Phonetic Pillows

The Phonetic Pillow approach to speech reflects my conviction to train actors as sensualists who passionately, incisively, viscerally, bring the playwright’s words to life, driving the action of the play and causing the listener to identify and empathize. I find written phonetic symbols an incomplete, unsatisfactory tool to accomplish this type of training. One dimensional phonetic symbols, printed on paper tell our eyes what sounds they represent, tell our ears what sounds we are expected to utter, but make little or no appeal to our imaginations, or, indeed, our bodies (aside from our articulators). In an effort to bring phonetics into the same physical world as other performance classes I have worked with student actors for many years on ways to get the symbols to jump from the page, enter our bodies and demand us to express them. The greatest dramatic story-tellers, from William Shakespeare to Caryl Churchill require us to have much more than a good ear for language; they write for and from the sensorium; the entire body of nerves that stimulates sensual response. Their writing challenges actor and audience alike to vibrate with ideas, conflicts and passions form head to toe. The Phonetic Pillow course aims to teach the actor to be ultra-verbal: to simultaneously experience language in tactile, auditory and imagistic ways; indeed, to savor the tastes and smells of language.

The inspiration for Phonetic Pillows is Kristin Linklater’s Sound & Movement progression, which traces language from the most primitive impulse to Shakespeare’s heightened texts. Using various games, some borrowed from Llinklater, I introduce students to the International Phonetic Alphabet, in the form of symbol-shaped pillows. Preliminarily, I propose that each pillow actually vibrates with the sound it represents, and further, that these sounds have the power to move the bodies of the students. With this initial, imaginative leap, students see, touch, and give expressive voice and physical gesture to each phoneme. The work is at once, emotive and precise, analytical and action-based. I don’t ask students to model the shapes of the symbols with their bodies, but, rather, to allow their bodies to be moved by sound itself. You might say to abstract sounds in their bodies. But they don’t merely splatter sound around the room; they use sound as a fuel to fulfill the desire to communicate.

In the early work, the studio comes alive with a cacophony of raw sounds, as students randomly encounter phonetic pillows and express the sounds to each other. But out of chaos comes order as the pillow exercises continue, students fine-tune articulation with a profound interest in the precise formation and unique characteristics of each phoneme. The ear is trained, but never at he exclusion of the other senses. In fact, I often instruct students to feel the sound rather than hear it. Because Phonetics is actor’s work, it is, necessarily, playful. The process, often fun, is also extremely demanding of the voice and body. It is an arduous, exhilarating adventure in which the student re-experiences language with an infant’s acquisitive curiosity. It is a rediscovery of the myriad sounds that, in earliest life, twitched, shook, rolled and twisted through the body. The Pillow class also addresses the conventional requirements of a Phonetics course, such as sound/symbol identification and phonetic transcription. There are specific pillow games for exploring and rehearsing texts, and for analyzing and acquiring dialects. Ample time is spent alternating between the physical experiences with pillows and writing down what the body remembers. In a typical session, the students use pillow exercises to warm up the voice/body connection, transcribe, in detail, their own speaking patterns and those of other people , practice reading their transcriptions aloud, and then, with renewed curiosity, dive back in to the visceral phonetic pillow games. Thus, they practice technical skills within the playful, imaginative milieu of the acting studio. By the end of the course, the student is primed to claim ownership of the language patterns demanded by playwright, character or dialect.

In addition to training acting students, I often give Phonetic Pillow workshops for teachers. Participants include college and university voice and speech teachers and occasionally, those in related fields such as speech therapy, speech pathology and secondary education. Dozens of professional training programs own a set of Phonetic Pillows. The books, “The Joy of Phonetics and Accents,” which outlines the approach, and “Bringing Speech to Life,” the accompanying workbook have been adopted by many teachers over the years. Teachers have reported many positive outcomes for their students, including, an accelerated time frame for learning phonetic symbols, an increase in retention of the symbols, an increased connection to and vitality for language and a greater enthusiasm for the subject. Phonetic Pillows are handcrafted, and must be either custom ordered or homemade. Many schools have persuaded their costume shops to do the job.

Phonetic Pillow Teachers

Joe Alberti (08)

Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY

Joe Alberti is a designated Linklater voice teacher. He is certified in Louis Colaianni’s approach to phonetics and dialects. He currently serves as a visiting Professor of Acting, Voice and Verse in the Syracuse University BFA Acting Program. He has directed over 60 plays. The knowledge he gained from his Master’s Thesis at the University of Texas at Dallas, Stanislavski’s Method of Physical Actions Applied to Moliere’s The Imaginary Invalid, has greatly served his work as director over the years. He also has a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Dallas. The subject of his dissertation, based on his work at the Yale School of Drama, is the acting methodology of Earle R. Gister. In collaboration with Mr. Gister, he has turned the dissertation into a book on acting that he hopes to publish in May, 2010. He has been studying with Mr. Colaianni for over five years.

Claudia Anderson (95)

Head of Voice, De Paul University
Chicago, IL
cander11@depaul.edu

Claudia trained with Kristin Linklater and became a Designated Linklater Voice Teacher in 1991. A singer/actor, she studies with New-York-based voice teacher Richard Armstrong,who teaches in the tradition of the Roy Hart Theatre. Her additional training includes work with Patsy Rodenburg, Cicely Berry and Frankie Armstrong. Research/creative interests include singing and playing Irish/Scots music and cabaret and working on writing across the curriculum. Claudia is a founding member of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association and continues to be active in the organization, having served on the board, as conference planner and presenter. She has professional voice and dialect coaching credits with Next, Court, Lookingglass, Raven, and TimeLine Theatres in Chicago; in Los Angeles she worked with A Noise Within, Rubicon Theatre and The Mark Taper Forum. Her book on IPA and dialects, Bringing Speech To Life, written with Louis Colaianni, is published by Joy Press. She has taught voice and speech, acting and singing since 1974, for Edgewood City Schools in Ohio, Wright State University, Southern Methodist University and California Institute of the Arts, as well as intensives for ACT in San Francisco, The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum in Los Angeles and Shakespeare & Co. in Massachusetts.

Amy Sue Fall

Idyllwild Arts Academy
Los Angeles, CA
818-319-2740
www.dialectsandvoice.com
www.methodsworkshops.com
dialectsandvoice@yahoo.com

Amy Sue has an M. F. A. in acting from Roosevelt University in Chicago and has taught at the University of Kansas-Lawrence, University of Missouri-Kansas City, and Webster University as well as private coaching in Dialects and Accent Modification in Chicago and now in Los Angeles. Amy Sue’s letter to the editor, “Response: Rhoticity in the Accents of American Film Actors: A Sociolinguistic Study” (by Nancy Elliott), was published in the Voice and Speech Review, Volume 2 (2001). Amy Sue also founded and produces the Methods Workshops and will be presenting another Workshop in the Summer of 2010. She is a Certified Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice voicework® and a Certified Colaianni Speech teacher. She also teaches the Linklater progression and was trained by Louis Colaianni, Master Designated Linklater teacher. Amy Sue has studied with master voice teachers, Patsy Rodenburg at the Royal National Theatre Studio in London, Catherine Fitzmaurice and Louis Colaianni. She has been the voice/dialect coach on numerous productions including Grapes of Wrath, directed by Risa Brainin, Two Gentleman of Verona, Moonchildren, Oliver and many more. She has directed Desdemona, A Play About a Handkerchief, The Congresswomen, No Exit and was assistant director for Valley Song at Northlight Theatre (LORT Theatre) in Chicago.

Lisa Nathans

Lisa Nathans is honored to be a certified Colaianni speech practitioner. Lisa is a voice/dialect coach (VASTA), actor/singer (EMC/SAG Eligible), director/producer, and instructor. A Seattle native, she studied abroad at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA) and earned her BFA in Acting from Boston University before attending BU’s Acting in Hollywood Graduate Program, created by Nina Tassler, President of CBS Entertainment and Jason Alexander. Lisa has studied Improv at The Second City LA and The Groundlings School. Professionally, she has performed with Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum , Village Theatre, and the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Musical Theatre experiences include Ann Reinking’s Broadway Theatre Project where she studied under Ben Vereen and Frank Wildhorn, and performing as a vocal soloist in a documentary for Francesca Zambello (director, Broadway’s The Little Mermaid). She later auditioned to replace the role of Ariel in the Broadway Cast. She has interned for various casting companies and talent agencies in Boston and LA where she helped cast numerous feature films, TV shows, and commercials. Most recently she was accepted into Kristin Linklater’s Designation Workshop. Under the mentorship of Judy Shahn she has assisted and subbed Linklater voice and speech classes at the University of Washington. She will also be teaching a “Sing Together- through the generations” workshop with Judy Shahn at the VASTA conference in Minneapolis this summer. Lisa has been a voice/dialect coach for productions at the University of Washington, Village Theatre KIDSTAGE, Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum, and the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Lisa is currently the Education Programs Manager for Village Theatre KIDSTAGE in Washington.

Robin Christain-McNair (10)

Robin Christian-McNair holds an M.F.A. from the Professional Actor’s Training Program, Rutgers University, under the direction of William Esper. She is a Feldenkrais certified practitioner. Robin currently teaches at Herbert Berghoff Studio, Drew University, and Fairleigh Dickinson University. She has been an Associate Professor in the BFA Voice and Speech department at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. She has also taught voice, speech, Shakespeare, and Feldenkrais at the Maggie Flanigan Acting Studio, Acteen, New York University, and the Strasberg Institute. Robin is a member of SAG, Actor’s Equity, VASTA, and The Feldenkrais Guild.

Mary Irwin

Head of Voice and Speech
North Carolina School of the Arts
mirwin@uncsa.edu

Mary Irwin is Head of Voice and Speech in the School of Drama of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where she teaches Voice, Speech, Phonetics and Shakespeare text. Mary has also taught at The Laura Henry Studio in L.A. and the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She is a Voice and Text Coach for the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, where she has coached productions of The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, The Taming of the Shrew, The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Other dialect coaching includes Misalliance at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, The Dresser at the Clarence Brown Theatre, and Master Harold. . .and the boys and Noises Off at Triad Stage. Professional acting credits include work in theatre, television and film. Mary holds a BA (summa cum laude) from New York University, the Postgraduate Diploma in Voice Studies from the Central School of Speech and Drama (with a mark of Distinction), and is a Designated Linklater teacher.

John McManus (10)

John McManus originally from Australia, studied Speech and Drama at the Harkness Studio in Sydney. He came to the United States to study Eurythmy in Spring Valley, New York and the Art of Directing at the Playwrights Horizon Theatre in New York City. He is a founding member of The Looking Glass Players (Australia), Walking the Dog Theatre, (USA) and Shakespeare Alive! -a training in the art of acting for young adults through Sunbridge College, NY. He has been acting, directing and teaching for over thirty years. Recently, John returned from a years in Australia where he acted in and co-directed the movie, “The Witch of Portobello,” by Paulo Coelho, and directed Shakespeare’s “Cymbeline” which won Theatre Critics Best Production of 2008 in the city of Melbourne. Now residing in upstate New York, he works as a freelance educator and performing artist.

Natsuko Ohama (08)

University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA
breathnatsuko@aol.com

Natsuko Ohama is one of the premier voice teachers in the country. Trained under legendary Master Kristin Linklater at the Working Theatre, she is a founding member and permanent faculty of Shakespeare and Company Lenox, Mass., and senior artist at Pan Asian Rep New York. She has taught at numerous institutions all over the country including the NYU Experimental Theater Wing, Cal Arts, Columbia University, the Sundance Institute, New Actors Workshop, the Stratford Festival, and was the Director of Training at the National Arts Center of Canada. She also has an extensive workshop and private teaching practice. A Drama Desk nominated actress, she has portrayed roles ranging from Juliet to Lady Macbeth from Hamlet to Prospero (Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company) from action films to the cult series “Forever Knight” and American Playhouse on PBS. She has been seen on screen in Pirates of the Caribbean 2, and on stage at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Dogeaters as Imelda Marcos. As a director, she and USC actress Chastity Dotson mounted Little Book of Battles at the New York Hip Hop Theater Festival at the Public Theater, and Ms. Ohama’s play Geisha of the Gilded Age-Miyuki Morgan, was staged at the Ventford Theater in Massachusetts. Last year, she portrayed Angustias in The House of Bernarda Alba for NATTCO, directed by Chay Yew, had a recurring role on the television series “In Case of Emergency” and was certified as a Joy of Phonetics teacher trained by Louis Colaianni in New York. Most recently, she directed the USC Visions and Voices presentation of The Press, in conjunction with playwright Professor David Lloyd and Brent Blair, co-directed Othello at Boston Court in Pasadena for LA Women’s Shakespeare Company, and appeared on stage as Mom in Luis Alfaro’s Hero for Playwright’s Arena, where she will be honored on May 6th.

Rebecca Simon (10)

Rebecca Simon teaches voice and speech at Rider University in Lawrenceville, NJ where she served as vocal coach for their productions of Rent and Anatomy of Gray. Rebecca also serves as a resident teaching artist for the McCarter Theatre Company in music theatre and the McCarter Shakespeare residencies in Princeton Area Schools. Rebecca received her MFA in Acting from Florida Atlantic University where she was the recipient of the Joshua Logan Fellowship. During her tenure at FAU, she studied the Linklater progression with designated teacher Bridget Connors, Fitzmaurice Voicework with Mariah Johnson and movement with Master Alexander Technique teacher Meade Andrews. At FAU, she designed and taught a two-year sequence in professional musical theater technique. She taught the acting component and served as the vocal teacher for the class. Rebecca is a proud member of Actor’s Equity and has appeared in the Broadway National Tours of Fiddler on the Roof with Theodore Bikel and The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber starring Michael Bolton. She was also a featured soloist with The Trans-Siberian Orchestra. New York credits include Masada at the York Theatre, Boulevard X at Raw Space, the premiere of Piper’s Song at the Gene Frankel Theatre and Alcestis and Salome, both with the NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. This past year Rebecca appeared in Les Miserables at Actors Playhouse in Coral Gables, Florida and also made her symphony debut with The Symphony of the Americas. She spent 2 seasons as an Equity Guest Artist for Florida Atlantic University Festival Repertory. Roles with Festival Rep include Eva Peron in Evita, Feste in Twelfth Night, Marta in Company, Belinda in Noises Off. She was awarded the Best Supporting Actress by the New Times Broward/Palm Beach Best of the Best 2007 for her work in A Bright Room Called Day for FAU’s Graduate Acting Program. Rebecca maintains a private voice studio in Lawrenceville where she teaches singing and professional audition technique.

Schools & teachers who have taught with Phonetic Pillows and/or The Joy of Phonetics and Accents

1. Sam Houston State College (Laura Avery)
2. Chapman College (Tomika Washington)
3. George Mason University (Natalie McManus)
4. Columbia University (Rebecca Dumaine)
5. Shakespeare & Company (Dave Demke)
6. University of Southern California (Natsuko Ohama)
7. Tulane University (Paul Schierhorn)
8. Salem College (Celena Sky April)
9. University of Alabama-Birmingham (Marlene Johnson)
10. Boston University (Christine Hamel)
11. Point Park University (Bridget Connors)
12. Butler University, Indiana (Dianne Timmerman)
13. North Carolina School of the Arts (Mary Irwin)
14. Idyllwild Arts Academy (Amy Sue Fall)
15. Academy of Art University San Francisco (Lisa Anne Porter)
16. Marymount College (Tom Marion)
17. Central School of Speech and Drama (Tara McCallister-Viel)
18. Cincinnati Conservatory (Rocco DalVera)
19. Case Western Reserve (Shanna Beth McGee)
20. Emerson College (Amelia Broome)
21. Florida State University (Debra Hale)
22. Ohio University (Laura Parotti)
23. Kent State University (Chuck Ritchie)
24. Syracuse University (Joe Alberti)
25. University of Washington-Seattle (Judy Shahn)
26 Fairleigh Dickinson University (Robin Christian-McNair)
27. Yale School of Drama (Walton Wilson)
28. York University, Toronto CANADA (David Smukler)
29. Boston Conservatory (Annie Thompson)
30. University of Maryland (Leigh Smiley)
31. HB Studio (Robin Christian-McNair)
32. University of Oklahoma, Norman OK (Rena Cook)
33. Oklahoma City University (Ben Corbett)
34. Center for Performance Research/Giving Voice 1997 (Joan Mills)
35. South Eastern Theatre Conference 2008 (Bridget Connors)
37. Utah State University (Adrianne Moore)
38. Iowa State University (Judy Leigh-Johnson)
39. University of South Carolina Columbia (Sarah Barker)
40. DePaul University (Claudia Anderson)
41. O’Neill Center (Louis Colaianni)
42. California Institute of the Arts (Claudia Anderson)
43. Studio 58 (Dale Genge)
44. Philadelphia College of the Arts (Leigh Smiley)
45. University of Louisville (Rinda Frye)
46. Howard County Community College (Betty Anne Leesberg-Lange)
47. Radford University (Wesley A Young)
48. Johnson County Community College (Scott Stackhouse)
49. UMKC (Louis Colaianni)
50. University of Pretoria (Humanities Catalogue 2003 ISBN -86854-458-3 page 150)
51. Newberry College (Patrick Gagliano)
52. Arkansas Fayetteville (Mavourneen Dwyer)
53. Oregon Eugene (Robert Barton)
54. University of California-Davis (Lisa Anne Porter)
55. University of California-Chico (Jim Johnson)
56. Southern Methodist University (Claudia Anderson)
57. Voice and Speech Trainers Association 2006 (Louis Colaianni)
58. Utah State University, Department of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education (Sonia S. Manuel-Dupont)

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