Hey guys!
I love what Catherine Fitzmaurice says about sympathetic vibration, and the audience going to see live theatre in order to be physically "touched" by your vocal vibrations / resonation. What other insights in the interview do you find especially helpful and/or evocative? Anything that is confusing or unclear?
Please comment below by Tuesday, 10/ 25.
Thanks!
Joanna
I also really liked the sympathetic vibration that Catherine Fitzmaurice talks about in the interview. I also found what she said about listening interesting. She says that it's all really about listening and as we listen to ourselves and become more aware of our vibrations we become more aware of other actor's vibrations, or "vibes" as well as gain a better understanding of them. Something else I really liked was how she compared destructuring and temoring toinvoluntary shivering that happens when you're cold. Shivering warms up your body similar to tremors.
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ReplyDeleteThroughout the interview Fitzmaurice talks about our body as an instrument and how we need to become more in-tune with it. Our voice, as she states, is the tool that should be powered by energy rather than physicality. Breathing is the main source of energy which should move the voice. By doing tremors we become more relaxed and should use these tremors to find the release and acknowledge the way our breath is working. She also says that as actors we should be self-aware because it allows us freedom to explore our breath and body and voice freely.
I learned a lot from the interview about myself and how I view these techniques. I also think that by reading this I better understand her point of view and how it helps in the growth of becoming a better actor.
I really enjoyed how she explained that no feeling is wrong during destructuring other than physical pain. How even boredom can be useful and any emotion we experience it is important to accept it and not try to fight it.
ReplyDeleteI also loved the emphasis on a person's voice rather than their sound. I found it interesting that she stressed how important it is that the voice changes as the words change because it is most important to hear someone's message, not just a beautiful voice. I hope that in this class I can find a breath and voice that both sounds nice and also contributes to the meaning of a character's words.
I’m sure all of us have experienced some level of frustration when not being able to access a tremor so I enjoyed that they discussed the topic in the interview. I found it fascinating that Catherine described frustration as when we don’t acknowledge the anger, I’ve never heard it put that way. When I read about her describing how emotions are a flow of energy in a specific direction, I didn’t really connect with it at first. For example, she explained that anger runs up the back, after she brought up when a dog’s hackles rise when it growls definitely helped me connect with the idea a little more.
ReplyDeleteI found this interview to be extremely fascinating. I believe that my favorite part out of the entire interview was when Catherine talked about sound. She said that while doing tremors it’s not important what kind of sound you make, only that you make sound. She emphasized that one shouldn’t focus on trying to make a “good sound”, sustain their sound, or try to make it louder. You should only focus on the tremor itself and whatever sound that you happen to make while doing the tremor perfectly fine. She goes on to say that different tremors should have different sounds because you are in different positions.
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ReplyDeleteI found the interview to reflect everything Joanna has taught us, just in a broader explanation. For some reason I've always thought the tension was what caused the actual tremor, but now I understand that its the releasing of energy. Fitzmaurice said that the flow of energy and vibrations through the body is pleasurable. My trouble is during the tremor, all I can feel is tension and pain in my joints. I try to breathe into the areas but it's hard. I loved her explanation of fluffy sound and vibrations. When conscious, I now notice that vibrations are not only heard in my ears, but with my whole body. MY favorite saying in the interview by Ms Fitzmaurice is "the more you know yourself the more of yourself you can bring to your work." I will take that beyond this class.
Jay!
ReplyDeleteI found that this article help to piece together our work so far. Especially when she goes over "fluffy sound". I always felt that I tend to force the sound, but Fitzmaurice would prefer it to be natural. For me, that means less volume but still more intense. I also like her critique on yoga breath. Since high school dramatic teachers have told me I should relax and perhaps do yoga before performances and capture that breath. I always felt that that was a bad idea, and Fitzmaurice agrees.
I hadn't thought of tremoring as a way to increase adrenaline to have more energy to be on stage! I always thought of it as a way to release strength. I always viewed as acting breath as controlled, since we need to project and yell in a certain way while onstage. I found it interesting that Fitzmaurice says the actor's breath should be raw and spontaneous! I liked that description of it. When she talked about how energy manifested in our body with heat it reminded me of the Chakra dancing we did in class, and how energy moves through our bodies. I particularly liked her description of "emotion is a movement of energy". It makes the emotional part of acting connect easily with the physical work we are doing in this class.
ReplyDeletei got a better understanding of tremoring as a "warm-up". first of all, the release of tension can oxygenate the blood, which literally and physically warms the body--incredible. but secondly, i always viewed destructuring as kind of a form of relaxation and release, which would leave you calm, loose, and maybe a little tired/loopy. however, it seems that in the release you get more energy and alertness to prepare you for whatever it is youre warming up for! i also thought it was kind of interesting that we should expect to feel differently in each tremor position, and produce different sounds as well. this will help me identify if i am forcing a tremor or really engaging in one i believe.
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Monique
ReplyDeleteI liked how Catherine explained herself about not controlling breath during a tremor. I feel like more often than not, we are pushing our breath to make fluffy sound and feeling breath, when we need to let the breath "find its own way out", and reflect our current emotion in the tremor.
I can appreciate that this interview happened because I asked a girl who teaches yoga if she knew anything about tremoring and she had no idea what I was talking about. I'm glad that the issue of traditional yoga and it's relation to yoga was addressed, I would agree that typical yoga stretches don't work to strengthen a person as an actor.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very exciting article to read. I like that i could finally see how Fitzmaurice really defined some questions that I have been wondering.One of the good points I though Kotzubei brought up is that most of Fitzmaurice's work is on the floor and it isn't often that acting takes place laying around on the floor. Catherine's answer was terrific. She explained that floor can give you a greater sense of your personal space and your breathing and she also mentions that you become more in touch with the spine as a whole. This was awesome the read because from what i experience in class she is exactly right
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