In our latest blog Dr Sarah Weston, Lecturer in Theatre Studies, shares her insights into the Vocal Care project – funded by the SALC Social Responsibility Award:
“I am sitting in a rehearsal room on a cold afternoon in February when Robert instructs the group to ‘get out their straw’. Obligingly, the group of eight participants reach in their bags to produce the metal straw previously provided and await instructions. ‘Getting out the straw’ has now become a normal activity for the participants attending Vocal Care workshops: when first given the straw a couple of weeks ago, there was a mixture of confusion, embarrassment or suspicion. Now, however, all the participants are pros – many of them tell us stories about how they have practiced with the straw throughout the week. One tells us how she has recommended the straw to her friend who suffers with breathing problems. Another tells us how he brought the straw on the stage with him when about to speak to an audience in his workplace.
Using a straw to support breathing and vocalization was one of many simple exercises undertaken in a series of workshops under the banner of Vocal Care. This was a four-week project funded by SALC Social Responsibility, run in partnership with The Octagon Theatre Bolton, and Unlocking Wellbeing in Bolton. Led by Dr Sarah Weston (Drama, University of Manchester), this project was comprised of participatory workshops for carers in the Bolton region exploring voice, vocal health and care. The sessions were run by Sarah with voice practitioner Robert Price.
Vocal Care utilized voice techniques derived from practices of actor training, aiming to build confidence, knowledge of vocal care, and improve wellbeing within the carer community in Bolton. Each Wednesday afternoon for 2 hours we would meet in a rehearsal room at the Octagon Theatre with a group of eight adults and slowly and gently lead a range of voice, breathing and movement exercises, responding to the needs of the room. These exercises would be punctuated by chat: conversations and anecdotes about voice, or public speaking, or accents, or confidence. Robert, an experienced voice teacher and manual vocal therapist, would follow the participant’s anecdotes like paths of enquiry, using a story about breathing difficulties, or a story about the voice being too quiet, as the starting point for a new exercise.
A lot of the participants in the room spoke about wanting confidence. This was of course confidence in public vocal activities, such as speaking in public, workplace events, or in a role of advocacy as a carer. But this also extended to a sense of confidence in general, wondering whether training the voice could simply improve confidence overall. This was interesting for Robert and me to work with, as we both agreed that confidence wasn’t something we could teach. What we could do, is offer a series of exercises that supported and strengthened the voice physiologically, which we believed leads to producing the “sound” of confidence, rather than confidence itself.
I opened this blog with the straw, which I would like to offer as one example of an exercise from the Vocal Care workshops. In this exercise, the participant is given a simple metal straw through which they practice breathing. The instruction is simply to bring the straw to the lips with the hand, and gently breathe through it. This can also be done breathing into a glass of water, delightfully producing bubbles. Once the participant has spent several minutes practicing breathing, they are invited to vocalise through the straw, beginning with a humming sound, and moving to sounding the notes of a simple song such as ‘Happy Birthday’. Using the straw helps strengthen the vocal chords in a safe a supportive way that stops them from tiring.
I find this exercise so interesting partly because it is so simple. It doesn’t sound like you need a voice expert to teach you how to do it. It is easily learnt, and easily passed on. It is also immediately effective, with participants declaring noticeable differences in terms of breathing and vocal strength, support and clarity. At the same time, the straw is not just a simple activity, but a legitimate technique utilised in voice and speech therapy. Robert remarked, for instance, how you could pay a voice and speech therapist a lot of money and they would still recommend you do the straw activity. I am interested in how a simple activity like this, is at the same time a valuable resource – something that in some circumstances can cost a lot of money to know about and learn. Here, in this room in Bolton, Robert passed on this tiny bit of knowledge – for nothing – and the participants took it away with them, and even taught it to other people they knew. A redistribution of the knowledge of voice production, voice care, and vocal resource happened.
The Vocal Care project felt like a big success – the participants were emphatic about how much they enjoyed it and how much they learnt. There was a sense that the workshops provided valuable ‘me time’ for carers, as well as practical skills they could take away. Excitingly, the Octagon Theatre has programmed another iteration of the workshops, allowing us to continue working with carers as well as one of their adult participatory groups.”