Expert: Wanda Reinholdt - 11/14/2007

Question
QUESTION: Mrs. Reinholdt:

Our local community theater group is producing "Greater Tuna" early next year and I plan to audition.  Physically I think that I would be best suited for the characters originally portrayed by Mr. Joe Sears as I have a larger build and would have the presence for those characters.

As I have started my audition preparation I am struggling with developing a character voice that is natural and believable for the two female characters: Bertha Bumiller and Pearl Burris. They are both Texan, so an accent seems necessary, and the characters are distinct: Bertha is lower middle class with the desire to be respected in the community and Pearl is older and very colorful (almost Jonathon Winters' Maudie as a Texan).  It seems to me that the humor must come from the situations and that the performance needs to be honest and not exaggerated or a caricature.

I realize that if cast our director, who is a theatre professional, will help me continue to embody these characters and may have helpful techniques, but I would appreciate any suggestions that would help me to discover these ladies as I go into the auditions.


Thanks for your time and for sharing your expertise!

William



ANSWER: Hi there, William.  Thanks for writing.  

First of all, it's great that you have chosen two roles to look at.  But it's important that you choose one and focus on it.  So my first suggestion is to choose the character that inspires you the most.  Which one makes you want to dig more?  Which one is most interesting to you?  

After you choose, then it's important that you take some steps back as you are putting the cart before the horse sort to speak.  Accents and voice are not something you should start with.  Where you should begin is to take at least a couple of weeks with each of these steps - practising at least for a couple of hours each day:

Put aside the accent and just choose which monologue you are going to do.  

From that point, I would concentrate on memorizing the monologue without any accent or any choices.  Just get the words into your head.  

Once you have the words, then begin to practice just with your own voice.  What you want to decide is what the goal of the character is in the monologue and get some ideas on some actions that they could perform to get to that goal.

Then, once you have thoroughly made your choices there, then begin to rehearse with the accent.  

You may find that just using your own voice is even funnier.

Voices usually come from the experimentation with different choices.  And the different choices usually come out of trying different ideas with the script.  

If you take the time to work at building the character like this, she will appear.  

Does that help?

Wanda



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Wanda,

Thank you.  I do appreciate the wisdom of everything that you said.

I don't think  I was clear in describing my situation; if cast I would actually be asked to play a total of ten different characters, so I will have to demonstrate a reading that relays an ability to "be" several different folks.. I have been studying these eclectic folks and trying to get into their heads and skin as I have been familiarizing myself with the monologues/readings that will be part of the audition.  The two female characters just seem to be harder.  It is very helpful though to remember that my own natural voice is the foundation..perhaps the nuances won't come until I have inhabited the characters in the actual rehearsal process.

Again, thank you for sharing you knowledge and experience!

William

Answer
Hi William...Thanks for clarifying.  

Yea.  Usually when a character is most difficult, it means that you will need to play with it more and try things.  Usually a rehearsal process will help but a large part of the work will probably be at home for you on these.  Keep playing.  I think it will come for you if you do.

Wanda