The very first impression an audience receives, and judges, from an actor or a speaker comes from the body.

• Is the body tense?
• Is the movement flowing or rigid?
• Are the hands hidden?
• Are the eyes down?
• Is the circle of energy this body produces small or filling the whole room?

An audience immediately responds on a subliminal level, – liking the person or not, trusting the person or not, fearing the person or not – depending on what energy the body is transmitting.

I often ask my actors to do their monologues without words.  It is surprising to see the amount of energy that is suppressed when we rely just on words.

What should we know about the body and the energy emitted?

Are you rooted in the ground like a confident tree? (See EXERCISE below.)

Is your energy filling the space and moving from you to each person you speak to?  Are you willingly receiving the energy flowing back to you?

Do you know how to soothe – (float energy out over the audience), command attention (radiate energy out), and embrace (radiate energy by surrounding the audience with it)?  Energy is something every actor and speaker must learn to master effectively in order to fully realize the extraordinary communicator within.

Patsy Rodenberg speaking of energy in

Three Circles of Energy

First Circle is the Circle of Self and Withdrawal and although useful at times for moments of introspection and reflection, if you live mainly in this circle you will be limited, your passion for life will be dulled and you are shy.  You will also tend to absorb other people’s energy to try and compensate and therefore you will be rather a draining person to deal with – I can think of several of my students who are like this and if I am not careful they can wipe me out by the end of the lesson!  First Circle energy will also not be enough for a performer to be effective.

Third Circle is the Circle of Bluff and Force where energy is outward moving and non-specific – people who operate mainly in this circle are self-centered but in a different way.  They want to be the centre of attention – we have all come across people like this at parties and all that energy which they push out has the effect of making us switch off.  Third Circle operators are in fact using this way of behavior as a shield to protect themselves.  They do not receive any energy from the world as they are alone, fighting to control life and perceived by people around them as arrogant and over-bearing.  In singing these performers tend to push the voice out there using too much energy and the audience hit by this barrage of sound does not listen with rapt attention.  In teaching, these are the students who march into the room with an over-inflated sense of self-confidence and do not listen.  Again these people are exhausting to deal with.

Second Circle is The Energy of Connecting.  People who operate in this circle have real presence.  People who operate in this circle give out energy but also receive it back.  These are the performers who literally change our lives when we listen to them.  You feel they are connecting directly with you personally even although you may be one of a very large audience.  They connect.  These students are the ones who give back energy to you and we emerge from our studio feeling as if we have not been working at all.  If only all our students could be like that, we say.

EXERCISE:

Grounding yourself in your breath, in your body.

Place one or two hands against a wall, and then exert a little pressure on the wall.  Keep your shoulders and upper chest free and unlocked, with your weight on the balls of your feet and your heels on the ground.

Maintain this pushing pressure and breathe in and out calmly.  The breath should be low and you will feel a synchronized breath and support as your push.

In this way you will feel when you are losing support and need to inhale.  This inhalation will come easily if the breath is silent and low in the body.

When you come away from the wall, you will feel more connected to your breath, yourself, and the world.

This free and flexible breath places you in the moment and can then serve your physical, emotional, and intellectual needs.  The more you breathe naturally, the more present you will be.

Barbara Kite is a professional Acting Coach and Executive Speaking Coach as well as Keynot Speaker in Portland Oregon.

www.barbarakite.com

Of course there is so much more to proper speaking but this is a BIG ONE.  Mostly I want actors and speakers to know that “speaking on the breath” is an important technique to master in order to be heard and understood. Two attributes necessary for your story/message/intent to get across to the audience.

From the Desk of MaryMac, Dialect Coach

Hello All,

Recently a discussion about “vocal fry” (also called “glottal fry”) came up on the international dialect coach listserve I hang out on. This is a sound I often hear in actors, especially younger ones.  I thought the comments on the list were worth repeating, so I’m passing them to you here unedited.  I find this stuff fascinating… hope you find it interesting, too!

Happy Sunday,

PS  For an hilarious example of vocal fry, among other modern communication failures, go here at the 1:00 mark if you don’t want to watch the first bit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJ51BNYXbV4 (Caveat: It’s the work of the fabulous Louis CK so be forewarned that it is fecund humor at the front end).

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quick fixes – fry

(1) refill breath more often
(2) use slightly higher average pitch, [ teacher's cue: "stay above the gravel zone"]

My quickest demo is to start at normal conversational level, explaining:

glottal fry occurs when one runs out of energy but then keeps talking and talking on empty and then it kinda makes sense to drop energy further in order to keep going and pretty soon I’m out of breath completely but as you see I haven’t refilled yet and I’m into glottal fry by now but I could really keep going for quite a while….

Improvise your own text you get the idea and you’ll get a laugh or two but I’m gonna go breathe now

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Just add some more words to the sentence.

I’m going to the stor…rrrrrgghhhhhhhhhhhh

becomes:

 I’m going to the store to get some apples and cheese

and then they hear themselves fully saying the final word and can then delete the extra words.

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I’m not keen on asking people to listen to themselves, but I think that many chronic fryers have no idea how much they are doing it. By recording and listening back they might notice. Also, with a partner, have the partner merely lift a finger every time their partner drops into the fry-zone. This also works with uptalk? So people can notice that they’re doing it?

I think that a little knowledge about the need for breath in order for there to be “flow phonation” can be helpful ”that there is value in letting breath in because it gives “breath energy”, “gas in your tank” that you can speak on.

I suspect that many young women (typically with “soprano” speaking voices) use vocal fry because they don’t want to sound “strident” (or some other negative judgment of their higher than average voice), but don’t have many low notes in their range to access for the end of their thoughts. So the combination of uptalk (which allows them to stay in modal vibration) and fry (which allows them to go lower than they are currently capable of doing) “works” for them. To bastardize Maya Angelou: They do what they do when they know what they know. Our job is to help them know better, so they can do better.

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Interesting hypotheses!

My speculation on the phenomenon has been that young women know they’re supposed to sound powerful/authoritative, but absent any real connection with body/resonance/expressive-range/belly-power, and with severe self-perceived pressure to keep tummy empty/small, best they can find is very low pitch skating @ edge of fry.

For young men with similar sound, I wonder if low-energy voice signals cool/unaggressive/ version of modern masculinity—a vocal “slouch” showing membership in the we-don’t-take-ourselves-too-seriously-even-when-depressed fellowship.

Or, those might have been the sociolinguistic processes 10-20 years ago; by now the low pitch + inner emptiness (rib-squeeze, in Catherine Fitzmaurice’s parlance) is simply the normal accent of a generation. As others have said, there is zero awareness of fry as abnormal or unhealthy, even when they’ve come to see me because of muscle fatigue!

+++++

What they need is more breath support to avoid vocal fry. The fry happens because their is not enough airflow, so the vocal folds meet at irregular intervals, making the sound more “choppy” as they descend below their phonation threshold – below the amount of energy needed to vocalize at that pitch. We need more breath support at lower pitches, which is why we go into fry at the end of a phrase (especially true for American speakers with the line-ending drop that is so very American!)

Adding words at the end of their current phrasing tends to extend their support, as someone already mentioned. (I tend to use “, okay?” as my old standby.)

You can also add more support at the end of the phrase itself. If they know what support is, maybe you can just give that note, but if they don’t get the concept yet, try adding a physical action that causes more support: bend the knees towards a squat, press down on something, lift something heavy, press against the wall, etc.Be careful about having them start at a slightly higher pitch because they may not hear the “slightly” part and start pitching up overall. What they really need to do is to fill out the low end of their range with support!

Barbara Kite is a professional acting coach and an executive speaking coach based in Portland Oregon. www.barbarakite.com

 “What valuable piece of advice (looking back) would you pass on to the younger members of the groups?   Patience would be mine.”

As promised I have done my very best to summarize and put it all in my blog

because someone said:

“Within a forum like this, it is equivalent to having a knowledge base at your finger tips, in a “cliff notes” form. We all benefit from the thinking of many which may help clarify our own thoughts, bring new insight to us, and give us an opportunity to learn tools and techniques of others to benefit our business and performance.

What we have available here you can’t pay for, the words and wisdom of many all with the same interests. This is powerful.”

 MARKETING:

This is a truism I can testify to from more than three decades as a professional speaker: you are in the marketing business. If that works out, your reward is the privilege of speaking in front of audiences all over the world.

You must be willing to spend at least a few hours a day calling, writing, and connecting with potential clients (and communicating with previous clients.) The business of the speaking business is as vital to your on-going success as developing “your voice” and refining your skills in the “art of speaking.”

You should spend 50% of your time marketing–EVEN when you’re booked solid!

 Keep your eyes open to new opportunities and be willing to let go of old patterns of behavior and thinking. Be willing to try new ideas.

What is your mission? Define your goals. And remember Integrity and Tenacity.

AUTHENTICITY AND STORIES:

The personal is powerful.

Be authentic. The audience really connects to you when you are authentic and committed to them and their needs.

Being authentic brings an emotional connection that bonds you and your listeners.

I agree with the authenticity comments but you must be a true professional who an audience can respect as someone with exceptional platform skills while at the same time being so down to earth that they feel they can relate to you. They may be motivated temporarily by a slick canned message, but the lasting impact will come from the person who they feel truly “gets” where they are and has possibly even been there too. Hours of preparation for each individual audience, makes this appear “natural” and makes a speech become a conversation with each person in their own mind.

 Engage your audience with a story or example to which they will personally relate. It will draw them in and keep them interested.

Audiences respond to emotion. You can intrigue them with statistics and logic…but you can only MOVE them with emotions.

You are only as good as your stories. Develop your stories and learn to tell them. Listen to great storytellers and develop an understanding of why you like them as storytellers. Learn by doing.

Learn how to interact with your audience, make eye contact, improvise, and go off on tangents as appropriate. 

Never speak AT an audience. : converse with your audience; invite reactions, even if the audience is too big to be able to allow people to speak

LISTENING, and much more:

Practice extreme listening.

Validate the questioner when a question is asked.

When others see you take the risk for the right reasons, it provides support and “permission” for them to take the risk with you.

Always start preparations by asking, how can I serve this audience?

Approach each presentation as if for the first time.

 Focus, focus and focus again.

Live in the Moment and Be in the Moment.

Enunciate clearly Collaborate!

You learn much quicker and have way more fun working together with like-minded people. I wish someone had told me that sooner.

Remember that everyone you meet is your client: the drive through clerk at the fast food restaurant, your bellman at the hotel, the janitor at the convention center. Everyone is your client

“Whether you think can or think you can’t, you’re right.”  HenryFord.

Barbara Kite is an Executive Speaking Coach, a Professional Acting Coach and a keynote  speaker who resides in Portland, Oregon www.barbarakite.com

I am currently a third of the way through a 18 week course in Vocal Work  for Actors (not singing – speaking) and it is amazing.   I am reminded of the huge importance of the speaking voice and  I have been reflecting on how many of my clients need this kind of work.

Y0u want people to be attracted to your voice so they will listen to what you have to say.  And I find so many speakers with shrill voices teaching speakers to speak but I never hear of them teaching vocal work.  There are so few good teachers in that area.  We happen to be very lucky in Portland Oregon where Devon Allen who was taught by Ceciley Berry of the Royal Shakespeare Company and has years of experience teaching and using these methods in her work as a director and actress.  She taught workshops in New  York to lawyers, improving their vocal quality, as well as actors in Londong and New York.

Breathing and daily exercising the diaphragm and speaking on the breath and  ennunciating using all the muscles, in your face and so much more, are part of our work.

What a difference it makes to speak with diaphgramatic support instead of  from the upper chest where it is shallow and quite and thin.  The difference of unpleasant and appealing. 

I’ll be sending information in the next couple of months about a very special workshop just for public speakers.

For the time being let’s hear about your vocal challenges and maybe they can be addressed in this blog.

Barbara Kite is an Executive Speaking Coach and a Professional Acting Coach who resides in Portland, Oregon www.barbarakite.com

SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKER, DEVON ALLEN,

 EXPERT VOCAL COACH WILL BE TALKING ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF YOUR VOICE AND HOW TO BEST USE IT.

Speakers with Authenticity and Acting Skills always have the EDGE.

  SPEAKING   is like a  performance -   

                      you need heightened energy,

             authenticity

                                                      and   great story telling skills

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 I challenge you to try something distinctly NEW and more fully embrace untapped areas of your IMAGINATION, creativity, authenticity and power through COMMUNICATION coaching (media/public speaking/ presentation) BY AN EXPERT(30 yrs of training and experience) IN HER FIELD WHO GUARANTEES RESULTS.After over 30  years of experience teaching acting, I have learned a truth -you are far more creative, COURAGEOUS and capable than you can possibly imagine, and I can prove it.bmkite@aol.com  503-423-7437

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GREAT SPEAKERS AND ACTING SKILLS WORKSHOP

 

 

FIVE HOURS

 

 WORK ON SPEECHES,

 

INTRODUCTION TO ACTING SKILLS

NEEDED FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING SUCCESS.

 

 

FRIDAY, November 6, 2009

 

 

10 am to 4 pm (1/2 hr break)

 

 

300.00 PER  PARTICIPANT

 

 

LIMITED TO 6 PARTICIPANTS ONLY!!

 

 

PERSONAL ATTENTION TO YOUR NEEDS WILL BE EMPHASIZED!

 

 (see www.barbarakite.com for more information)

 

 

UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIAL

 

 

September 7, 2009

 

 

 You can learn a lot about the fine art of public speaking from Barbara Kite.

 

In doing my LinkedIn research on the topic, I came across Barbara’s website and blog. Her blending of acting techniques into the coaching mix is a piece that I found intriguing.

 

I walked away from our initial telephone conversation with some practical tips that I could apply immediately to my keynote preparation.      

 

  She is a highly skilled orator and well-studied thespian with keen insight into the process of engaging an audience.       I recommend Barbara to anyone wishing to take their public speaking and their communication in general to the next level.”

J.D. Gershbein

 

Barbara Kite is an Executive Speaking Coach and Professional Acting Coach as well as  Keynote Speaker in Portland Oregon www.barbarakite.com

Do not push, do not try to hard, do not invent.

 But be open, be vulnerable, be willing to see and seize opportunities that arise, do not deny what happens or what you feel.

Denying will lead to inner stress and outer manifestations of tension.

Go with The Flow.

Lastly accept everything, decide what is within your control and what is not. Focus on those things that you have power to change and influence and you will be happier and more at ease with yourself.

from Mark Westbrook’s Acting Blog http://acting-blog.com/

Barbara Kite is an executive speaking coach and a professional acting coach in Portland ORegon.

My Acting Coach would say you need to get their attention, shock them and change their perspective.

And although this clip doesn’t shock, I found it reminded me that I’m playing it safe and moved me to remember that in America we avoid the big emotions.  What else do we stay away from?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gQ31m4Yt0s&feature=related

Chavela Vargas – La Llorona (Video Clip)

Just another reminder through art, that I need to daily shake myself out of my every dayness.

Just another reminder that as a speaker, I need to challange myself.  A reminder that I’m not using all of me to succeed in my work .

Barbara Kite is an executive speaking coach and a professional acting coach, as well as a keynot speaker, based in Portland Oregon. www.barbarakite.com