Papers by Dr Fiona Horsthemke
Voice practitioners uphold a tradition of acknowledging their master teachers and their influence... more Voice practitioners uphold a tradition of acknowledging their master teachers and their influence on one's own teaching practice and methods developed. Apart from the respect accorded these teachers, this tradition connects an individual practice to a broader voice practice and to a culture of voice coaching. I have not been influenced by one master teacher, but rather learnt from a variety of teachers and coaches who I have worked with over my years as an actress and coach in the industry. My technique and process have not only been affected by directors, teachers and coaches but by the many students and actors I have coached in classrooms, rehearsal rooms and on film sets, for 30 and years whose passion and commitment to their craft and to learning has inspired me. My work ethic was initially motivated by my first ballet teacher Josie Pretorius and furthered by my Spanish dancing teacher Mercedes Molina. Both instilled in me an understanding of the need for discipline of body and mind to succeed not only in the arts industry, but as a general tenet in life. Drama teachers Moira Winslow, Mavis Taylor, Robin Lake, Jasmin Honore, Susie Parker and Prof Robert Mohr influenced choices I made when studying at UCT that have stayed with me long after leaving drama school.
Voice practitioners uphold a tradition of acknowledging their master teachers and their influence... more Voice practitioners uphold a tradition of acknowledging their master teachers and their influence on one's own teaching practice and methods developed. Apart from the respect accorded these teachers, this tradition connects an individual practice to a broader voice practice and to a culture of voice coaching. I have not been influenced by one master teacher, but rather learnt from a variety of teachers and coaches who I have worked with over my years as an actress and coach in the industry. My technique and process have not only been affected by directors, teachers and coaches but by the many students and actors I have coached in classrooms, rehearsal rooms and on film sets, for 30 and years whose passion and commitment to their craft and to learning has inspired me. My work ethic was initially motivated by my first ballet teacher Josie Pretorius and furthered by my Spanish dancing teacher Mercedes Molina. Both instilled in me an understanding of the need for discipline of body and mind to succeed not only in the arts industry, but as a general tenet in life. Drama teachers Moira Winslow, Mavis Taylor, Robin Lake, Jasmin Honore, Susie Parker and Prof Robert Mohr influenced choices I made when studying at UCT that have stayed with me long after leaving drama school.
Voice practitioners uphold a tradition of acknowledging their master teachers and their influence... more Voice practitioners uphold a tradition of acknowledging their master teachers and their influence on one's own teaching practice and methods developed. Apart from the respect accorded these teachers, this tradition connects an individual practice to a broader voice practice and to a culture of voice coaching. I have not been influenced by one master teacher, but rather learnt from a variety of teachers and coaches who I have worked with over my years as an actress and coach in the industry. My technique and process have not only been affected by directors, teachers and coaches but by the many students and actors I have coached in classrooms, rehearsal rooms and on film sets, for 30 and years whose passion and commitment to their craft and to learning has inspired me. My work ethic was initially motivated by my first ballet teacher Josie Pretorius and furthered by my Spanish dancing teacher Mercedes Molina. Both instilled in me an understanding of the need for discipline of body and mind to succeed not only in the arts industry, but as a general tenet in life. Drama teachers Moira Winslow, Mavis Taylor, Robin Lake, Jasmin Honore, Susie Parker and Prof Robert Mohr influenced choices I made when studying at UCT that have stayed with me long after leaving drama school.
South African Theatre Journal, 2018
Your Breath in Art is the last written contribution to the performing arts by actress Beatrice Ma... more Your Breath in Art is the last written contribution to the performing arts by actress Beatrice Manley, whose theatrical career spanned six decades, from Broadway to theatres in Los Angeles, during which she played some of the great tragi-comic roles of modern drama. Co-founder and leading actress of the San Francisco Actor's Workshop, Manley originated the title role in Brecht's Mother Courage in America, played some of Genet's and Beckett's memorable women and wrote three books on acting, a series of original plays, librettos and a screenplay. She was also a reader for radio, a medium that relies solely on flexibility, clarity and range of voiceand this influence and focus are evident in her book. She taught at the California Institute of the Arts and received an Honorary Doctorate from Cal Arts for her work as a teacher of acting and voice. First published in 1998 entitled My Breath in Art: Acting from Within, a second edition followed in 2017 and was released as Your Breath in Art: Acting from Within, indicating a shift from her personal archive of 60 years in theatre. This compendium for actors was intended to appeal more widely as a collection of meditations and reflections on the complex phenomenon of the craft of acting. Manley says in her introduction that she is setting out 'to write a nice book about acting that even I wouldn't be scared to read' (p.4) and attempts to demystify the art of acting. She acknowledges the inherent 'paradox' of acting (p.90) that requires both the 'fragility of fragment of memory … with the need to speak in a real voice and project' (p.1). At the heart of the book is the author's assertion that 'Acting, arguably, is easy. Learning to act is hard' (p.58) and she sets out to define, deconstruct and detail the nuance and complexity of learning this art, always making the reader aware of the 'mosaic of possibility' at the actor's disposal. The author skilfully gathers her wealth of experience to weave philosophical and practical guidance into a collection expressed partly as anecdotes by well-known actors and informed by her own experiences, and partly as her own teaching practice. Her theory includes insights gained from exposure to the many systems or models of acting and related methods, and embraces elements of Stanislavksi's system of acting, 1 Strasberg's Method, 2 the martial art Tai Chi 3 and the Alexander Technique. 4 Manley does not favour a single approach to acting or vocal pedagogy, but rather a synthesis of several methods encountered during her substantial career, and the book draws together the elements of acting craft invariably taught independently. Essential to acting is the interconnectedness between voice, body and mind, and integration of all related techniques. While the student actor is taught movement independently of voice, and acting independently of either, Manley links these throughout, insisting each informs the otherperhaps suggesting that the mystery lies in that
Shakespeare in Southern Africa, 2020
In multicultural and multilingual South Africa, recent initiatives to decolonise curricula have s... more In multicultural and multilingual South Africa, recent initiatives to decolonise curricula have suggested dispensing with the works of Shakespeare and other ‘Western’ texts to make space for African and postcolonial texts. The elevated and archaic language of classical texts often proves difficult for students to access comprehensively and discourages their interest or engagement. This article gives an account of the author’s interventions in the field of Theatre and Performance, and specifically vocal pedagogy, to tackle the language conundrum and therefore to broaden entry into and to invigorate Shakespeare’s plays. The study of Original Pronunciation (OP) is proposed as a means of ‘levelling the playing field’. In the project described, characters from the Shakespearean canon are chosen as possibly representative of individual students’ cultural backgrounds; then key speeches are translated into students’ first/home languages, spoken in the accents of those languages, shared and ...
Uploads
Papers by Dr Fiona Horsthemke