Acting 1- Using the Body

After delving deep into the character's mind and working hard to put across the right messages without being emotionally manipulative, we have now been spending time discussing how to use the voice and body in the most effective way in order to help the character. First, we discussed a lot about the voice. Much of the things we discussed were things I learned in vocal pedagogy as a singer, but it was good to recap and hear things from a different perspective.

Breathing was the first thing we discussed. I feel that is something I need to work on both in my singing and in my acting. I have a difficult time remembering to breathe! I loved the definition our teacher pointed out, that to breathe in means: to inspire. You are literally nourishing your body spirit and inspiring it for whatever needs to be done. As an actor, it is so essential to focus on and learn to breathe correctly. We are forced to breathe natural while under pressure and provide sufficient lung capacity for specific activities and that can be rather difficult. Breath is certainly something that should be studied and analyzed in order to improve the ability of an actor.

Along with breath, an actor should consider learning about, analyzing, and improving resonance, and diction. Resonance is the resounding of vocal sounds. This is what helps us with making any sounds at all. We have three main resonators in our body when it comes to the voice: pharyngeal (throat), oral (mouth), and nasal (nose). The space in these resonators is always changing and it is important to be aware and effective when using them. In order to improve resonance, one must consider relaxation, posture, and a relaxed jaw, creating open access to the articulators.

Diction is another important aspect that must be considered in acting. Without good diction, it doesn't matter much what you say because no one will be able to understand you. In other words, resonance helps others hear you and diction helps other understand you. "Voice produces sound, speech produces language." There are 40 available phonemes or recognizable sounds. It is important to study them and the pronunciation so we can open our ears to regionalisms and create a more realistic character through that.