| re: Derek Jacobi: Vocal expertise has all but disappeared from the theatre. | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 10:41 am EDT 03/20/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Derek Jacobi: Vocal expertise has all but disappeared from the theatre. - singleticket 10:07 am EDT 03/20/23 | |
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| It's an interesting question. Before the age of amplification, actors couldn't have existed without training their voices to project to the balcony and learning how to make that sound as natural as possible, along with things like how to whisper and still be heard and how to yell without ripping your voice out. But the chances are that we will never again see a professional theatre that exists largely without amplication. So, are those techniques and training simply skills that are no longer necessary? When you're seeing even productions in high schools and community theatres that are amplified these days, it's no wonder that acting students are not learning these skills...they don't need them. I had an interesting experience once working with a semi-professional company in New York some years back. This company was known for producing works that were written before the age of amplification, like Gilbert and Sullivan operettas and classic Broadway titles that fall in to the "old chestnut" category. But their productions would feature a full orchestra, something that's becoming rarer and rarer to hear in New York, and a cast of 40+ performers. Their shows would harken back to the "good old days" in that you had an opportunity to see and hear these shows in ways that were much closer to how they would have been originally presented. There was, of course, no amplification, but those scores were written and orchestrated in such a way that the orchestra worked in concert (HA!) with the voice and a trained singer would not have had an issue being heard. However, the production I worked on was a Broadway musical from the 1990's, well after scores started being written and orchestrated with amplification in mind. And we discovered that, no matter how hard the singers were trying to belt to the back of the theatre, they could not be heard unamplified over the full orchestra playing the original orchestrations. So emergency funds had to be procured at the very last minute to rent mics, just so the singing could be heard. It was no one's fault...it's just that no one thought of it until we were in the theatre with the orchestra. Musicals now are written and orchestrated with the idea that the singers will be amplified and you can't do them any other way, unless you modify the orchestrations. So, things change. I'd like to think that voice training of the type that Jacobi is talking about here will always be necessary, but here's the thing: Jacobi is from another era. The rules that applied then, don't apply so much anymore. I'm not saying that he's past it or his experience is not worthwhile. He's a living legend. But things are different now and different times require different skills. And this is not confined to theatre. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find any industry that works today in the exact same way it worked 50 or 60 years ago. |
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