Macbeth

What exercises do you use to help the actors' voices?

I take the actors through primary breathing exercises so they can actually feel that the breath creates the sound, and if their breath is very alive within their bodies then the sound takes on a very full, channelled aspect to it.

The first thing that we do, generally speaking, is that we engage in a little massage: the actors pair up in a workshop situation, and we work on just massaging shoulders and neck, and the upper body generally, because that’s where the ‘doing centre’ lies. After that suddenly the actor feels a weight or a relaxation taking place in their body, so they start to feel/think or think/feel more in the centre of their body. As soon as that happens I take them into deep relaxation on the floor, where we use breath and sound to open up an even greater state of relaxation. They feel so relaxed that they feel completely connected with what we have at our centre, in our essence.