Students in Chelsea Repertory Company Production of:

Voice and Speech

The class focuses on voice for the first 45-60 minutes and focuses on speech for another hour. The voice training helps the actor to eliminate existing throat tensions and covers relaxation, breath support, sound connection, and sound release and then continues with the development of mask resonance, vocal ring, resonance blending, range enhancement, and articulation. The voice lessons then focus on applying the voice to speech and text. At this level, the actor will concentrate on problem consonant and vowel sounds, discover the means to handle difficult prose and poetry (phrasing, inflection, rhythm), and integrate the vocal work of the previous levels.

The speech sessions focus on the elimination of foreign accents and regional dialects by developing Standard American Speech. Using the Symbols of the International Phonetics Alphabet (IPA), the actor learns to correct habitual speech problems and prepare for future dialect study. The results include greater ease with classical and contemporary texts, as well as the ability to undertake a wide variety of theatrical roles.