Triple - Voice and the Actor - Blog 4 - 29/06/17

Now that I've optimised my voice through a vocal routine, I've decided to put my more dynamic voice to work and play two very different characters and effectively use my voice to display these differences.

The two characters I've chosen are Lou from Dennis Kelly's "DNA" and Deputy Governor Danforth from Arthur Miller's "The Crucible." It's easy to tell the difference between these characters simply from the difference in plays; DNA was published in 2008 while The Crucible was first performed in 1953. Also DNA is a comedy while The Crucible is a tense serious play.

In order to present these character effectively in voice and other aspects, I needed to research them so I had a better understanding of them. Below is my research:

(Note: Lou is also very sarcastic and can be quite mouthy at times but knows his place when someone reminds him)

Below are the vocal qualities I'll apply to each character:

Danforth: Deep voice, sharp consonants, confident, assertive, strong, superior, slow spoken unless angry, well spoken (great articulation)

Lou: Slightly high voice, softly spoken, sarcastic, often weak, speaks fast when panicked, common (not great articulation).