An Essential Tool for the Actor

So this has never happened to me before... I lost my voice. Yep it went bye, bye and left me with little to work with.

This took me back to my first day of orientation at Cornish and the Freshman voice teacher Ellen Boyle (who later became a good friend and mentor) had lost her voice because she had spent the weekend protesting against the killing of Canadian Geese in one of Seattle's many parks. So she had been screaming at the top of her lungs trying to scare the geese away so they wouldn't be killed. Honestly, when she first told the story I thought it was a little weird, but she was passionate about her cause and I respected that. She told us about how profound it was to lose her voice, since as a voice teacher she relies on it so much. I really didn't understand what she meant until this week.

I mentioned how last week I was experiencing the "Death Plague" and it's reach was farther than just the fever, chills, cough and phlegm. The cough was so powerful that I seriously damaged my vocal folds and it was very hard for me to talk. I was not fully "on-voice" for a few days. All you got out of me what whispy sounds that resembled words.

What made it a profound experience for me was when I was in rehearsal with the Watch cast. Normally if I'm talking about an actor using their voice is a weird way I will demonstrate, because a visceral experience is always more informative than me just telling them about it.

Well I couldn't demonstrate at all. What a punch to my gut!

My voice and speech has always been there for me, it was something I excelled at in school (with the exception of keeping my soft palette lifted) . And, no, I can't sing; just for the record. I always took for granted that my voice would be there, even if I hadn't warmed up fully, it was there and usable. I had control over this, my vocal choices were always the first choices I made as an actor once I learned how to harness my tool. Learning about my voice and exploring and using it made me a better theatre artist.

Well I'm on the mend and my voice is slowly but surely coming back, I'm not trying to baby it, but I'm also trying not to overwork. I just hope things didn't change too much in the past week.

Your voice is how you let the world know you're there. I don't know what I'd do if I lost it.