Vocal warm-ups for non-musicals
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Topic: Vocal warm-ups for non-musicals
Posted By: Guests
Subject: Vocal warm-ups for non-musicals
Date Posted: 10/21/02 at 7:47am
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I'd like to know how many groups use vocal warm-ups before a non-musical show and what you believe the benifits of the warm=ups are. I'm talking about those "chants" the cast does as a group that some believe make them better able to speak clearly and loudly. Some theaters swear by them and others won't allow the actors to do them. Some believe their only benifit is a "pep rally" effect. If you use them, do you just use them before a show or do you use them before each rehearsal, also? Thanks in advance for your input.
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Replies:
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 10/21/02 at 3:54pm
Why the heck would a theatre NOT ALLOW the actors to do them? Even if the only effect is that of a Pep Rally. If it helps to prepare the actors, either physically or mentally, it would seem to be a good thing.
In my current role I need to perform a similar warm up that singers would use as I spend half the show impersonating a woman, and falsetto is tough on the vocal cords. Especially come the Sunday matinae (sp? help!!). Some of the other actors perform breathing excercises, vocal excercises, or just sit quietly while waiting for curtain, depending on individual preference. Before the show we do something called an "energy circle" which seems kind of weird to me; but if it relaxes the others, why not?
Haven't heard of the chants, though.
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 10/22/02 at 7:55am
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Some theaters don't 'allow' the actors to do them because it's a whole cast activity and the entire cast doesn't find benifits in such a warm up (some actors need other types of warm-ups such as to be left alone to immerse themselves in the character). Other don't allow it because it's next to impossible to them keep them quiet behind stage after doing a yelling exercize and it tends to pep people up and some characters are tough to get into after being pepped up.
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 10/29/02 at 8:10am
I definitely believe in warm ups, usually not a pep-rally sort, but things for individual players, like tongue twisters to get your speaking voice warmed up. The most useful exercises involve hard to speak sounds, or sounds that are hard to distinguish one from another, i.e.;
Around the rough and rugged rock the ragged rascal ran.
Red leather, yellow leather.(looks simple, doesn't it?)
A skunk sat on a stump, the stump thought the skunk stunk, the skunk thought the stump stunk. (that's even hard to type)
And my personal favorite:
You know New York, unique New York.
I guarantee that if you use this one, "Yew Nork" will become a usable word in your cast vocabulary!:)
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