Man Of Mode was written by George Etherege in 1676. The play is set in restoration London (16th Century). The play is all about Dorimant, the guy who simply sleeps around and gets all the woman (and men!) Mrs Loveit, the character in which I played, was his main lover (or was his main lover at the beginning of the play.) Belinda, Mrs Loveit's best friend, uses this friendship to get with Dorimant. Emilia is also another whose Dorimants charm has taken upon her. Naturally, Mrs Loveit is cross and sets out to make Dorimant jealous by flirting with Sir Fopling Flutter... you get the jist of it...
It's a comedy, but although times have been fun for me as Mrs Loveit, it's been a huge challenge for me. I really didn't want to be casted as Mrs Loveit, she is this feisty, loud character who is quite frankly the complete opposite of me. She is quite often angry and this anger is released onto nearly anyone she comes across, she is a big part to the show and so I was gutted to have been casted her. However, I want to start introducing you to the vocal side of her, something I had the most issues with:
The restoration era was the era of immaculate RP. Everything had to be well pronounced and you were of a really very low status if you weren't well spoken. Mrs Loveit is of a high status, she is talked about an awful lot during the play and is the only 'Lady' to have both a maid and a footman-which is something that just proves her status. So therefore she needed to be extremely well spoken.
With some research into English RP I found a useful website with tips on 'how to speak like the Queen'. http://www.bloomsbury-international.com/blog/2014/09/19/how-to-speak-like-the-queen-received-pronunciationposh-accent/ A short section to this link says how its important to elongate each and every word you say, as that is an easy short-cut into improving your RP. Alot of the other information they have provided via this link is all about learning words to use more often to make you sound more posh; but luckily we have it easy here and simply have the words we need to speak, but its our task to present these in the correct manner.
I found in the weeks of our performances, tongue twisters worked best for me. They became something I was just constantly repeating over and over again to really warm up my mouth as well as my larynx and vocal folds. As Loveit, I have so many lines that need to be spat out at Dorimant but these are all hefty lines that are insulting but also really difficult to get out. So tongue twisters were extremely useful here:
How much wood could a wood chuck, chuck, if a wood chuck could chuck wood.
She sells sea shells on the sea shore
Unique, New York
Red Lorry Yellow Lolly
I found the shorter ones much easier, one because they can be found more repetitve but two because I wanted to be able to say them with pure clarity but at speed because that way it helped more with my Loveit lines. How much wood could a wood chuck etc is my favourite, its become one that I can say without fault at quite speed with it remaining clear. Whilst on the subject of vocal warm ups, running my tongue all around my mouth has to be my second favourite warm up during this entire production. It's obviously the most simplest one which is why I liked it so much and it was something I could be doing as I was literally walking on stage. It would really warm up my mouth and get my tongue stretched. Alongside this I would be doing all weird things with my mouth, as in stretching it in weird directions and opening and closing it etc.
During practise, I made one section of dialogue my point of focus, and this was because I rushed it and stumbled through it every time, when really it needed to be delivered slowly and with thought going into it:
Without sense of love, of honour, or of gratitude: tell me for I will know, what devil masked she were you with at the play yesterday?
This is Loveit, now completely outraged with Dorimant, forcing out the 'masked female' he was with at the play yesterday. At this point she is in full rage and shouting at him, she's so cross because she knows damn well that he was at the play with someone because she believes fully the words of Belinda earlier on in the scene. As well with every other bit of Mrs Loveit, I really struggled with keeping the pace of my speech down to an audible speed but struggled with making sure what I was saying was coming out correctly in the correct manner too. So I'm going to run you through how I taught myself to conquer all the said things, with main focus on this line (although this was just one of all my lines that I struggled with!!)
It's all about pronounciating every letter that you produce, and so that very much meant me spending hours in the mirror saying these lines, making my mouth look ridiculous and then once managing to say these lines correctly, reigning in the funny mouth actions (if possible!!) Although saying that, I found that my large mouth movements suited Mrs Loveit, she was no small actioned lady, so having a large mouth suited her to an extent-ha!
'Without' the word itself has plenty of 't's which are a key area for pronunciation. I found that if I elongated the sound of the 'w' but then separated the two words in order of emotion. So 'with' was said in more of a questioning tone, that way it gave me enough time to pronounce the 'th' sound at the end of it. The 'out' was then said with a much harsher tone, ending on a very harsh finish with the final 't' sound being very prominent. I found that I would often end this word with my mouth in a kind of smiling shape, which is something very much against the meaning of the script, so I would pull my eyebrows in together to make me look more cross, so although my mouth might have looked happy my upper face and eyes said differently. But the smile that my mouth formed after saying this line was an over-emphasised gesture in order to get every letter of the word out correctly. This is something I sat infront of the mirror doing, I wanted to make sure my mouth matched the emotion in which I had to portray (similarly to the smile.) 'Sense' and 'of' for me, are fairly simple words to pronounce, they have no harsh sounds that need to be heard drastically so skipping to the word 'love'. I once again, elongated the 'low' sound to the word, and also found that I deepend my voice here, but in effect for emphasis more than just simply lower my tone. I slammed down my lips as soon as the 'l' sound had been pronounced (almost like you go to chew something quite suddenly) like you can feel your tongue moving more aggressively the quicker you say it. 'Gratitude' again has a lot of 't' sounds in it, I noticed that I was making the 'tit' part of the word seperate to the full word itself. So it would sound more like 'grah-tit-oode' which, the more I thought about it, sounded quite 'cockney'. I slowed it right down and focussed on breaking it down in a more English way. I made sure to cut the line off just as I reached the second 't'. So it became more like 'grahti- tude' So the 'tude' section had a much clearer 't' sound to it. Instead of before it was getting lost. My least favourite section to this line had to be the: 'For I will know'.I understood that it had to be the most confrontational part to the line but I kept elongating the 'will' for too long and it began to sound really particular. But that was something solved quite quickly, instead I began to elongate the 'I' sound. This way, the 'will' could be said more aggressively and the 'I', being drawn out more, meant that it was a clear emphasis on how it was Mrs Loveit proving to Dorimant that she WILL know who this woman was he was with! Again, saying 'will' with this much attention showed my how happy my mouth looked. It looked like an excited face more than angry which is meant to be. Again, drawing in my eyebrows helped me in this situation aha! 'Devil' was just one that I could just add some emphasis to, making the 'd' sound the harshest sound of them all. I don't like the word 'mask' in general, I found it hard to produce the 'k' sound so 'masked' was even harder. I still don't think I managed it all that way, but I just tried to slow it down in order to say it as well as I could.
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| Image 1, Patsy Rodenburg. |
Someone I based my vocal research upon so happens to be the voice expert that is Patsy Rodenburg. As you would expect, from a vocal expert, her voice is perfect. Her articulation and diction clear, and she simply speaks well. In this short clip, I focussed on her voice, instead of the vocal information she is actually giving. She speaks in a high tone, which shows off her enthusiasm for the subject matter. 'About thirty years ago when I started to teach' every 't' sound in this sentence, that starts off the clip, can be heard. They aren't harsh 't' sounds, like some can be, but they are pronounced clear enough to tune into them. She talks slowly, which like I said earlier really does make her sound intelligent (not that she wasn't anyways) But her speech doesn't s
eem slow, because the pauses aren't over exaggerated, they are merely there for her audience to process what she is saying before she continues; which means that she nearly always will have the full attention of her audience. There is the such rarity that she uses verbal pauses, but we can always expect that off anyone purely because its more about how the brain is working before we can speak. But it adds no real effect to how Rodenburg portrays herself with her voice.
So my research started off again into researching articulation, and the ways in which I can improve my articulation. First off, is to speak slowly. That way every correct way in pronunciation can leave your mouth correctly because you aren't rushing through your lines. Speaking slower also gives off a more intelligent voice, which is something Loveit could easily house. During these endless rehearsals, I have been reminded to slow down in order to perfect my articulation, and again looking back on the project, I think this is something that highly improved my voice in the final piece. To avoid verbal pauses in speech, which is something that can lower this status that I have perhaps already created for Loveit. But mainly, it's practise on the text itself that has helped me work on improving my well-spoken character. I have the advantage that I am well spoken already, I am often being told I sound posh but I don't think this had much use to me as Loveit had such an extended version of what I thought was me speaking well. A really key tip that I came across during my research was along the lines of 'read for the ears, not the eyes' they seemed to think the pyscological effect on you as the actor massively improves your voice. I know that this is something that was a huge tip for me when working on my Radio project, however I've been finding it quite useful for ordinary stage work such as Man Of Mode, because it just brings me b ack to reality that the audience are here purely to hear you because the lines you are saying are what the story primarily consists of, so if they can't understand you, its not entertainment for the audience!! http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/business-career/communication/do-you-have-a-radio-voice?page=1
'1. Find a piece of text
2. In a room, pinpoint an object in which you will be addressing your text towards
3. Deliver your text to this object, begin with a whisper, and each time raising the volume/projection of your voice.'
For this, I chose the line: "I like this pretty nice humour of yours Sir Fopling, Oh with what a loathing eye he looked upon those fellows!"I focused my voice to the other side of my room (bearing in mind it is a very small room!!) I stood by my door and projected to the far wall. I began with a whisper, making my words whispy and soft and quiet. I then took it to more of a 'stage' whisper, which is actually considerably different in volume. The stage whisper seemed harder to maintain throughout this line, purely because you have to put more vocal effort into the voice compared to just a normal whisper. I then spoke the line at my normal speaking voice, which is possibly quieter than perhaps what you could label a 'medium volume'. This felt more than natural, as was expected. Although, I did notice I spoke slightly quicker than I had done for the whispered voice. I think this is because I had slipped into my normal speaking habit because I had reached my normal speaking volume. I couldn't label my next volume, but it was perhaps the preferred stage voice for me: think one up from my natural speaking volume. I found this one the trickiest because it felt so unnatural for me (I shall explain more when I get to the next 'volume') But it just felt weird for me to be speaking at a slightly more raised volume. I tried out more lines at this volume, to experiment a bit with it. My conclusion is that because I feel uncomfortable at this volume, I have yet to teach myself to slip into it whenever in rehearsals or on stage.
The final volume is the level I want to reach when playing Loveit (so LOUD) . Surprisingly, I find this easiest. Still stood at the other side of my room, focussing all my voice into the corner of my room, this felt quite natural to me. I have a feeling this is because every time I go in to play Loveit, I have to hype myself up a bit, and so then when I'm on stage, I can be really quite loud and silly, and for me that kind of knocks my low confidence out of the water. However in terms of voice, I think where I have been working a lot on my projection, for the above reasons, recently it suddenly felt really natural for me-despite the fact I was only doing this as a simple vocal exercise.
In terms of the actual exercise I was experimenting with, it was a clever way to help me vocally reach the volume that I needed to reach. It allowed me to observe my voice through my vocal range, and as I raised the volume it felt so much easier for my voice when I reached the preferred volume for the entire play!!
I have really struggled with every aspect of Man Of Mode, from accsessing the anger to pacing up and down the stage to show this anger; but the voice has been just as hard. I don't have the confidence just to experiment with voices, and looking back on it, I regret not making my voice more different! With an awful lot of work alone, I think I reached the correct volume level for Loveit, and in the angry bits they were strong enough to see the anger, but they could've been a lot more louder! My clarity was possibly my strongest bit, the things I said were audible however I still felt as though I was talking too quickly, which is something I shall be working on for longer.
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