Five Women

Saturday I saw the matinee performance of Five Women Wearing The Same Dress. Because the play was performed in the round it was especially important that the actors spoke to be heard by the entire audience, even when they were facing away. I felt that Abigail-Rose Nakken and Bailey Smith, who played Mindy and Georgeanne, were especially good at making their voices heard in a natural way. Tiffani Allen, who played Frances, seemed to have difficulty at first balancing being heard with her character’s seeming timidity. In the second act when the character becomes first more outspoken and emotional and later more comfortable with the other characters she improved. Overall, although there were a few moments when I had trouble hearing the dialogue, the actors did well at communicating emotions vocally.

     I had a lot of trouble the first time we were raising the middle of the tongue in class. It was very difficult to keep my jaw from controlling the movement. I repeated the exercises the next day and when we met again for class I was surprised to see that there was actually already a big improvement.

     It has been interesting to me to take the things I do every day without thinking, how I am standing or breathing or moving my tongue when i speak, and really consider why I do it that way and what I am trying to accomplish. I’ve been surprised to see the effect these things have on the sounds that I make.

One thing that I’ve noticed this week is that it has becomes a lot easier for me to drop into a state where I can observe what my body is doing. The last couple of class periods this happened almost as soon as class began. It is almost like flicking a switch and I become very relaxed and aware.

Something I have been having difficulty with is feeling self-conscious during some of the exercises. Even though everyone else in class is doing the same thing I still feel a little awkward but I am working on pushing through this feeling.

I have also noticed that whenever I speak throughout the day I begin to think about what my body is doing and where my voice is originating from. It’s not something I ever really thought about before.

Observations for voice and diction

One thing that I have noticed is that it is difficult for me to not be distracted by little things but there were times I felt very focused. Even the sound of horns in the building seemed to disappear in those moments and I was able to give all my focus to my breath and what my body was doing. I also had trouble standing still but those moments I was so focused that I didn’t even have to think about that.