Notebook Week 4

Chapter 5, Lesson 1

• The lines that an actor speaks must be heard clearly. Every word must be understood by cast members and the audience.

• The voice is the foundation for the actors work.

• A voice that is used effectively conveys a wide range of emotions and reflects a person’s personality, moods, and attitudes.
• A well trained actor with an effective voice knows the importance of the following ten elements.
  relaxation, breathing, quality, pitch, flexibility, articulation, pronunciation, volume, rate, and projection.
  List 5 things you like about your voice. List 5 things you don’t like about your voice.  
• Relaxation - freedom from all bodily tensions. It gives the actor a deeper level of awareness and provides the energy needed for the stage.
  being relaxed means that you shut out any wandering thoughts about yourself or others. 
• being relaxed will give you physical and mental control and focus onstage, which in turn will help you achieve your theatrical goals.
  These will also improve your Posture - how we sit and stand.
  It will also improve the sound of your voice and make your movement smoother onstage. 

Chapter 5, Lesson 2

• Quality - is the voice element that makes you sound different from everyone else.

• People can recognize you from the unique sound of your voice.

• Some examples of poor quality voice are huskiness, nasality, and a thin, weak quality
• People can tell is you are happy or angry, depending on whether your voice is pleasant or unpleasant. 
• Even when you are not aware of it, your voice quality reflects your personality and mood. As an actor, you will need to use a variety of voice qualities to interpret and portray different characters.
• Pitch - is the musical tone of your voice - how high or how low you speak on a musical scale. 
• Pitch is determined by the vibration of your vocal folds, muscular membranes located in the larynx, or what id often called the “voice box” 
• the faster the folds vibrate, the lower the pitch. 
• if you loose your voice after hours of yelling this is a result of strained vocal muscles.
• You can find your pitch by matching your voice against the scales of a piano.
  two common flaws onstage are a thin, high tone and a monotone. A high, thin pitch can be corrected with concentration and a conscious effort to lower your speaking tone.
  A person who speaks in a monotone tone (speaking without a change in pitch) needs inflection - the rising and falling of pitch. 
• You will be able to keep the members of an audience on the edge of their seats if you vary your pitch and exhibit flexibility. 
• Flexibility - is the result of using the muscles in your face, tongue, jaw, lips and throat in a lively manner. 
• Vocal flexibility is used in a number of ways. Using variety in the sounds of words; placing emphasis, or stress, on certain syllables words, or groups of words in an unexpected way.

Jr. Thespian District Results!!

Ramblewood represented our school very well this weekend at the Jr. Thespian District competition!

We had 19 pieces perform and the students worked very hard on all of them.

Here are the results for the top honors of the day.....

We received the highest rating of "Best In Show" for Carmen Bulthuis singing Gimme Gimme from Thoroughly Modern Millie . (This is a HUGE honor for Ramblewood. This means that out of all of the other acts that performed in Carmens room they picked her solo as the best one of the day!)

Superior Ratings

1. Jarvis Floyd - Solo Musical Theater - Corner of the Sky - Pippin

2. Alex Montesino - Solo Musical Theater - I Want To Go to Hollywood - The Grand Hotel

3. Carmen Bulthuis - Solo Musical Theater - Gimme Gimme - Thoroughly Modern Millie

4. Alex Montesino and Savannah Sarwar - Duet Acting - Anna/August

Excellent Ratings

1. Jennifer Defrietas - Solo Musical Theater - Pulled - The Adams Family

2. Julie Berman - Solo Musical Theater - How Lovely to Be A Woman - Bye Bye Birdie

3. Jessica O'donnell - Monologue - Cinema Limbo

4. Linzie Cullen and Julia Sqires - Duet Acting - God from Parallel Lives

Also our one act production of "Seussification of Romeo and Juliet" received an Excellent rating as well.

And our tech for our one act production received a Superior Rating!!

The Students involved in that production were

1. Daniel Agmon

2. Julie Berman

3. Jensen Bury

4. Jennifer DeFreitas

5. Christina Gilg

6. Jordan Gonzalez

7. Ashleigh Henderson

8. Darrell Lewis

9. Shelby Martin

10. Alex Montesino

11. Jennifer Nixon

12. Jessica O'donnell

13. Jordan Poliard

14. Ambar Ramirez

15. Stacey Reyes

16. Johanna Sapicas

17. Savannah Sarwar

18. Rachael Skinner

19. Laila Subeih

20. Sunshine Tellefsen

GO TROUPE 88655!!!!