Voice in Shakespearean Performance (2008)

Undergraduate: Ryan Millager

Faculty Advisor: Raymond Dooley
Department: Dramatic Art

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How can the voice be used by practicing actors in contemporary Shakespearean performance? In the summer of 2007, I studied with a number of renowned North American voice/acting instructors at Canada's National Voice Intensive. For five weeks, I was introduced to a wide breadth of vocal techniques and performance philosophies by actively practicing the methods with other actors in the program. David Smukler and his team of instructors taught primarily in the tradition of Kristin Linklater, but have also been working to synthesize principles of many different artistic and scientific disciplines, including physical theatre and dance, poetry, spirituality, and physical therapy and anatomy. Dialect work, led by Ian Raffel, centered on Standard North American.

Following the program in Vancouver, I traveled to England to experience Shakespearean voice as an member of the audience. Of the many performances I saw, highlights included King Lear at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and Othello at Shakespeare's Globe.

Since working on Shakespearean performance, I have applied my work to honors thesis research on the use of music in Shakespeare's Cymbeline, which has been a fantastically rewarding long-term experience.