Five Sense Rehearsal: Sound
In this rehearsal process, we first start with…
Of course, communicators must be heard, so sound matters. The mic matters, how we use the mic matters, how we articulate matters, our volume and tone matter. But before we find ourselves on the stage or in a heated conversation, we must rehearse.
A rehearsal technique that bakes one layer of life into our communication is to focus on the sound of the words and allow for that sound to inform our performance.
In my early twenties, I was lucky enough to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art with David Perry. He assigned me the scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream where Titania, the Queen of the Fairies, fights with her husband, Oberon, the Fairy King. Thinking myself clever, I decided that as Titania I would be flirtatious, frivolous, and eat red licorice while dangling my legs over the back seat of a settee.
David did not agree with this interpretation and assured me that Shakespeare did not agree either.
“Titania is the QUEEN! She is not frivolous, she is powerful. Shakespeare tells you she is furious!”
“What? I mean how? Where? Shakespeare didn’t write stage directions except, ‘exeunt!’”
“Oh, yes he did. It is in the language. Listen to the sound of the words. They hiss like a snake, then explode, sputter, spit fury!”
Instead of listening to the language, I had layered my own interpretation, which was not organic to the text. David asked that I speak the words clearly and let them show me the way into the character and into the scene.
I’ve highlighted the text by using BOLD CAPITAL letters to show the hissing and exploding langauge.
….. I know
When thou haST STolen away from fairy land,
And in the shaPe of Corin saT all day,
Playing on Pipes of Corn and verSING love
To amorouS Philida. Why art thou here?
Come from the fartheST STePPe of India?
But ThaT, forSooth, the Bouncing Amazon,
Your Buskined miStreSS and your warrior love,
To TheSeuS muST be wedded, and you come
To Bring their Bed joy and proSperiTy?
This week, when preparing for a talk, a conversation, an event, we speak the words, exaggerate the sounds, and listen for the meaning; allow the language and its sound to guide us.
Then, the practice is baked in and we can let it go. We don’t have to think about it again. When we walk into the room, the only things we need to remember are our intentions and to breathe.