Locating the 'voice-as-object' and 'voice-as-subject' for the entry-level theatre voice teacher

Abstract

In this article we argue that the entry-level theatre voice teacher is confronted in the theatre voice class with a ‘dichotomized voice’ in training, where the physiological and the socio-cultural interweave brain/mind/body to form a sense of a self-reflected whole, through and because of voice usage. In the theatre voice training process, the student’s voice is subject to his or her embodied socio-cultural experience, which impacts on how the voice is produced and used in relation to the sense of self. Therefore the voice-in-training is intimately shaped by the body and embodiment. The student’s voice as gestural routine becomes an auditory marker of his/her identity. The entry-level theatre voice teacher should develop skills to pedagogically and ethically facilitate the training of the ‘dichotomized voice’.