Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2009 21:27:53 -0500
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: [Puptcrit] voices


In the thread about narration the topic of voices came up.  I would
like to throw this thought out again.  Author, Jane Yolen,  wrote a
book about reading to children wherein she suggests not putting on a
character voice or getting too into accents of the characters for it
can be distracting and call too much attention to itself.  She
suggests going half way between your own voice and the character voice
you imagine.   My own experience when I read to my kids was that they
were very irritated when I got into "voices" for each character or the
narrator.  I know that reading to kids and putting on a puppet show
are two different things, but voices can definitely go too far.  You
have all witnessed it where the voice overpowers the character.
Finding your own speaking voice can bring alot of authenic power to
your performance.  There are a lot of things you can try.  Performing
involves a lot of energy and nerves  and often stress if your are
setting up up to the last minute.  This can take your pitch up
slightly and speed up your speech. It is helpful to take a deep
breathe and relax.  A vocal warm up can help to.  humming and finding
the resonance in your voice letting your pitch settle down.  Exploring
voices is great but it can also send you into deravations of famous
puppet voice like muppet characters or TV personalities.  Each puppet
character can show you its own voice and be your own unique creation.
Coming on strong from the start can impose a voice on that character.
This is why starting from your own unique natural performing voice can
be helpful.  I met Caroll Spinney years ago at the Vancouver festival
where we spent an afternoon together in a public setting.  I was
amazed at how  much his natural speaking voice sounded like Big Bird
and Oscar, so much in fact that people around who had no idea who he
was would look around hearing a voice that they recognized.  Of course
they looked right past him because the puppets weren't there for them
to put the pieces together.  Those characters grow out of his natural
speaking voice.  There are amazing puppeteers who are masters at
voices, David Simpich, comes to mind.  He can perform juggle a dozen
unique voices at once, several of them distinct womens  voices which
is uncanny.  If I try that,  it is unconvincing and probably
irritating so I'm safer keeping it closer to my own voice.  I listen
to a lot of book tapes where  well into the book I will realize that
it is a man speaking for all of these women characters but my
imagination has made the leap.  I think it is so for performing puppet
voices, especially when getting started.  Consider George Guidall's
narration of Harry Potter.  It is basically slight variations of his
natural voice for all the characters.
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