals. If your going to drink milk before a performance it is best to drink some water after in order to get rid as much phlegm as possible. Milk doesn't not damage your vocal cords, but it can effect it before a show along with other dairy products.

Acid Fruit Juices and Fizzy Drinks - Acid Fruit Juices can cause a build up of mucus, which as I've already spoken about can effect your vocals, but Fizzy Drinks or any Drinks with Aspartame can damage your vocal cords.

Food - Cheese, yogurt, ice cream (dairy products) can create phlegm. Excessive salt, oranges, lemons, grapes and pineapple are acidic and can dry out your throat. Green vegetables can create gas and a feeling of bloat. Chocolate, ketchup, tomato products, fried foods, mustard, citrus, onions, peppermint, vinegar as they are heartburn triggers. Foods that are salty or contain caffeine may dry out your mouth and make it difficult to sing. In addition, heartburn triggers are important to avoid. No singer wants their stomach acid running into their oesophagus! If this does in fact happen then you may experience inflammation in your vocal cords which will damage your voice and has the potential to lead to the loss of your voice.

Hot Food can also damage your vocal abilities, but you can heal them by, drinking a lot of water to soothe your vocal cords. Just as mentioned here earlier, water is the best lubricant for your vocal membrane and it will help you to heal fast if your vocal cords are damaged. You should drink lukewarm water to soothe your vocal cords and avoid it when it is too cold or too hot.

 

Things that can improve your voice for a performance are as follows:

 

Baking Soda and Corn Syrup Solution - This solution is especially useful if an air-conditioner has dried out your throat. It involves using baking soda as a throat gargle.

 

 

 

 




Honey and Warm Water - Honey has a soothing effect on your vocal cords. Mix a 1/2-tsp of honey in with a glass of lukewarm water before you begin your performance. If you suffer from pollen-based allergies, using a local honey has the added benefit of helping build your tolerance to local pollens. As allergens can have an affect on your voice, any chance you have to avoid them would be to your benefit. Also, remember that sugar can sometimes coat your throat and have negative effects,
so it best to use a honey labelled "all natural"as some regular store brands have added sugars.
 
 


  

 

 

 

Pure Fruit Juice - Drinking fresh, pure fruit juice, such as pineapple, grape and apple juices, help you maintain a high level of energy, and generally help your immune system. Do not drink acidic fruit juices such as orange and grapefruit any less than an hour before you're due to sing as the citric acid can cause mucus to develop in the throat.

 

 

 

Food - Hard candy, liquorice tea, herbal tea and water are all soothing for the throat. Chicken, almonds, fish, yellow vegetables, apples, eggs, and rice. Ginger and Ginger extracted hot drink. In the
Philippines, they call this hot, soothing drink salabat. There is a place there called Cebu wherein most people are fond of putting ginger in any kind of food and they also drink the salabat regularly. In this place, a lot of people have good singing voices. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you have excessive amounts of thick mucus?

Heavy mucus and preforming is a big No No. The heavy phlegm will stop the laryngeal ligaments from vibrating fast for a high frequency or a high note. Abused vocal cords = Nodules!

If you have allergies you will need a doctor to give you antihistamines as the mucus will certainly affect your health. Antihistamines dry up the heavy mucus but at the same time will dry your natural saliva which means - NO PREFORMING while on antihistamines!

Home Remedies to sooth the voice:

Don't use your voice - Talking while you have an infection in your throat otherwise known as Laryngitis can cause permanent damage to your vocal cords and promote the growth of vocal cord nodules which you definitely don't want.

Use Alcohol - Other people advise against alcohol but they are wrong. Alcohol is a powerful anti-bacterial agent. Don't gulp down the alcohol. Just micro-swallow it. Use the highest proof alcohol you can get your hands on. The idea here is not to get drunk so do this once per hour. Just a tiny bit.

 

 

Use mouthwash and let just a tiny amount of mouthwash to go down your throat - You don't want to drink it but a tiny bit won't hurt you. Do this once per hour. The next day you will be amazed how much your throat has improved.   

 

If your suffering from vomiting you need to protect your vocals and you need to because vomiting can cause irritation to the lining of the oesophagus. Vomiting forces stomach acid usually used to digest food into your voice box and that can cause burning of your vocal cords. The effects can be reduced volume when projecting or pain when projecting or speaking. Worse, it may bring about the need surgical voice repair. On the other hand, this can be avoided by through discipline. Eating the right kind of food, regular exercises, proper hydration and avoidance of stress can all help. Remember, prevention is better than cure.

 

The Wardrobe (Week 8)

This week was our final chance to rehears before next weeks shows, we had all our scenes blocked, so we all practiced our scenes in order to get the movements smooth and efficient, after we ran the show in full whilst plotting the music and how long it would go on for, I think that this run through just helped the group to not stress about whether we would get the show finished in time and it also helped that we had the music to work with as it really helped to get into character during the performance.

Later this week we were looking at costume and props which took some time, but once it was done everyone seemed to enjoy playing their characters which really excited the group for the show to come, this will help for next week as Sam Holcroft the writer of "The Wardrobe" likes writing for young people as they bring energy to the performance, and I think all of this excitement will be turned into energy next week.

We finally managed to get the wardrobe in a space where we could use it in rehearsals, this helped settle the groups nerves as we worried about breaking it at first, towards the end of the week we looked at the prologue and the epilogue, as a group we wanted it to look like our characters were echoes of the wardrobe and so we played around with a few ideas again, but the finished project looks fantastic and I cannot wait to preform it next week.

The Wardrobe Project (Week 7)

At the begging of the week, we each drew something that we felt represented the wardrobe, I drew a picture of the wardrobe, with key objects from each scene surrounding it, my favourite was one that had the wardrobe, but with lots of squiggles outside, now most people didn't get it at first, but when it was explained they said that it was all the bad things trying to get in, making it look like a safe place.

This week I looked at both of my scenes, scene 10 and scene 3. When we looked at scene ten our focus was on the characters and how they can be played differently, this affected our blocking as at times we had to change certain bits to suit our characters personality, all though my character still needed work, we mainly looked at Nell and her personality and how she would react to something Antony does or says, which later we went into the relationship between Nell and Antony, this session helped me greatly as I felt that the blocking we had already done looked very awkward because neither one of us really understood why our characters where doing what they were, but in this session we created little bits of blocking such as Antony chasing Nell for the catalogue, this looks like both the characters are playful which is what we are looking for.

Scene 3 however hadn't been blocked up till this session for various reasons, I think most of the group including myself were nervous about this scene, as we didn't want to make Carol's death look comical and make the audience laugh. We tried a few ideas out for entering the scene, but we had to get it right because the moment you walk onto that stage for your scene, you either want the audience to understand the pre-scene events, or to wonder what is about to happen, which draws them in, the idea that we came up with for each character shows the difference in how each of them have reacted to the pre-scene event, my character, Henry, is scared, which is understandable as he is only 13, where as Bradly's character, Martin, is Henry's older brother and so when he enters he looks for the hiding spot to keep them both safe, when Tobias enters, played by Zach, he is numb as he has just watched his mother die in front of him, Yasmin plays Carol, and Carol has just watched her friend get dragged into the street, and her hand get decapitated in the door, so Yasmin plays her very frantic.

At the end of this week we started to think about the prologue, and try out ideas. We looked at each scene entering the wardrobe in sequence order, but personally I felt this was missing something and was quite boring, but I do understand why we tried the idea as we were looking at having the scenes look like echoes. We also looked at tangling our selves up inside of the wardrobe and then coming out, I thought that this was quite messy looking, and many of us worried about breaking the wardrobe. The final thing we looked at was doing our own tableaux's inside of the wardrobe, and I felt that this would look better as the epilogue.   

Wardrobe Project (Week 6)

This week we looked at the Nell and Antony scene, I had found it difficult at first because I was trying to find an energy or something similar that suited his character, we then experimented with trying to be like other people in the class, to see if that would take me away from being myself. Eventually we found that he was playful and naive, but deep down is worried about the coming events. After blocking the scene me and Charlotte looked at energy states for our scene we thought that maybe for Nell the bomb is in the room the whole time and she is bottling up what she is feeling, but Antony at this point is aware something is up, but is trying to cover it over until later in the scene where them bomb actually goes off.

 After that lesson I had a look at different films during this era, just to see if I could find someone similar to Antony, but unfortunately I couldn't, most WW1 films had very cocky men, who didn't seem to be scared, but I think that Antony is scared but doesn't like to show it and makes jokes about things.

Later that week we looked at trying to say our lines in a believable manner, I first started to work with scene 3 it took some time because the scene it's self is very tense and to feed the lines in a believable way didn't work unless we tried to act the scene out. Also with the scene three group we looked at doing our scene in a faster pase, and also in the style of something, this helped to look at different ways of acting the scene out. We later did some freeze frames for different key points in the scene, which I thought could be a good idea for the prologue, if we had everyone in the key freeze frame for their scene, so it gives the audience a taste of what is about to happen.

The Wardrobe Project (Scene Analysis)

Date: 19th June 1916



Location: Great Britain, Industrial, Auction House.
 

Character: Antony Edward Leverson Gower, Ellen Anne Rigby.

19th June 1916, was two years after WW1 had begun, it is also the year that the "Battle of Somme", which began July 1st 1916 the research a found about the battle is as shown:

"As the 11 British divisions walked towards the German lines, the machine guns started and the slaughter began. Although a few units managed to reach German trenches, they could not exploit their gains and were driven back. By the end of the day, the British had suffered 60,000 casualties, of whom 20,000 were dead: their largest single loss. Sixty per cent of all officers involved on the first day were killed." (1)

This leads me onto the pre-scene event, this was Antony being conscripted to war, I know this because:

"A man wishing to join the army could do so providing he passed certain physical tests and was willing to enlist for a number of years. The recruit had to be taller than 5 feet 3 inches and aged between 18 and 38 (although he could not be sent overseas until he was aged 19). He would join at the Regimental Depot or at one of its normal recruiting offices. The man had a choice over the regiment he was assigned to. He would typically join the army for a period of 7 years full time service with the colours, to be followed by another 5 in the Army Reserve. (These terms were for infantry: the other arms had slightly different ones. For example, in the artillery it was for 6 years plus 6). When war was declared there were 350,000 former soldiers on the Army Reserve, ready to be called back to fill the establishment of their regiments." (2)

These events appear in the scene when Nell says "I don't want a wedding present for a wedding I might not have", this is what both characters are very sensitive about in the scene.

The scene shows both characters searching for a wedding gift, as they are engaged, they both are very naive and playful with one another, until Nell brings up Antony being conscripted to war, this is the dramatic turn of events in the scene, if I was to put this into an energy state, this part is when the bomb goes off in the room, both characters energies change drastically, going from about a 4, which is neutral as both characters are acting how they normally would to one another, to then change into an 8, when Antony realises that something is wrong, as Nell is acting differently, to eventually turn to a 9, the bomb has gone off, which is exactly when Nell brings up the conscription and the war to Antony and how she feels about it.



The character are Antony, who is 18 years old just about to be sent out to fight in the war there was such thing as the "Military Service Act" I found out:

"The Act specified that men from 18 to 41 years old were liable to be called up for service in the army unless they were married, widowed with children, serving in the Royal Navy, a minister of religion, or working in one of a number of reserved occupations. A second Act in May 1916 extended liability for military service to married men, and a third Act in 1918 extended the upper age limit to 51." (3)

 But Antony wasn't married just yet only engaged, but I do think that he would have signed up anyway because of how it was frowned upon not to, and I think that he thinks about his pride a lot also, but many young men forged their birth certificate, which also makes me believe he is scared about the war. And I think that he dies in "The Battle of Somme" because this is in the year he is sent out and also many people died in this battle, he is very playful with Nell, but is also very naive also.

Nell on the other hand seems to be very controlled by what her mother has said previously, I know this because she says about how she told her mum she is going to need a huge handmade wardrobe, to which her mother apparently replied "Fat chance, people like us only have two outfits to their names, a set of flannel pyjamas and a serving apron." This shows that her mother has a big influence on the actions and decisions she makes. Like Antony she is also very playful and naive, but the thought of Antony going to war is something she holds back a lot by the look of things because in the scene she’s trying to look interested, but the thought is sitting with her until she eventually brings it up later in the scene. Nell is 17 and this was quite normal to get married at this age, me and Charlotte both believe she is from a working class, but we also think that Antony is more middle class, as they are both looking for an expensive present in an auction.



Costume and props would have to be from their era, but they would have to be props that can symbolise their era and also the fact they are in an auction house. A few ideas I have for props are these:

 

Props:



Antique French Louis Philippe Mahogany Chest circa 1840-1850













 



Above is an Antique Louis Philippe Mahogany Chest, I have chosen this item because not only is this an antique, but it also dates back to before their era, which fits in with the auction house setting, but it also looks like something that someone from 1916 would by themselves, and it would also fit in with the wardrobe by the way it looks.





Victorian Vanity Table
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Above is a Victorian Vanity table, I have chosen this because it doesn't look too modern, like I have said I would like it to look like its before 1916 but I think that the wooden look would act the feeling of being in an auction house. Also I like this because in the script Antony refers to a Victorian Vanity table when he says, "or what about this Victorian Vanity Table?", which is why it would fit in well with the scene very well.

 

William Kay Blacklock (British artist, 1872-1924) Sunlight and Shadow
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I have also chosen this painting, as it was a bit before 1916, which would could symbolise an auction house, but also Antony mentions a painting, as he says "well what about a painting" this is when he is trying to take Nell's mind off buying the wardrobe as its very expensive.

 

 Costume:

For costume I have looked at images from 1916 to get a feel for what Antony and Nell might wear, here is what I had found:

 



First Image
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Second Image
(8)



Final Image
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I think that Antony is middle class, and so I looked at what a few of them would wear, I chose the first picture because this looks like something you would on a day out with family or friends, and in this scene Antony is out looking for a wedding present. The Second photo I found looks like something that Antony would wear when working, all thought the bowler hats indicate that they were working class, I think that the rest of the attire would be suitable if Antony has just come from work to look for antiques. The final image I have found, would be the helmet and the jacket that we are planning on having Antony finishing the scene, as he steps out of the wardrobe and puts his uniform on in order to go to war, which would fit in if we were planning on having him die in "The Battle of Somme" we could hear a whistle which is when he exits, as they blew a whistle just before you about to go into no mans land.













Image 1
(10)

When me and Charlotte were looking at our characters, we decided that she would be a lower class than Antony this is because there is a line where Nell says "Fat chance she said, people like us have two outfits to their name, that's a set of flannel pyjamas and a serving apron, that's all we will ever need. So I had a look at working class clothes for women in 1916, and from both the images I think Nell should wear a dress that is long, and plain, because as you can see in image one they don't have crazy patters its either plain or stripy, and in image two I noticed that their dress are quite light, even though its in black and white, and then they also have boots, and their dresses are not very reviling which is what I think Nell should be wearing. I think that as they are both out on a trip that Nell might wear a tea dress, or something as equally as innocent looking.



Image 2
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(1)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/battle_somme.shtml

(2)

http://www.1914-1918.net/recruitment.htm

 

(3)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Service_Act_1916  

(4)

http://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/storage-case-pieces/commodes-chests-of-drawers/antique-french-louis-philippe-mahogany-chest-circa-1840-1850/id-f_783100/

(5)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Oak-Striped-Cream-2-pc-Victorian-Vanity-Table-Set-/390332514416

(6)

http://bjws.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/women-outdoors-with-their-dogs-1800.html

(7)

http://www.british-genealogy.com/forums/showthread.php/69789-Help-with-ages-of-men-in-early-1900s-photo

(8)

http://www.thebespokenfor.net/ronsfashionlife/2010/11/

(9)

http://www.edwardianpromenade.com/war/wwi-wednesday-the-uniform-of-a-british-soldier/

(10)

http://listverse.com/2012/12/16/10-ways-our-great-grandparents-screwed-over-women/

(11)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowell_Mill_Girls


 (1532 Words)

The Wardrobe Project (Title Two)

All's Fair in Love and War

My second title is "All's Fair in Love and War", this is because the war represents the chaos within Nell and Antony's relationship, the one thing that tears them apart is the fact Antony has been conscripted to war, which later in the scene does get brought up when Nell says "I don't want a wedding present for a wedding I might not have" this is the bomb that goes off in the scene, which for me represents the war, it’s a constant battle between them because they both love one another a lot, but this could be what is getting in the way.

The love for me is represented by this:

"The point of adding love to the list is likely to compare it to war. There are two main subtexts here. The first and most relevant is the idea that you can wreak all the havoc you want during the pursuit of true love. This includes sabotaging the third side in a love triangle or using deceit and trickery to woo the object of your affection (including hiding past lovers from them)." (1)

 The part that stands out in this for me is “The first and most relevant is the idea that you can wreak all the havoc you want during the pursuit of true love.” As after Nell brings it up and tries to leave, Antony stops her and then enacts the wedding that they should be having, this shows that the havoc has been wreaked to show the pursuit for true love.

 

(1) http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/29659/can-someone-explain-the-phrase-all-is-fair-in-love-and-war

(256 Words)

The Wardrobe Project (Title One)

The Antique

My first title that i have chosen is "The Antique", but not just because in the script both the characters Nell and Antony are looking for a wedding pressent in and antique, which is when they come across the wardrobe for the first time, but because I thought that the scene its self is like an antique, its beautiful, old and also a very delicute, I think that its beautiful because it ends at a point where the audience are given the choice to decide what happens,whether both character live happily ever after or whether Antony does infact die. I think that that era that it is set in, also makes the characters very delicute as they are both very young, naive and in a time where you dont know whether your going to live the rest of your life. The difinition of anique is "An antique (Latin: antiquus; "old", "ancient") is an old collectable item. It is collected or desirable because of its age, beauty, rarity, condition, utility, personal emotional connection, and/or other unique features. It is an object that represents a previous era or time period in human society." And this is what the scene is summed up in my mind, and onething that stands out to me from the definition is personal emotional connection, the personal emotional connection stands out through out the whole play, as I belive that each character has a emtional connection with the wardrobe as if it is a part of each character.

(250 Words)

The Wardrobe Project (Week 5)

We began the week looking at Brecht and how different his ideas were from Stanislavski, for the biggest difference is the style which is Epic Theatre, which is Brecht, and Dramatic Theatre, who Stanislavski is seen as a key practitioner for.

 

"Epic Theatre"



Brecht in 1946

Epic Theatre looks at the narrative or storytelling, and it turns the spectator of the show, the audience, into an observer, which makes the audience an outsider from the show so they are able to study it, this can arouse capacity for action. The production creates problems which is not solved in the show, and therefore leaves the audience forced to make the decision for themselves, as they spend the whole show studying the moves and decisions that the characters make. Epic theatre is montage of key moments in the characters, which isn't linear is curves and jumps through time.

After college I did some more research, so that I could understand it more and also to pick up anything I had missed or forgotten. From this I had learnt that,

"Brecht’s goal of creating an epic theatre was closely linked to his political commitment to Marxism. Brecht became drawn to communism around 1926 and proclaimed himself a Marxist in 1928." (1) 

I has also learnt that Brecht used music in order to distance the audience from the plot, which was an aspect of his theory of "Epic Theatre", which he contrasted in 1930 with "Dramatic Theatre" in the program notes for "The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny". The nineteen contrasts he outlined involve many of Aristotle's elements of the theatre.

 

Many people were concerned with the competition between feeling and reason, others were concerned with the plot and how unlike most theatre being linear, "Epic Theatre" was not continuous through time, in fact they were worried about the shows stories being discontinuous, jumping, weaving and curving through time, instead of it being stuck to the of time flowing through perfectly. Brecht saw his characters as alterable, and able to be altered because he said,

"“the human being is the object of inquiry,” and “he is alterable and able to alter.”" (2)   

The Greek word for actor is hypocrites, and there is a great deal of anxiety in modern drama about hypocrisy, the pretence to be someone other than who one really is. Brecht's solution to the actor's potential hypocrisy, was to ensure that the actor was always aware of, and to make audiences aware of, the distance between the actor and the role.

Essentially the term "Epic Theatre" refers to episodic theatre, where the audience is not given incremental storyline, but they are given one that build up in the most usual narrative manner. Instead the audience see a series of possibly unconnected scenes.
 

Brecht was also interested in Chinese and Japanese acting styles, which were not mimetic, which is the imitative representation of nature and human behaviour in art and literature. Or naturalistic, which refers to theatre that tries to create a perfect illusion of reality by the use of a range of dramatic and theatrical strategies. He was interested in these because they were not like traditional western acting styles around the time.