Vocal lesson.

As we had previously focused on our movements, we decided to focus on our vocals for this lesson. We decided to continue focusing on our character from our monologues. Although we all had learnt our monologues fully, a lot of us realised that we didn't truly understand our characters- we didn't have a clear 'voice' for them inside our heads. Because of this, we decided to focus on our characters and tried to create a deeper understanding of how they speak and think.

To do this, we split off into groups of 3 and one by one, told the others who our characters were and how we originally felt the spoke. Originally, I believed that my character was well-spoken and was brought up well. I thought this because; although h my character has mental-health issues, she never addresses them and they are almost not spoken of. Throughout the play, we see her decline into a deeper state of illness, however, she never addresses her illness and doesn't seek out a doctor or help for her state. Moreover, I believe that she is was taught as a child to be well-spoken. I think this because she seems to use curse words as a 'last resort' . Se only uses them when absolutely necessary, and her 'worst' swear word is- 'bitch'. Also, even when she is extremely distressed, she still remains polite and well-spoken. Because of these factors, I believe that me character is rather 'posh' and had a traditional upbringing.

I told my group this and we all agreed on her upbringing. However, my group had the idea that I could perhaps play with the idea of my character having an accent. The accent in particular would be upper class, Australian. Although I struggle doing accents, I tried to vocalise this specific accent. To do this, I listened to recordings of the Australian accent and focused on how different it was from mine. Whilst doing this, I realised that there are many slight differences between the accents themselves. For example, Australians appear to speak at a much faster pace and also 'drop' vowels and letters to increase the speed of their conversations.

I took all of this into consideration and attempted an Australian accent with my character. Although I like the effect it had on my character (it made her seem more nervous and made my monologue more interesting), I am not very good at the accent itself and believe that it wasn't very believable. However,  I will continue to try and develop this accent. For now, my character remains a well-spoken, upper classed Brit.

Overall, I believe that this technique was effective as it made me think about my character and her voice in more detail. I fell like I know and understand my character more now.