I was a theater major in college. With that comes rehearsing & performing tons of scenes and monologues in class. Almost 25 years later, I still remember one particular monologue a fellow student of mine did.
She played Ophelia from Hamlet but instead of doing a monologue (did Ophelia even have any monologues?), she took a scene and removed all of the lines except Ophelia’s. I was very uncomfortable watching it for what I think are two reasons:
The monologue made no sense. She was acting to empty air when there are supposed to be other characters to interact with.
She was masturbating.
Not literally masturbating of course (though that would have been a rather interesting acting choice), but figuratively. The student clearly loved the character. I can see how playing a young woman in love who is driven insane can be fun to play. So my guess is that she contrived a way to play the character and get to revel in her insanity & complexity. Which is great for her, but it felt weird to watch.
I use the term masturbating because I think she was playing Ophelia for the way it made her feel with no regard for the audience. To paraphrase my friend and fellow Agent 1.22 producer Angelo Panetta, “You shouldn’t be involved in art because you like way it makes you feel, you should be involved in art because you like the way you make OTHER people feel. If they love what you are doing, then you will love what you are doing.”
TIP OF THE WEEK
There are aspiring voice talents out there (and some established ones) who do voiceovers because they love hearing the sound of their own voice. I concede that it would be hard to be a voice talent if you hate the sound of your voice so there’s that.
Loving how doing voiceovers makes you feel is one thing. Making sure you’re telling a good story is another. Even though it’s your voice, it’s not about you. It’s about the message and the audience. If you can keep your performance from being self-indulgent, you’re on the right track!
NEWS AND NOTES!
The Year’s Top Short SF Novels 5 is now on sale!
I had the pleasure of narrating four of the six stories in this compilation. I loved them all but the one that touched me the most was “The Man Who Sold The Moon” by Cory Doctorow. Here’s my favorite line:
“I stared at the moon. It stared back. It had always stared back, but I had always been moving too quickly to notice.”
THAT is why I love narrating audio books. Go to Audio Text to get your copy!
HAPPY HAPPYS!
Happy Egg Nog Day and Thank You Note Day! Both are a lost art…
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Our critics are our best friends. Benjamin Franklin
From my village to yours; this is Tom Dheere, GKN News…
Tom Dheere is a 19-year veteran of the voice over industry who has narrated thousands of projects for clients in over a dozen countries. He is also a coach at Edge Studio, voiceover business consultant known as the Voice Over Strategist, and is currently writing & producing the comic book “Agent 1.22”.