A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM ON THE RADIO: TECHNOLOGY IN VOICE AND SPEECH

• Main Author: Becker, David
• Format: Others
• Published: VCU Scholars Compass 2010
• Subjects: Voice and Speech; Theatre; Technology; Communication; Musical Theatre; Drama; Arts and Humanities; Theatre and Performance Studies
• Online Access: http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/2250; http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3249&context=etd

Recent advances in sound technology have had significant implications for the teaching of voice and speech that are only now becoming apparent. As more students become “plugged in” it becomes more difficult, both for the instructor and the student, to communicate, let alone find a voice. We are becoming increasingly addicted to communicating through our devices, rather than through the traditional and accepted modes of the past: using the human voice. In light of these rapid and various new developments, voice training, especially at the introductory level, needs to be examined anew. A number of traditional approaches and teaching methods for twenty-first century Generation Y students may need to be reconsidered or updated. Technical advancements - which are affecting actual physical changes in our human condition - necessitate that the voice instructor be informed by, and where possible incorporate, the new technologies into teaching. This thesis focuses on possible ways to combine and integrate such technologies with traditional practices of voice and speech training in an attempt to reestablish the importance, vibrancy and creative potential of the spoken voice in theater performance. This thesis includes a record of a production that I directed in the fall of 2009: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM 2009 ON THE RADIO and its later Podcast.