Speaking Freely: Louis Colaianni on Voice and Character
By Amanda Huotari
July 20, 2006
He was the first artist to ever turn Celebration Barn Theater into a giant mouth! Renowned voice instructor Louis Colaianni teaches the Linklater Voice progression, used in many actor training programs. Here he talks about his upcoming workshops and how performers can learn to play any character under the sun.
Amanda Huotari: Last summer you offered your Linklater Voice Workshop and How To Speak Shakespeare for the first time at Celebration Barn. How did you find the Barn for this kind of work?
Louis Colaianni: I found it a very inspiring, fun, warm space with a legacy that is palpable. There is an atmosphere, which fills the spirit of the artist and performer, that makes this work so rich and intense.
AH: Many performers who come to Celebration Barn have experience in physical theater, but for many voice is new territory. How does the Linklater work relate to a performer’s physical presence?
LC: Of all the types of voice work, [Linklater voice training] is the most physical. It connects the voice and the body in an extraordinary way. Exercises are on your feet and doing physical things. The aim is to feel the voice vibrate through the body, to feel the impulse to speak as a physical sensation. Voice work can give the physical performer a very natural extension into sound and spoken word. A lot of this work is influenced by physical disciplines such as Alexander Technique and the work of Jacques Lecoq.
AH: What about improvisation, how does the voice improvise?
LC: There is a great dichotomy here: It takes practice to be spontaneous, In order to improvise well with the voice, there are exercises to release physical tensions, defenses and resistance so that the voice can flow freely and spontaneously, so that the actor can speak from primary impulses, uncensored. This is opposed to the social norm of speaking from secondary or tertiary impulses.
Be the one who is in front of the many, speaking simply and from the heart. It takes practice to speak passions in a group. It takes practice to stand on one’s own feet and uphold a point of view and to listen to others sensitively and receive fully. Through this kind of practice, great spontaneity can be achieved. A great voice teacher once said “when the voice is free, your soul shows through”, and that is what I am striving for, too.
AH: If the goal is absolute freedom, how does one begin?
LC: It begins with awareness of the body, skeleton and support of the skeleton and release of breath. Physical awareness and breath awareness, that’s the beginning of everything that follows.
AH: How far into this process of “freeing the natural voice” can an actor get in a one week workshop?
LC: This process takes a lifetime. For an actor to get the opportunity to spend an entire week working on a voice course like this is rarely offered. What you can learn in a week you can apply for a lifetime. My aim is not to become your voice teacher, but to guide you to become your own voice teacher.
AH: How did your career lead you from being a performer into being a voice teacher?
LC: I was a professional working at Shakespeare and Company. Working closely with Kristin [Linklater] over a number of years was so meaningful for me. Finding and freeing my natural voice, I felt like I had to share it. So I gradually made the switch from acting to teaching. I’ve been teaching for over 20 years. I often quote Rilke who said that his work was, “to voice the things only he could voice.” That’s what I found, my unique voice, and that’s what I offer to my students, the chance to voice what only each of us can voice. It’s not the voice I want to hear. I want to hear you through your voice. Once you can speak with that level of transparency, you can play any character under the sun.
AH: You specialize in performing and teaching Shakespeare. What do performers learn from working with this text?
LC: Shakespeare is to theater what the Olympics is to athletics. The challenges that Shakespeare presents to actors are huge in terms of intellectual and emotional dynamics. Every character is Shakespeare has a unique point of view. The grammatical structure and structure of ideas is as intellectually challenging as it gets. The situations, experiences and relationships that Shakespeare characters go through are as intellectually challenging as it gets. If you can do Shakespeare or attempt to do Shakespeare, and grapple with Shakespeare, you then are able to do everything else.
Shakespeare came along as modern English was being established. For English speakers Shakespeare is our common heritage. He created thousands of words and created linguistic resonance. As we let in Shakespeare’s words, we give ourselves an experience in language beyond our everyday scope of language. It’s invigorating, inspiring and exciting to speak great poetry.
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Louis Colaianni will be teaching the Linklater Voice Workshop at Celebration Barn from August 21 - 25, 2006, and How To Speak Shakespeare from August 28 - 30. These intensive workshops are designed to awaken and enhance the participant's ability to speak with vocal power, clarity, sensitivity, resonance and range.
To read more about Louis Colaianni's Linklater Voice Workshop, click here.
To read more about Louis Colaianni's How to Speak Shakespeare workshop, click here.
To find out how you can register, click here.
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