Nightswimming Report

 

Experiencing Sprechgesang  – Theatre’s Forgotten Instrument

 

The People in the Room: the researchers and the people they worked with.

 

Susanna Uchatius:  the producing (writer/director) Artistic Director of Theatre Terrific has a deep interest in writing for and creating inclusive provocative theatre with those who have developmental, physical, mental health, language, speech, gender challenges, along with actors with no apparent challenges.  Susanna is one of the researchers.

 

James Coomber:  a composer, musician, music director and sound designer.  He is interested in new forms of music theatre, musicians as actors, and music pedagogy for actors and non-musicians.  James is one of the researchers.

 

Trevor O’Rourke: a classical opera singer who also trained  in Flamenco Cante in Seville and presently sings and plays percussion for local Spanish dance companies. He agreed to participate in this research as a subject.

 

Keiran Naugler: a 20 year old who loves to sing.  He lives with adrenoleukodystorphy (locked in body syndrome) causing extreme difficulty in speaking. Yet, he can sing freely, without the physical struggle required to speak.  He has performed with Theatre Terrific and wishes to continue performing.  Kieran agreed to participate in this research as a subject.

 

The original question we proposed to research, where it came from, and

why that question interested us.

 

The original question was:  Is there a primal element, something missing in our pedagogy of voice practice in performance speaking and singing?  What is that missing something?

Where did that question come from?

 

The initial glimmer that led us to that question was:  How can one use singing as a tool in some way for advanced open natural acting….for pure communication.  For the beginning theatre student, the great task at hand is to speak given text in a natural authentic manner.  As students we practice our lines, do the character work given and speak the text.  Many take this for granted.  There are those with various disabilities such as Kieran, who due to his circumstances (please see the story…The Boy Who Talked at www.theatreterrific.ca), present an anomaly.  He could sing quite clearly, but to talk was extremely difficult for him.  How did that work?  Was there something there that we as vocally able theatre artists had missed?

We had a number of lofty reasons and goals for looking at this question:

#1 – To better understand the voice as a whole entity

#2 – To assist the player and the voice in becoming one

#3 – To establish possible navigational coordinates needed to make this ‘becoming one’   

         possible.

#4 – To support the voice in developing performance and communicative elements that

        perhaps have not been discovered or fully utilized.

 

What we did when we found out that we had been selected for nightswimming research.

 

We jumped up and down and yelled.  Then we panicked.   We had drafted a simplified method of research, but now we realized that  even though we had been granted the ship and the winds to sail it, we were wholly inexperienced as pure researchers.  As theatre artists our goals were always towards production, performance and product.

So what did we do?  We decided we had to become personal.

We decided that we had to create a personal intimate questionnaire for Kieran and Trevor as our research ‘rats’. 

Why did we do that?

Because we were going to be asking them to use a very personal instrument in an intimate studio with us and others as witnesses.  It seemed appropriate to consider the textures of their personal lives, become familiar with the shadings and experiences that would effect such a personal instrument as the voice.  Answering such a personal questionnaire would hopefully give them and us toeholds on the personal signposts into how, when, why, where, what and with whom they personally do or don’t speak or sing. We asked about early years, music, movies, books, singing and songs, sports, places, people and some other stuff.  Trevor filled his questionnaire online. Susanna and James, as researchers, spent a number of hours questioning Kieran.  (Something that we found out and we can see now as extremely relevant; conversation in a group makes it easier to speak ….to sing….. or to communicate at all. )  This may sound stupidly simple, but as one sees later, it is actually quite profound. 

 

We were aware that there are mountains of research on the human voice, but trying to even tickle that seemed daunting, so we came up with the idea of approaching the work in a pure scientific form. James drafted a set of Batch experiments, which included working with known material, unknown material and improvised material. The Experiments included sounding, singing and speaking from a wide variety of contexts and combinations using known, unknown or improvised material. So for example, an experiment might be to sing from a body part using a known song or to talk from an emotional place using unknown provided text and so on.

 

Along with this we also used Susanna’s three part ritual work process.  We were going to start each day with a ritual circle: Enter (done in silence with a stone, this establishes presence and acceptance) and continue on with a physical and voice warm-up and on into the exercises we had planned as part of the Enactment. We would end with an Exit ritual to provide acknowledgment and closure for the day’s work.

We drafted three days worth of this process and entered our first day flush with set procedures to follow.

 

 

Day One Observations and Discoveries

Our first experiment was investigating the voice in the body using known material.  We told the subjects that the focus was their own body with no relationship to anyone else.

We set Trevor and Kieran up on opposite sides of the room, facing away from each other, in an attempt to capture their individual voice experience. As researchers we set ourselves apart, standing separate. We asked them to repeat known sounds such as breathing, gasping, ahhing, etc.  that are familiar to just about anyone. Then we had them face each other and had them laugh like two Santas.  Immediately the relationship changed. The emotion of the laughter became real.  This was heartening.

 

Then, we moved on to text.  Both Trevor and Kieran had known text from movies they loved.  We asked them to speak the text changing the properties of sound by making it quieter, louder, softer, harder, higher, etc.  We asked them to try and include the body in the text meaning that they speak from their big toe or their ear.  This was all very difficult and they both got stuck. So, we asked them to sing songs that they knew….to each other.

First Revelation!

 

We realized that our set assumptions of how to approach voice in correct order--meaning start first with sound, second invite words in and  third, because singing is so huge, leave it to the end--was really dumb! It was the singing that immediately invited relationship, response, connection and opened the voice. We did not realize what we already knew; that the very reason why we were interested in researching the space between speaking and singing is the clear awareness that singing does something to the voice, to the physical body and to the psyche.  Knowing this, we had still set our very first experiment in the traditional format of study: sounding/text first and singing much later.

 

Our first revelation then was that we should trust our own inner knowledge rather than following prescribed pedagogical procedures of speaking first. Now we decided that singing should come first.  We need to have an emotional stake to speak authentically, so let’s sing first.  It  amazed us how ingrained the ‘supposed to’ of practice can become.  Despite wanting to look at different pedagogical ways of voice study, we had inadvertently fallen into the well-beaten path of attempting text first and thereby shutting the door of communicative authentic voice for both Kieran and Trevor.  At the days end James and Susanna gathered at JJ Bean, plotting out the next day’s work and vowed a different approach.

 

Day Two Observations and More discoveries

 

We had decided to break away from the experiments and subsequently listed all the different ways that we communicate in context, meaning when and where we sing, speak and sound.  For example:  Sing a repeated phrase or create the sound to a video or tell a story together.  We numbered them and decided to approach the work with the idea that we would throw in a vocal ‘kink’ that would discombobulate the voicing that was happening at the time. For example, in the midst of a Kieran and Trevor voicing the word hippopotamus together, James and Susanna began singing “Merry Christmas”.  The idea of this experiment was that in society we adjust to what is expected and if that expectation is disturbed perhaps the voice could be joggled and  gain new territory.

 

We were still in the mode of following set procedures and we did get the idea that confusion is good, but it became apparent that we had to break down set procedures and assumptions.  So we made adjustments.

 

We started with singing.

 

We wanted to investigate the different ways that we could communicate singing.  When Trevor and Kieran sang a song together, they did a call and response led by James: we had them speak in call and response, we had them sing with piano accompaniment and without, and we set up a scripted conversation that we initiated.  We chose one word, hippopotamus, and broke it down phonetically and did all of the above with it.

 

All of this seemed to be an exercise in twirling around in endless circles. Nothing formed or took off. It dawned on us that perhaps the researcher and subject relationship was blocking something in the subjects voices. The us and them needed to become the ‘we’. We all needed to step into the work; together.  So all four of us went to the piano and played with pitch and melody together in a conversational way.  Something happened, something let go and slipped open; but at the time we were not aware of what that was.

 

We continued the list of ways to communicate:   greet each other from a distance, repeat machine sounds, create the sound to a video--anything we could think of. In all that working all together; the stupid simple was clarified.

 

Second revelation!

 

Because all four of us did the work together, we found it much easier to navigate with the voice. No one was in the hot seat.  Fear dissipated, risks were freely taken by all, self judgment disappeared and the enormous advantage of the communal aspect of voice became apparent.  As researchers it became apparent that it was a great advantage to take off the lab coats (metaphorically) and get dirty with the subjects.

 

In the afternoon we had planned to attempt a connection with emotions and the voice.

So we briefly reverted back to the lab coats  and asked Trevor and Kieran to have an insult war using sounds.  We thought that they would explode in explicative’s at each other and that the voice would open in gleeful swearing. This did not happen. We failed to see that a personal context; a reason to swear, is necessary.

This lovely blunder turned some lights on.  We asked Kieran and Trevor to share a private personal story.  We hoped that this would raise the stakes and that their voices would become freer and more authentic.

 

Halleluia! They did.

 

That personal stake, that story that was about them, led to a long, full rich authentic voice exchange. We all felt it, even though it was a private hushed conversation. After their personal exchange we asked questions.  Both Trevor and Kieran’s answers were long, detailed and their voices were full and rich. Listening to them, we realized that this experience provided something very different from the previous experiments.  The intimate personal sharing had provided Kieran and Trevor with intense focus, immediate relationship, the opportunity to risk trust, giving and receiving. Each of their voices became freer.

At the end of the day, again James and Susanna went off for a two hour confab on what we had done, what worked, what didn’t, why and what to do on the last day.

 

Day Three Observations and a Major Breakthrough

 

We had asked ourselves, why doesn’t Kieran sing everything?  Then he could make himself understood.

 

We asked ourselves: how much do we need to build/work/support?

 

We started day off with a song, fooled around musically with it and then we talked about favorite movies.  Why did we like that particular one, etc. and then  talked about it together. 

We gathered by the piano, James played and we sang three well known songs: “Mary had a Little Lamb”, “Silent Night” and “White Christmas”.  Then we threw our methods to the winds and jumped off the cliff.

 

We started a conversation about the movies we all loved all to the melody of “White Christmas" that James played on the piano.

 

Major revelation!  %&#??!!!!!

 

We could have gone on forever!  We were all participating equally, having great fun interacting. We discovered that speaking-sort-of-singing our free flowing thoughts to a melody was amazingly freeing. This was Sprechgesang. James stopped playing the piano and the conversation went on and on and on; it was like dancing in voice!

 

What was that!?

 

We stopped and took a break.

 

When we returned, we again sat around the piano and James played. We changed the song to one that Trevor had more of a connection with, a Spanish melody.  Our talk/sing, spechgesang conversation became even deeper and more personal.  We were not confined to the happy tone of “White Christmas” but rather followed the tone of Trevor’s chosen melody. 

Then we got Kieran involved. 

 

James began to play single notes on the piano, such as a single c-sharp so there was no pressure for melody or some set musical expectation.

 

The voice, the world of Kieran and ourselves opened, simply, like warm water over ice.

 

James played random notes...we continued talk/singing….without any set musical ideas….instead our voices became something between singing and speaking…..it was not restricted to the idea of melody and it also was released from the strictures of speaking.  Our voices lived somewhere in the space between talking and singing.

 

James: Kieran, can I ask youuuuu…is this haaaaard?

Kieran:  Noooooo

James:  Howwwww does it maaaaake you feeeeel?

Kieran:  I feeeeeel like I’mmmmm normal.  What noooote is that?

James:  It’s a Beeeee-flat

 

On and on it went.  It was like the flood gates had opened and we were riding the waves of Sprechgesang.

 

Compared to any other time any of us had ever had a conversation with Kieran, this was the most detailed, lengthy and full cup of Kieran we had ever heard.

 

What was that all about and why was that important?

Kieran, and we with him, had accessed that place between singing and speaking.  It seemed as if that space is a huge storage vault. It’s full of emotional events, connections, memories, personal heritage, beliefs, confusions, fears--just about everything that makes you, you.  When you are voicing in that space you release your judges, you are swimming in waters of your own universe and there is no such thing as error. It is your personal vocal fingerprint…..or coining a new word - vocalprint.

 

What do we do with this discovery?

 

Some possibilities:

 

- The next step could be that if in a class situation you could access and share personal emotional events, thoughts or ideas…it could be as simple as what movie do you like and why… using a talk/singing voice. In that sharing, there may be a release of the normal social academic strictures that possibly hamper the voice supporting an authentic emotional stake in the text.

 

- Perhaps, taking that first text that you are asked to learn in theatre class, and using sprechgesang in the learning would allow the student to access his/her own truth in that text.

- Is there a way to develop your own unique melody/sprechgesang as individual as the way you walk, the way you dress, the way you laugh, etc?  Could a person have their own unique ‘vocalprint’ that would bring rich tones and shadings to voices and the characters they speak for on stage?

 

- Would using sprechgesang alter how we perceive what is correct in speaking and singing?  Meaning, that perhaps the great differentiation of voice in sprechgesang could open huge untraveled vistas of voice in the art of theatre?

 

- “I cannot sing” is a phrase said by many an actor or anyone else for that matter, but few would say, “I cannot talk.”  Would it not be of great interest to actively pursue the space between the two?  It seems it is a major excavation  or cave that is a part of our voice.  It appears to contain immense riches and yet is not given the credibility or respect of thorough exploration. For the performance student; to navigate and experience that space is to better know who they are and what we can do with their instrument.

 

Susanna, James, Trevor and Kieran went through quite a process in this three day journey.  Kieran had presented a question that we wanted to answer. We applied to nightswimming, got it and then realized we didn’t know how to do pure research.  We formulated a concise scientific process, started with it and quickly realized that we didn’t even know the terrain we were traversing.  The joy in this is that we were in a sort of sprechgesang.  We had no judges, no terms of loyalty to a production, no set rules other than showing up with a plan of sorts, no goals to meet or specific outcomes asked for.  We learned that we had jumped into the deep end and it was up to us to find out where we were, where we were going, how to get there and just about everything else. It allowed absolute freedom.  We discovered more than we ever thought possible. If theatre is to develop and discover new vistas of method and process; the format of nightswimming is a tool of enormous worth.

 

We offer a short coda from the researchers, Susanna and James.

 

What Filled Susanna’s Cup at the End of an Incredible Journey.

Doing pure research in theatre seems an anomaly in some ways.  How does one research something as ethereal and esthetically eclectic as the diaphanous wind of theatre making?  Making theatre is all about building something from nothing; it’s all very like this and not like that or like that and not like this.  Everyone has a different take, like or dislike, truth or falsehood.  Yet, despite all the opaqueness, I have always believed that we are born with an innate ability to recognize authenticity. As we grow older, our ability to voice that authenticity becomes blurred by self and social judgment. 

 

As Artistic Director of Theatre Terrific I have the honor of working with a fantastic range of different forms of authenticity. For many people who do not fit into the ‘normal’ picture of walking, talking, thinking, speaking, singing person, the very negotiation of their difference has carved a path that is uniquely authentic in its own right.  Voice is one of the great divides for many.  From the observations of this incredible journey, it would seem that the place in our voice between singing and talking is a hidden connector, a tunnel, a cave, a library, gravity-free, an ancient tablet, and above all, a mutual meeting place where anything is possible and acceptable. 

 

Having just peeked inside for a mille-second, I feel as if I have looked into the Chauvet Caves of southern France, where mysterious pristine drawings dance on the walls. Kieran and Trevor both showed us voice and for a mille-second I experienced my own voice that didn’t live in the correctness of its sound but rather in the authentic free space, open meadow that must be sprechgesang.  I want to go there and I want to support others going there because I think that there are riches beyond imagination to hear in the voices that venture the journey. I am immensely grateful for the rousing revelations, in just three days!

 

James………

I'm always fascinated at the moment when words are transformed into song... suddenly a character, a person, a relationship, a moment, is charged with an inexplicable depth of possibility.  I'm also fascinated with how easily we shy away from the territory of singing... the hidden rules an expectations we accept without any questions at all.  What I'm walking away with from our research is a way to stumble through the roadblocks of the voice, into a place between places that is challenging and rewarding.

 

It simultaneously captures the individual and creates an unspoken bond within the group... a sung bond of sorts that forces the participants to be fully present, and risk a lot in the moment, all for a stronger sense of communication.  It's an exciting place... and I'm humbled that I was given the chance to dive in and find some further questions and possibilities.