Gorgeous Avatar by Jules Horne

Hearing Voices - Ros Steen

Ros Steen
Voice & Dialect Coach

I arrive at the Citizens' upstairs rehearsal room to find it alive with sound. OK, so it's a cliche - but for once, it's true. Rich fat notes are pulsing around, harmonics bouncing off the bare walls and tangling themselves in the rafters, undertones growling under our feet... And the source of it all? A lone actor - John Kazek - singing 'ah'.

Voice and dialect coach Ros Steen is part conductor, part magician as she stands at the piano and coaxes pure sound from the actors. Phil Hoffman climbs the scale, and Ros draws his notes in the air, pulling them longer and stronger. At one point, there's a clear shift in power. It's as though Phil's airwaves have suddenly punched clear. His note rings out with a different intensity. Hard to describe, but it's almost spiritual - as though he's an instrument being played by natural forces. Blimey! Ros has turned Phil into an Aeolian harp!

The voice session goes way beyond physical technique, though. Ros also opens up the characters with questions about their world: What's the effect of the countryside on voice projection? Does this accent have a wider expressive range? And - particularly fascinating for a playwright - she brings fierce insights to the dialogue and what's going on emotionally: One character is 'walking on eggshells'. What does that do to the voice? Pauline Knowles reads the text and punctuates it with crunches. We hear her character's hesitant thought processes out loud. It's all about trying out the options. What makes the characters tick and how is that expressed in how they speak? There's a strong affinity between music and dialogue - rhythm, tone, texture - and Ros' work goes straight to the core of that.

Pauline turns out to be an astounding singer, with a voice to make your toe-hairs curl. Sadly, she doesn't get a chance to sing in this play. What a waste! I'm tempted to rush off and write a song especially. It's all part of the eye/ear/gut-opening feel of the day. Ros and her good vibrations have certainly got me thinking.

posted by Jules Horne @ 4/10/2006 08:06:00 PM