in situ: ghost stories

A 10-week course exploring The Voice in all its many aspects.

The Voice

Sometimes called ‘The Muscle of the Soul’, the human voice is a fundamental instrument of communication, expressing information, emotion and character.

It is versatile and expressive: it sings, speaks, chants, sighs, laughs, cries, yawns, squeaks, and groans.

It probably tells other people more about ourselves than any other single aspect of our being, and yet many people struggle with their voices. They don’t get pleasure out of their voice; they feel they can’t express themselves through it; they feel they communicate poorly with it; don’t ‘like’ their voice; feel their voices get weak or stuck or sore.

The Course

The aims of this course are multiple:

  • to explore all aspects of The Voice
  • to increase its power, range, versatility and strength,
  • to discover the pleasures of speaking and sounding,
  • and to develop the many ways in which the Voice is an instrument for creating art.

We will be looking at the speaking voice and how it can become more expressive and energized, but the work will go well beyond the limits of speaking and will explore what has become known as ‘Extended Voice’, encompassing the extraordinary range of human vocal sound that is not usually included in the categories of speaking or singing, but is an essential part of being human.

Group exercises, games and improvisation combine with focussed individual work in a course that will appeal to anyone interested in the Voice. Actors, singers, storytellers, musicians will all benefit, also people who are seeking more confidence, strength, flexibility and expressiveness in their voice in other areas of work and life: teachers, presenters; people working in the media; people working in business; parents.

Anybody – whatever their walk of life – who wants to get the most out of The Voice, that most expressive of instruments.

Your Teacher

Richard Spaul has studied Voice and Extended Voice with several of Europe’s leading Voice practitioners, including Enrique Pardo (Pan Theatre – Paris) and Noah Pikes (The Whole Voice – Zurich) and has developed his own vocal techniques with in situ: both as teacher and performer. He employs many such voice techniques in his recent solo performances: Ghost Stories and Tales of Mystery and Imagination.