Voice for the Storyteller: Enhancing Your Vocal Potential to Bring Stories Alive
Target Participants:
Open to both novice and experienced storytellers in English who wish to improve their vocal quality
Duration:
2 sessions, three hours per session
No. of Participants:
Min: 8 people; Max: 20 people
Pre-Workshop Preparation:
Please come dressed in loose, comfortable clothing so that you will not feel constricted while doing the various breathing and vocal exercises
Notes for Organisers:
- Please make available a fair-sized room that can easily accommodate all the workshop participants and the facilitator (seated in a circular formation). Please make sure that any other tables and chairs are stored against the wall or outside the room so that the participants have space to move freely about the space when they do the various exercises.
- Please make sure that the room has been vacuumed thoroughly before the workshop. The participants will be doing deep breathing exercises; thus a dusty environment would not be conducive at all.
- Please provide a large whiteboard and pens as well as access to computer/computer projection to show PowerPoint slides.
- Please make copies of hand-outs that will be emailed to prior to the workshop. The hand-outs are to be given to the participants at the end of the workshop.
What’s the point of telling stories when you speak softly or mumble and can’t be heard, or you sound lifeless and dull? Voice for the Storyteller will equip you with the basic skills for vocal projection, speech clarity and vocal versatility, thereby adding life and texture to your storytelling.
Areas Covered:
Session #1: Being Vocally Savvy
• Understand basic vocal anatomy and how voice and speech are produced
• Produce and project your voice effectively
• Improve your articulation
• Learn tips on to achieve and maintain vocal health
Session #2: Developing Expressiveness
• Connect intention and voice to produce more lively and interesting-sounding speech
• Play with pitch/pace/volume and vocal placement
• How to use physical gesture and impulse to develop and sustain character voices
Provisio:
Voice work/training takes time to be imbibed through long practice. Within the duration of this short workshop, I will be raising the participants’ awareness of certain principles of voice work, rather than aiming to effect a permanent change in their habitual use of voice and speech. Nevertheless, the workshop should heighten the participants’ consciousness in such a way that they will be able to subsequently monitor how they use their voice and make some adjustments for more effective voice usage if necessary.
About the Facilitator
Verena Tay has spent more than 25 years acting, directing and writing for Singaporean English-language theatre. She has three published collections of plays and is now working on her debut novel and first volume of short stories. In addition, Verena is an active storyteller-cum-storytelling coach and a co-founder of MoonShadow Stories. Possessing an MA in Voice Studies (Central School of Speech and Drama, 2005) and an MA in English Literature (National University of Singapore, 1993), she has been helping people to improve their communication skills since 2001 and currently teaches voice, speech and presentation skills at various local institutions. For more information about Verena, please visit www.verenatay.com.