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by Marti
Runnels
- The second
"Destructuring/Restructuring: from Breath to
Voice" workshop conducted by Catherine
Fitzmaurice and her associates is now over, but
the excitement about this work is still very
much alive. For the participants at Temple
University this past June an eclectic
pedagogical methodology was experienced,
analyzed and synthesized. The process is much
more than just another vocal training method
with various applications. While the goal of a
well-functioning vocal instrument may be the
same as other voice training methods,
individuals working in this process may also
experience a freeing of the soul. While
Fitzmaurice is by no means introducing or
advocating a new religious experience, the
effect of releasing and empowering the body/mind
has its parallels in ecstatic religious
phenomena. But then so does a rock
concert.
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- What Fitzmaurice is
exploring gets one beyond mouth, larynx and
diaphragm and into unifying that which western
culture continues to divide: the body/mind. This
puts her work in the same category as the ideas
of Freud, Pavlov, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, John
Locke, Kant and perhaps more pertinently
Stanislavski and Meyerhold. Stanilavski's system
of internal motivations and Meyerhold's
biomechanics have in many ways launched two
different approaches to theatre and
acting.
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- But despite their
apparent polar positions about the acting
process, both these Russian theatre
practitioners knew that natural, believable
performance was only achieved in a unified,
energized body/mind. As Fitzmaurice's work seeks
to energize and coordinate both the Autonomic
Nervous System (A.N.S.) and the Central Nervous
System (C.N.S.), she offers a path for actors
who work from the inside out or from the outside
in. In this sense, the process may not only
offer universal application, but also encourage,
or at the least allow actors to discover more
than one way of working. With the cornucopia of
style demands placed before the working actor,
this appears to be advantageous. For teachers
who want to teach that there is "only one road"
this may appear to open Pandora's Box. In
practice, the thing this participant saw opening
was the body/mind of the other
participants.
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- SHAKE - This
opening of the body/mind takes place initially
in the Destructuring portion of the process.
Fitzmaurice has adapted/borrowed from
bioenergetics and yoga and other somatic
trainings to offer her own means of freeing,
expanding and energizing the body/mind:
particularly through tremors. Just as the
body/mind responds (A.N.S.) to the threat of
cold by shivering, shivering exists as a
positive energy to counter the negative of cold.
Fitzmaurice teaches that one can tremor as an
action instead of as a response. In this way,
instead of gaining energy to fight off a threat,
one who is not under a threat becomes a
recipient of only the added benefit. As these
tremors are created, the individual is not only
energized but is also released from tension.
Just as the tremors create increased demand for
oxygen, breath, and blood supply they also
require that the individual release tension in
order for the tremor to occur and be sustained.
The process of destructuring, then, is a means
to break down bad breathing habits, locate and
eliminate tension, open and expand breathing
mechanisms, and also to allow the person to
become vibrant.
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- RATTLE -
Fitzmaurice does not see the vocal cords
vibrating in an immobile vessel. Instead the
tremors help one experience the entire being as
something that vibrates. From atoms, to cells,
to the heart, the entire body/mind is vibrating.
When one begins to vocalize during the tremor,
an awareness that the entire body/mind is making
sound is clear.
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- Whether with prepared
text or unintelligible sounds, it's obvious that
one will not normally be performing or speaking
in the manner described above. However, the
demands of the tremor operate as a metaphor for
the physical and psychological demands of the
performance experience and also functionally as
a substitute for those same demands. In other
words, the tremor combined with sound and
remembered in the body/mind, can provide
possible avenues for creative choices in the
rehearsal/performance process.
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- ROLE - As the
actor, speaker, businessperson or singer
prepares to perform it is critical to do the
restructuring ("structured breathing") as well.
If destructuring is letting the A.N.S. free to
break down the barriers, the restructuring is
integrating the A.N.S. with the C.N.S. so that
maximum efficiency and flexibility can be wedded
to fulfill the demands of the
performance.
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- The aim in view leads to
an open, receptive, energized performer who is
able to respond naturally and improvisationally
to the demands of the role. But clearly it is
not just the vocal demands that this process
enables the performer to face. For in dealing
with total body/mind, the entire person is
recreated to take the stage.
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- Copyright: Runnels,
Vasta newsletter: June 1995. Reprinted with
permission.
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