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Volume 2, Issue 4
October 2006
Table of Contents:
A Message from the President
From the Editor
VASTA Conference Review
Meet the Board
ATHE 2007 in New Orleans
Membership Directory
A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
Dear VASTAns
This is my first letter to you all as VASTA’s new president and I must confess to a certain trepidation on facing this particular duty of the presidency. My predecessors in this role have been so remarkable, and, having served on the board and as secretary for some years I have had a front row seat from which to observe them. When I lower my hands to the keyboard, my attempts to express the news and achievements of this incredible organization are thwarted by an uncharacteristic shyness. My mother always told me not to brag. But that’s the job, and, fortunately for me, there’s always plenty to brag about.
My first business is to announce that two board members Marya Lowry and Rocco Dal Vera concluded their terms this August and I’d like to thank them for their marvelous service. We will miss them. New members joining the board are Craig Ferre, Patty Raun and Christine Morris, who will serve until August of 2009.
For those of you who were unable to attend this year’s conference I’m sorry to inform you that you missed a great one. Our presenters, Louis Colaianni, Charlotte Fleck and Dudley Knight were entertaining and thought-provoking and for the first time in any conference in my memory, we reveled unabashedly in the “S” of VASTA. We also had two exciting guest presenters. Dr. Teresa Reed came prepared to give a lecture/demonstration on the history of Gospel music but when she discovered how enthusiastically we joined in with the singing she adjusted her program. We still got a taste of her scholarship but we spent most of the hour in joyous song. In place of our usual presentation on voice science, Dr. Salikoko S. Mufwene, from the Department of Linguistics at the University of Chicago gave a remarkable lecture on his research into creoles and what they teach him about language evolution. He was wonderfully erudite on a topic that has interesting ramifications for all voice and speech trainers. The conference ended with a day of presentations from VASTA members that demonstrated how much this organization has to offer.
This conference also marked VASTA’s 20th birthday. We celebrated the occasion with cake and champagne and speeches by founding mothers Mary Corrigan and Lucille Rubin. We also honored a few of our own and I’d like pay homage to them again here. Three VASTA members were recognize for their contribution in creating what have become vital organs of communication for us: Rocco Dal Vera for his service as founding Editor of our journal, the Voice and Speech Review, Dudley Knight for creating and administrating our listserv, VASTAVOX, and Eric Armstrong for designing and implementing Vasta.org, our website. These are incredibly important instruments for VASTA and we honor these gentlemen for their foresight and energy in bringing them to life. Our final award was for Lifetime Achievement and it went, appropriately, to our founding president Dorothy Runk Mennen. Dorothy wasn’t able to attend but we left a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday dear VASTA” on her answering machine.
My deepest thanks to Phil Timberlake who organized such an amazing conference. It’s especially nice for me when Phil does excellent work because people tend to confuse us (I’m easily confused after all) and I am often offered the thanks intended for him. I always pass them on, though. So if you want to want to praise me for the masterpiece of organization and grace that was this summer’s conference, I’ll be sure to let him know.
It was a heartening experience to take some time during this conference to celebrate VASTA’s 20 th birthday. It’s remarkable how much this organization has accomplished in that time and it makes me optimistic in imagining our future. The board is, of course, continually imagining that future in both the short and long term. Back in November of 2004, VASTA held a retreat with 24 current and past board members to talk and dream about what VASTA can be and to articulate goals for the next decade of growth. You can look at the document here http://www.vasta.org/publications/vasta_vision.html . As we work to find ways of integrating this vision into the more immediate, ongoing work of the organization, we have focused on three main themes: Diversity, Pedagogy and Internationalization. We have formed ad hoc committees to carry the planning forward and you may have noticed already that we’re making an effort to address these themes regularly in our conferences and other activities. If you have a particular interest in contributing in these areas, please contact Beth McGee for Diversity, Joanna Cazden for Pedagogy or Rocco Dal Vera for Internationalization.
I’m very excited to be able to announce our conference location for next year. We’ll be in Denver, Colorado with a conference focusing on Voice Science and taking advantage of the National Center of Voice and Speech at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. We’ll be announcing specific dates, presenters and other goodies at a later date, but I hope this whets your appetites.
Word,
Phil Thompson
FROM THE EDITOR
Dear VASTA Members,
Greetings! I hope the new semester and the autumn season are treating you well!
First, congratulations, and welcome, to the new members of the Board; Craig Ferre, Christine Morris and Patty Raun. As a follow-up to the welcoming words from the incoming VASTA President, Phil Thompson, I hope that you enjoy this September issue of the VASTA Voice.
Next month the VASTA Voice will feature minutes from the annual VASTA board meeting, as well as VASTA Members News; please keep an eye out for requests for news and updates from your regional editor about this feature. Also, the upcoming issue of VASTA Voice will welcome articles from members. The deadline is October 20 th. If you have articles you would like to share with the VASTA membership through the VASTA Voice, then please send your ideas and inquiries to me at < ahetzel25@aol.com> and the Associate Editor, Mark Ingram at <voicefightguy@yahoo.ca.>
With VASTA’s future goals and focus in the areas of diversity, pedagogy, and internationalization, the VASTA Voice welcomes articles on these topics, as well as others. The Voice is also a great way to connect with the membership. One article has already been submitted by Jon DeBoer on the “Archetypes of Myth” workshop that took place this past summer in England. The workshop was coordinated by Janet Rogders and was well attended by VASTA members. You can read all about in the November VASTA Voice.
As always, a special thank you to Mark Ingram, Associate Editor, and Michael Barnes, Technical Support, for their assistance and technical wizardry; these gentlemen are instrumental in putting the newsletter together and getting it out to you.
We would love to hear your article ideas!
Allison Hetzel
Editor
VASTA Conference In Review
VASTA marked its 20th anniversary at its annual conference entitled Babble: Encountering Sound and Speech, August 7-10 in Chicago. Among the many highlights was a champagne toast and celebration in honor of VASTA’s founding mothers Lucille Rubin, Bonnie Raphael, Mary Corrigan and Dorothy Mennen. Three other members were honored for their outstanding contributions to VASTA – Dudley Knight and his creation of VASTAVOX, Eric Armstrong for bringing VASTA on line with our wonderful website and Rocco Dal Vera, the founding editor of the Voice & Speech Review. For those of us who have been members of VASTA for many years, it was with pride that we reviewed our many accomplishments. For our new members it was an opportunity to learn of the organization’s rich history and to get an understanding of their charge to carry it forward.
Conference planner Phil Timberlake creatively wove the theme of the conference, Sound and Speech around three key note presenters – Dudley Knight, Louis Colaianni, and Charlotte Fleck – two guest presenters and numerous member presentations. Dudley Knight, known to most VASTA members, has a forty year career as voice, speech, dialect coach and actor. He and his colleague from University of California Irvine, Phil Thompson, shared their creation of a universal language called Omnish which incorporates all the sounds the human vocal track is capable of making. Through focused practice of this made up language, we experienced first hand how students gain greater control over the mechanisms that create intelligible sounds.
Louis Colaianni, a voice and text coach for many major regional theatres and is the author of four books, among them The Joy of Phonetics and pioneered the teaching of IPA through the use of Phonetic pillows, delighted participants with his kinesthetic approach to speech work. We colored, danced, tossed IPA pillows, spoke text and thoroughly explored the vast range of sound and speech.
Charlotte Fleck who currently teaches for the Graduate Acting Program in Brooklyn College, shared her speech work, that has grown out of a foundation in Edith Skinner and integrated into her own unique approach. She offered valuable techniques and fresh strategies to text exploration.
The final day of the conference was devoted to VASTA member presentations. Conference attendees had a smorgasbord of eighteen presentations from which to choose. A great deal of energy was generated as we trouped from session to session trying to see as many as the limited time allowed.
Two outstanding special all-conference sessions were universally popular. Dr. Teresa Reed from the University of Tulsa led us in gospel singing as she spoke of Black Sacred Music: A Condensed Chronology. She was moved, as we all were, by the spirit with which we shared our voices in song. Guest presenter Salikoko S. Mufwene who teaches linguistics at the University of Chicago charmed us all with a discussion on the development of Creoles in language evolution.
The ever-popular “Things that Work,” chaired by Claudia Anderson, was especially moving as we all shared the questions in our work that keep us reaching forward. Finally we spoke of what continues to motivate us. Which provided the general overall response to this year’s VASTA conference – inspiring!
Meet Your New VASTA Board Members
CRAIG FERRE
Almost forty years ago, over the course of two years, I was a member of David Jones' Shakespeare Players at the University of Utah. David stressed the importance of voice work and obtained the services of a young, energetic and knowledgeable voice teacher who lead us through several voice "boot camps." That dynamo of a trainer was Mary Corrigan. In that short space of time we all grew to love and respect her. She transformed our abilities masterfully. These many years later, her work continues to form the foundation of my work.
With this same company, I was also fortunate to enjoy the expertise and nurturing of Carol Pendergrast who was brought in to teach voice year round. What a blessing it was to work with her as well. She truly went the extra mile. She secretly (I found out later) arranged for a series of Alexander sessions for me out of her own pocket.
Those two trainers (along with the loving guidance of David Jones) were the full extent of my voice training when I came to work at Brigham Young University Hawaii. BYUH is a small liberal arts university; I am the only professor of theatre. As a consequence I teach the gamut of theatre courses and therefore voice is only one aspect of my teaching duties. But as I look at all the skills and knowledge needed in those various courses, I have always felt that voice (in all its aspects) is the most difficult to master, and despite my good fortune to have been tutored by two of VASTA's founding mothers, voice is the area in which I need to continually work the most.
I should like to mention one additional significant mentor. Some twenty years ago I met, by chance, Neil Freeman. I‘ve been able to lure him (with the aid of tropical breezes) to conduct a series of mini residencies on a regular basis since then. He has enlightened my students and me over the years on all things Shakespeare. I hold him and his work in the highest esteem.
When I had completed my doctoral work and was able do other professional training activities I began to attend ATHE where I discovered VASTA. Because of my diverse subject load, I attended a variety of offerings and forum groups. It was clear, though, that VASTA was by far the most well organized, helpful and actively functioning and dedicated of all of the forums. I also have always felt in VASTA a genuine welcoming spirit and comradery that far surpasses all other groups. So many members encouraged me and reached out to me. Those members who know me better know that I am relatively "quiet"—the type that could easily be lost in the shuffle. I am truly grateful to all who have reached out to me and afforded me this opportunity and honor to serve in what I believe is the finest professional organization of all.
CHRISTINE MORRIS
It is a privilege to have been elected to the Board of VASTA, an organization I hold very dear. I have been a VASTA member since 1996, and have actively been involved in VASTA as a Regional Editor, Associate Editor and Editor of the VASTA newsletter.
I was fortunate to study with Bonnie Raphael for three years as an MFA student in acting at the University of Virginia, and she has continued to be a cherished influence over the years. My work is also strongly influenced by over ten years of collaboration with Ellen Hemphill and Archipelago Theatre, a Roy Hart based company in Chapel Hill, and I am indebted to other teachers, directors, and playwrights as well, including the late Venice Manley and her generous and beautiful work with polyphonic singing, director Richard Foreman, Romulus Linney, and the work of John Barton.
I have worked as a voice coach on numerous theatrical productions, video and audio projects, and with private clients in business, entertainment, and television journalism.
As an actor, my work includes performances with the New York Shakespeare Festival, The Public Theatre, Playmakers Repertory, The Asolo Theatre. With Archipelago, I developed the original solo Blue Roses, which received several productions in the US. Most recently, it was a gift to originate the role of The Woman in Romulus Linney’s one-woman play Silver River, which has had productions in NC, Oregon, Tennessee, a workshop at the Actors’ Studio in NYC, and was invited to be part of the Horton Foote American Playwrights Festival honoring Linney.
After eleven years on the theater faculty at Duke University, last year I joined the Department of Theatre at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where I teach acting and voice/speech in the BFA and MFA acting programs. I am a member of Actors Equity Association and Screen Actors’ Guild.
Last fall I moved to Greensboro, where I live with my husband Jeffery West, who is an actor/director and teacher. We have a daughter, Maggie, who is a senior at UNC Chapel Hill.
I am very happy to have been elected to the board of this dynamic organization and look forward to serving. Thank you for electing me!
PATTY RAUN
I'm honored to be a new board member for an organization that has contributed so many positive things to my life. Nearly twenty years ago I attended the first VASTA conference at Pace University in 1987 and was deeply moved by the intelligent, committed and caring women and men I met there. They put their hearts and minds into this work and their inspiration has sustained my continued growth in the field. VASTA has provided me a forum for debate, career opportunities, and connections with visionaries in my profession. I am eager to use my skills in an active role in this exemplary organization.
I am in my forth year as Head of the Department of Theatre Arts at Virginia Tech. Much of my current professional life is administrative (we're building two new theatre buildings and going through NAST reaccredidation right now!) but I came to the theatre as an actress. I’ve been a member of Actor's Equity Association since 1991, and have acted in over 100 professional productions in theatre's across the country, appeared in over 75 television and film productions, and served as a voice and dialect coach on over 35 productions. In the last few years I've devoted much of my time to assisting the development of new scripts. In the summer of 2005 I performed a world premiere called Eurydice by Tom Gardner. Last spring I worked on a world premiere musical adaptation of Great Expectations! by Edwin Wilson and Doug Katsaros.
Kate Burke was the department's voice teacher when I received my BFA from the University of Nebraska and she sparked my interest in the field. Barry Kurr solidified that interest as I studied with him in the Professional Actor Training Program at Penn State where I received my MFA. In my career I have been privileged to have studied with Bonnie Raphael, Kristin Linklater, Fran Bennett, Cicely Berry, Marge Barstow, Andrew Wade, Louis Colaianni, Raphael Lopez-Barrantes and Arthur Lessac, and informally learned from many of you here in VASTA. My voice teaching, though certainly Linklater based, is a mix of approaches.
I'm married to a cellist who is a founding member of the Kandinsky Trio. We live in the woods with our two teenage sons, three cats, dog, mouse and fish -- so life is very full. I am so pleased to add service on the board of VASTA to the smorgasbord of my life. Thank you for electing me!
ATHE 2007 in New Orleans
Hello VASTA:
Below you will find information about the ATHE 2007 conference and submission process. Please note that the DEBUT PANEL will accept submissions for “First-Time ATHE Presenter” (see details below). You can be a participant in this panel, even if you have already presented at conferences other than ATHE.
REGENERATIONS
“Theatre and Performance as a Regenerative Force with New Orleans as the Reference Point”
July 26-29, Sheraton New Orleans Hotel
VASTA's Conference will take place about this same time in Denver.
For New Members: What is ATHE?
ATHE Association for Theatre in Higher Education is an organization that brings together educators from a wide variety of theatre disciplines (acting, movement, directing, musical theatre, history/criticism, etc.). The ATHE conference (an annual event) offers you a great opportunity to reach out and share your work with colleagues from any, or all, of these other disciplines. If you are interested in submitting a proposal for ATHE 2006, read on. . .
Application Process - Deadline November 1st
Application forms are all submitted online and go directly to ATHE. I see them only after they are submitted. It is not required, but you can contact me to review or respond to your ideas before submitting your application.
- Application forms will be posted soon on the ATHE website www.athe.org.
- Forms must be submitted electronically from this site no later that November 1st.
- When you complete your proposal, click “submit” and you will get a confirmation and recap of what you submitted.
- Incomplete forms will not be accepted.
Types of Proposals and Suggested Topics:
- Workshops are for demonstrating practical, hands-on work. Workshops usually have a minimum of three (3) presenters but can include more. *Be aware of time constraints when choosing number of participants.
- Paper Panels can have no more than three (3) speakers plus a non-presenting Chair. Panel participants can serve as Chair.
- Debut Panel We encourage "First-Time ATHE Presenters" to share hands-on voice exercises and/or paper topics. Don't be shy. We welcome your ideas! Please send your “proposed exercise to present” or paper abstract directly to me by November 1st.
- Pedagogy Discussion/Demonstration Panels VASTA is interested in panels that present “strategies for new teachers” or “new/fresh ideas for seasoned instructors.” Discussion panels usually have a minimum of three (3) presenters but can include more. *Be aware of time constraints when choosing number of participants.
- Single Sessions (90 min) are sponsored by only one (1) Focus Group.
- Double Sessions use twice the time (180 min) and count twice in the rankings.
- Multidisciplinary Panels Please contact me if you plan to put together a Multidisciplinary Panel. These panels must be sponsored by at least three (3) Focus Groups and the Conference Planner. Each Focus Group must be contacted. If you have an idea for a multidisciplinary panel but don’t have a group assembled, let me know and I can help you to reach interested parties from other Focus Groups.
- Seminars are roundtable discussions with up to twenty participants each. You can submit a paper to more than one seminar, but only one will be accepted as sessions run concurrently. There are four seminar topics to choose from: Puppets and Performing Objects in Contemporary Performance, The Case for Globalization in Theatre Studies, Modern Drama: Comparative Approaches, Production. 250 word abstracts due by November 1st.
What Happens to My Proposal?
All proposals must be sent electronically to ATHE by November 1st. ATHE checks for content and sends everything back to me (early November). I have a few days to review the proposals before sending them on to the VASTA Board. The VASTA Board and Conference Planner separately assess and rank proposals, then send this information back to ATHE. All participants are notified of proposal results by March 1, 2006.
How Does Ranking Work?
The number of panels available to any Focus Group is limited based on number of proposals submitted, number of rooms available at the conference site, types of proposals submitted, etc. While there is no set formula for ranking, the goal is to include those presentations that best reflect the needs and interests of the given Focus Group and ATHE Conference. As Conference Planner, I serve as a go-between and advocate for proposals in the submission process. If, for example, two panels are duplicating material and, in essence, canceling each other out, I will contact these panels to help them combine or re-direct. Or, if several multidisciplinary panels are proposed, I might suggest that one of the panels be submitted through another Focus Group. The idea is to give each panel whatever advantage possible given the combination of proposals being submitted.
Answers to FAQs
- All participants are required to register for the conference. You will know if your panel has been accepted by early March.
- Presenters are limited to two (2) appearances per conference.
- Session Coordinator is the person who puts together the panel and organizes the participants. Session Chair leads the panel itself at the conference. These two jobs can be done by the same person.
- Each session is allowed one free piece of A/V equipment (as liste d), if ordered by May 1st. Payment is required if ordered after May 1st, or if other equipment is required such as VCR, DVD or LCD. Grants are available for equipment costs.
Where Can I Get More Information?
- If you have questions about the submission process or if you just want to talk through your ideas, pls. don’t hesitate to contact me at pdc@mail.utexas.edu. Be sure to put ATHE on the subject line.
- All conference information will be available soon on the ATHE website, www.athe.org.
Many thanks! I look forward to the process ahead and to an amazing conference in New Orleans.
Pamela Christian
VASTA Conference Planner 2007
P. Christian
Dept. of Theatre and Dance
UT Austin, Austin, TX
512-232-5313
pdc@mail.utexas.edu
VASTA Membership Directory
Compiled by
Lynn Watson
Have you moved recently? You can now update your information in the VASTA 
Database through our online form. Use the navigation on the left of any page to select Membership, and then click on "Update Your Contact Info." This will take you swiftly to the update form. The form sends an email to Craig Ferre who will update your entry in the VASTA Database, which we use for all our contact information (like when we email the VASTA Voice). If you would like to update your Professional Index form, you will need to go to the Update form for that separately: the VASTA Database and the Professional Index are separate entities, and are not connected at all.
In our efforts to streamline our communication by switching to an electronic format, the VASTA Membership Directory is now available as an Adobe Acrobat file. By switching to this format, members can conveniently store the entire directory on their computers. They will also be able to do a quick search of the directory for members via the Acrobat Reader program.
In order to store the directory file on your computer, please click on this link to open the PDF file into your browser. From the browser window, you can click on the button (Floppy Disk) within Acrobat to save the document to your computer.
Please note: To protect the privacy of our members, this Directory is password protected. After opening the directory, by following the link below, you can either save it to your computer or bookmark the page. In order to access the file, you will need to contact either Lynn Watson or Michael J. Barnes to receive the password
In order to store this file on your computer please click on this link, to open the the PDF file into your browser. From the browser window, you can click on the button (Floppy Disk) within Acrobat to save the document to your computer.
http://wwwstage.vasta.org/publications/directory/MembershipDirectory06.pdf
If you do not have Acrobat on your computer, you can download it for Windows, Macintosh, Unix, or your mobile device. Simply click on the button below.
©2005, Voice and Speech Trainers Association
Questions or comments? E-mail us at vastavoice@vasta.org
This site is designed and maintained by VASTA Director of Technology, Michael J. Barnes , with assistance from Chris Neher.