Voice Portfolio - Greek Chorus

Greek Chorus – Orestes by Euripides

     For this performance assignment, we have been tasked to modernise an ancient Greek Chorus using speech extracts from ‘Orestes’ (synopsis for the play: http://www.ancient-literature.com/greece_euripides_orestes.html).  The purpose of the assignment was to test our devising and vocal skills to embrace a contemporary audience into the tragedy of ‘Orestes’. 

     Our devising skills were put to the test via our understanding of the text and our originality by creating a scenario in the modern era that suited the speech.  While our vocal skills were the main focus and put to the test via our performance range and techniques used to make the speech all the more engaging.

     Firstly, we looked to our group’s scenario for the speech…   

Chosen Scenario – ‘Story Time’

     Analysing the final Chorus speech we found that the Chorus provided the perspective of lower class citizens and speak in a manner of sympathy towards ‘Orestes’.  In the previous scene the Chorus support ‘Orestes’ in his assassination of Aegisthus, while in this scene ‘Orestes’ regrets and morns Aegisthus, the Chorus represent the sympathetic side of his thoughts, telling him that the killing was a good act.  Because of its written style and sympathetic nature we devised the scenario of ‘Story Time’ at a primary school.

     We chose this scenario because of its nature of the speech’s ‘talking down to the listener’ and reflection of ‘innocence’ styles.  We deduced the ‘talking down to the listener’ through the Chorus’ means to encourage ‘Orestes’ that he did the right thing (when he believes he didn’t).  We deduced the ‘innocence’ style through the character of ‘Orestes’’ nakedness, as he has never committed a crime on this scale and the Chorus are more or less “playing the character on”. 

     We hoped to bring these styles to life in our scenario of ‘Story Time’ in a primary school; to have us as the teachers/Chorus and talk down to the children and tell them the story we feel is good and right, and not dark and wrong in contrast.  Giving the feeling of what a Chorus would look like in modern times and provide various perspectives on serious subjects.   

Personal Input

     Through our initial read through, of the Chorus speeches, I pictured the Chorus and the characters in a different manner and representing different character types.  My personal input was to have them be:

Chorus – The Police Force – To provide the true perspective of what is right and what is wrong.

Characters – The Royalists – To reflect the characters’ royal statuses in the play and reflect the moral that too much wealth and power is not always a good thing.  

     While we decided to represent the Chorus and characters through primary school teachers and children; I was still able to input towards our vocal performance of the Chorus speech.  Particularly emphasis; I noticed that we chose a speech filled with strong and meaningful words that I felt needed emphasising vocally.  These words listed from:

·         Blood

·         Slow

·         Shout

·         Justice

·         and Guilt

     I felt these words reflected the Chorus’ purpose of persuading ‘Orestes’ that his act of murder was not, necessarily, a bad thing.  Plus the emphasis, I felt, would intrigue our audience a step closer.

Vocal Performance

     With our chosen scenario being ‘Story Time’ in the setting of a primary school, we, as an ensemble, took these vocal performance styles:

·         Slow Pacing – to engage our audience, and reflect the teacher’s methods to get the children listening to the story.

·         Emphasis on Key Words – to further engage our audience, and represent a teacher’s style to either scare or get the children excited into the story.

·         Pitch Variations – based through our uses of whispers and sharp belches of key words, enhancing the dark tragedy elements of the play.

·         Repetition – our chosen pattern of speaking through the text was to read follow a pattern of one member reading first, followed by another etc. but our pattern and method of having all of us read the final line out loud enhance the image of the Chorus being a shared mind/perspective and working a sync with one another.  

     All of our vocal performance techniques, in the end, served as a homage towards previous Greek Chorus performance work and as a method to further enhance our audience into the story to conclude ‘Orestes’. 

     A key source of inspiration for our vocal performance was this example of a Greek Chorus in production: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP7_XERqv-Y.  I found the performers vocal range, through means of shouts and whispers and an unwritten pattern amongst their group members (as in who speaks first) came to great effect.  An engaging ensemble piece that I hoped to imitate, on a smaller scale, to enthral our audience to the performance and story of ‘Orestes’.

Techniques Used

     Through previous assignments and performances I found these vocal techniques to be the most helpful and efficient in supporting my vocal performance:

·         Facial and Throat Massages – I find these warmups to be the most efficient of all my used techniques.  The purpose of the facial massages is to remove any unwanted tensions within facial area.  Plus it supports efficient movement within the lips, cheeks, and nasal areas.  On the other hand, throat massages are used to support vocal cord warmups and support breath control, as the movements release carbon dioxide and ensure enough oxygen is delivered to the lungs and support towards the larynx.  These images will show the method of the massages and the support a throat massage can bring:

·         Intercostal and Diaphragm Muscle Stretches – These stretches are carried out through to ensure a healthy vocal performance.  The intercostal muscles support breath control within the lungs and loosen any unwanted tensions in between the rib cage.  While the diaphragm on the other hand is essential to support the respiratory system.  This brings about speech within the human body.  When oxygen is inhaled, it transfers down the lungs and to the diaphragm, where it can be adapted to support pitch, tone, range, and pacing.  These stretches are supported through physical stretches and breathing exercises to ensure that they are in the right state and efficient during the performance.  These image show how the stretches are carried out:

·         Alexander Technique – This is more of an actor’s performance technique to support their acting.  The purpose of the Alexander technique is to help the actor embody their character and given scenario.  The method is simply passed around meditation and relaxation and to slowly embrace their given character/scenario.  This can also support posture and relaxation within vocal muscles, thereby making the vocal performance fresh and adaptable for the main performance.

Previous Vocal Work

     When performing this Chorus speech and putting our vocal techniques to use in our vocal performance, we looked to our previous performance work to see what feedback we received and what we achieved that supported our vocal performance as a Greek Chorus.  Two assignments in particular, I found, were supportive vocally and helped me through this performance process.  These assignments were:

·         Radio Play – This assignment was supportive in the sense that we had more focus on vocal, and not physical, performance, just as we do for this performance.  But one aspect that I found the most similar was vocal range; as stated previously, we decided to give our scenario a smaller and quieter tone thereby enhancing interest to the story.  This, I found, was rather similar to our audio performance of a radio play, one method that I struggled with was vocal range.  In particular, understanding the scenes setting to support how the character would be speaking in this particular environment and how I would project this to a microphone.  All very different, in contrast to a stage performance.  Although because of our minimal vocal range in this performance, I felt a similarity that supported my vocal projection and bring about a mature and quieter performance.    

·         Shakespeare – Having worked on various Shakespearean pieces I became rather fond of the language and could see minor similarities within the writing of Shakespeare’s work and the Greek Theatre playwrights.  While not so much in language but more of written pattern.  During our first read through I did find it struggling to master the pattern and certain words, but this reminded me of a previous Shakespeare performance I took part in.  While I understood the language, I was confused as to how to perform the lines.  This was when I used Iambic Pentameter (Beats Per Minute).  The purpose of this technique is to assist in the performer’s deliver of their lines.  Iambic Pentameter ensures a steady and efficient pattern in which it gives the speech a rhythmic style that supports the performer’s delivery.  This is a technique I used for this performance to ensure I would not mispronounce any words or give no sense with the speech.