1. GENERAL HEADING: Voice and Body Exercises

2. TITLE OF EXERCISE: "The Hum"

3. GOALS: To adjust to a larger performance space and to increase volume, projection, and comprehension.

4. NUMBER OF STUDENTS: Any.

5. EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES: None.

6. CLASS TIME NEEDED: 20 - 30 minutes

7. STEP-BY-STEP-DESCRIPTION:

• Begin with a physical and vocal warm-up so all are "tuned-up."
• Then place students in a circle and set up a hum, each person feeling the vibrations in the chest, back, head, and face.
• When the hum is satisfactory, have the students spread themselves around the space as much as possible, and set up the hum again. Continue the hum until you feel it is just as strong and vibrant as when the students were close together.
• When the group is in tune with each other and confident, move the hum up a pitch.
• Come back into your circle, let each person in turn sing a word from the play on any note they like. The group must listen and then sing it back accurately.
• Do this a second time round the circle, and this time the group can slightly exaggerate what they hear-even make some kind of gesture as they sing.
• Next use take a piece of text, not from a play you are working on, but a similar style and work it through together in the circle for breathing, verbal energy, and relaxation
• Then take a line or a line-and-a-half round in order, giving a moment for each person. Then have the students spread out throughout the space--as far from each other as possible--and speak it through.
• Experiment with volume--have students whisper their lines, then soft, then loud--see how meaning and understanding change.

8. POINTS FOR OBSERVATION/DISCUSSION: N.A.

9. SOURCE/REFERENCE: Cicely Berry's The Actor and the Text, London, Virgin Books, 1993.

10. ADDITIONAL READING: N.A.

11. VARIATIONS: N.A.