Author: Kate Foy

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Did I leave the best to last?

Perhaps I am just being patriotic, but I reckon these Aussie guys are pretty darn hot in the voice-over artistry stakes. The two contenders for me are Keith Scott and Jim Pike.

I wrote a while back about Don LaFontaine being a voice stylist who set the standard for a generation. Keith Scott bills himself as ‘Australia’s leading voice impersonator’ and does a nice line in LaFontaine styling in this movie promo. Here Scott shows that he can not only match that standard but take it further. Oh, and he does some pretty nifty impressions along the way in this audio compilation from 2005.

Then there’s Jim Pike whose voice is everywhere on the airwaves. Jim’s compilation gives a taste of the range and style of an ‘educated Aussie’ voice. It’s not bad when it comes to dialects and accents either. Enjoy.

Actually there’s no competition going on here. All of the guys I’ve written about in the last little while are masters of their art and craft.

Next time, I’ll go in search of female voice artists.

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Why Theatre?

Occasionally a gem sparkles amongst the tailings of most journalism on the theatre. Such a piece was Kathleen Noonan’s All the World’s a Stage (Brisbane’s The Courier Mail 24-25 November). It was a very personal take on the power of theatre to move, shake, or soothe like ‘a warm cup of cocoa’ if that’s your taste.

Noonan puts her case using Brisbane’s healthy theatre scene, but it’s really about what theatre does for people. She reviews Queensland Theatre Company’s production of Heroes, and looks back over some personal favourites from the past year or so, and forward with anticipation to 2008. She does so with style and passion. She’s right there in the words:

Good theatre is a performance-enhancing drug. Like blood-doping, it feels like there’s extra oxygen in the bloodstream, more ideas in our head than before.

and

You don’t have to have prior information about context or themes or symbols. Sure, all that adds a layer. But really good theatre just needs you to sit still and be prepred to find something out. Good theatre is passionate and demands passionate reactions.

You can find this article in full along with others by C-M’s ‘resident Saturday philospher.’

I wish our print-based media devoted more space to pieces like Kathleen Noonan’s … about the things that matter, and connect us.

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Christmas and End of Year Mulls


Image: jgrantmac


This is not the mulling that comes with spicy wine, the traditional Christmas drink in colder climes. It’s another kind of thoughtful musing that often fills the mind. During this season, we tend to go back over the past 12 months or so, sorting and sifting through the discoveries and shuddering perhaps at some of them.

I’ve been digging into my blog archives, and in the spirit of wishes for Christmas, here is something from the eminent Canadian educator, Stephen Downes whose always-lucid postings have been a bit of a discovery for me this year.

I passed this little parcel to my students earlier in the year. Once again, it was in response to exercising your creativity, a theme which runs through quite a few of these posts. Here it is:

10 things you need to learn

How to predict consequences
How to read
How to distinguish truth from fiction
How to empathise
How to be creative
How to communicate clearly
How to learn
How to stay healthy
How to value yourself
How to live meaningfully

The whole post can be found on Stephen Downe’s blog.

Not bad wishes for Christmas, for ourselves and others.

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Voice Over Stylist

You’ve heard his voice so often in move trailers, now here’s the face of Don LaFontaine. I came across this little movie this morning. Apart from being a nice intro to the guy behind the microphone, the movie has something to say about how pervasive a great voice can be. He has set the style for the voice of a generation of movie trailers … and most of those voices are male. In fact, I can’t think of a movie trailer I’ve seen which has been voiced by a female. Can you?

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Overused acting notes #3: I Can’t Hear You

If there were $$s for every time this note were given in rehearsal, there’d be a pot o’ cash worth fighting for. Not being heard can relate to so many problems: insecurity over lines and their meaning, a lack of self-confidence, through to poor technique … breath support and sloppy articulation being two of the biggest culprits, because not hearing can also mean not understanding the words being spoken.

A voice coach is probably better placed to deal with the implications of this note than the director, though some good directors understand the problem very well. Too often, and born of frustration the note can become ‘louder’ or ‘louder and slow down!’ Whilst this can often cut right to the heart of the problem, the downside is lack of subtlety, and specificity of meaning; a shout-fest can result. The problem for the actor compounds into a possible new note: ‘I don’t understand what you mean …’ And so it goes.

To be heard, an actor needs good technique, a sense of the space in which s/he is working and the amount and kind of physical and vocal energy adjustment required to ‘fill the space’ (but no more), confidence in the meaning of every line, and a commitment to the complicité of performance … with scene partners and the audience.