Interview with Christine Adaire

INTERVIEWING CHRISTINE ADAIRE

“I don’t think there ever is a time when you’re done”

An actor, a singer, a speaker... needs to use a natural and wide expressive voice in order to “touch” as much as possible his or her own audience. Then ¿how do we explain this nowadays obsession to mask and alter the colour of oneself sound? We’ve spoken with Christine Adaire, licensed teacher of Linklater method, about this and other topics.

Christine Adaire

What’s the Linklater method, when was it created who did it and why?
The method was created by Christine Linklater -who is now teaching in the United States- in the 60s in England. It really came out of the work of her teacher, who was a voice teacher in London named Iris Warren. And Iris Warren was very interested in psychological part of voice. She was a very traditional voice teacher who taught elocution in a very traditional way, and she became interested in why some people couldn’t speak clearly when they were in very emotional states. So she began developing series of exercises that had the purpose of reconnecting thought and feeling with the voice. Because she thought that we were all warn with perfectly expressive voices that didn’t tire, that had a lot of branch and if you think of babies, they have incredible voices! But as we are socialized, there becomes a split between what we’re thinking and feeling and what we communicate. We purse our feelings, for very good reasons sometimes, but then the communication is changed. And voice becomes less expressive. So she (Iris) began developing this work and Christine Linklater, who was her student in the late 1950 in The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, was taken on as her prodigy. And she continued developing her work after Iris died and it became the Linklater method.
So the purpose is to reconnect thought and feeling with the voice.

Is it dedicated for everybody or only for actors and singers?
I think it’s for everybody. I think it’s primarily a speaking voice technique. Singing has very special demands and though this technique could help it is not a complete method for it. But certainly it’s for anyone who wants to develop his speaking voice, actors and ordinary people.

How does it work?
A lot of this technique is about recognising habit: what is the habitual use of my body, what is the habitual use of my voice. And that’s very difficult to get out because habit by it’s nature is unconscious. And so the first part of the work is becoming aware of what is it what I do and then discovering where are my places of pulling, where do I keep muscular tension in my body. And then there are exercises to release that tension so that the voice can be more expressive.

Who can teach the Linklater method? Is there any process a person must follow to be ready for this purpose?
We have a system for training teachers and it’s a very long process. It’s many, many years. If you complete that process you become what we call a designater Linklater teacher. And all the licensed teachers are listed in our website (www.linklater.de). We have teachers all over the world, mostly in the United States. But we also have teachers in England, quite a few in Germany and one in Madrid. And we are just in a process now of trade marking the name Linklater. So that, at the moment is confusing because a lot of people call themselves Linklater Teachers or Trained Linklater Teachers and maybe they’ve only done one workshop with a Linklater Teacher. So we are in the process of organising ourselves so that it will be clearer for people to know if they’re working with somebody who knows the method very well.

Is it easy or difficult to learn it?
That’s a complicated question… Well, I think it’s a long process. Whether it’s difficult I don’t know by itself. It does take a lot of self investigation and practise. As any singing or dancing technique. If you really want to incorporate it in the way that you work (so you can really use it) it takes a lot of attention to yourself. Diligence and rigor.

Why do you think we do need different methods to find our natural voice?
After my observation of children and babies, their voices are extraordinary, they have lot of expression and great range in notes. I’ve never known a baby who’s lost his voice, something that happens as we grow up. People, for different reasons, don’t learn habits that are healthy with the voice. They learn habits they’re limiting their range of expression. And I think it’s great to have different methods to free it because people learn in many many different ways. I’ve studied other techniques myself. And all of them are good if they’re about learning how to use your voice in a healthy way and having the maximum amount of expression which is certainly important whether you’re speaking or singing.

Is the method useful to “play” songs?
Yes. A lot of the work deals with connecting up with images, very much with the imagination. So whether I’m working on the lyrics of a song or a piece of Shakespeare I have to have my imagination very alive to the words and to the images that are behind the work. So I think it would be useful for singing songs as well. But I do wanna say it is not a complete method for singing.

¿Está desaconsejado su uso en algún caso?
No. Todo el mundo puede utilizarlo pero para ello necesitará de práctica diaria, algo de lo que se quejan la mayoría de estudiantes que buscan resultados inmediatos. Pero este sistema exige de trabajo.

Are we honest with our voice or we use it for hiding?
Ah! Well, I guess I could speak for my own experience and I will have to say I do both. Actually, the technique is about examining that, and it doesn’t say necessarily is bad to hide and good to reveal, because I think they both have their places. In this hole process of socialisation as I learned how to use my voice to hide, that can be very good for me, at times. And I think it’s good to recognise they’re times in my life when it might not be to my advantage to completely say how I’m feeling or thinking, times when I don’t want that to be known. So, if I’m really angry with my employer, it might not be to my advantage to express that if I’m going to have a meeting with them, it might be to my advantage to hide my feelings and speak in a different way. But, as an actor, I really need to be able to do both. And in my own life I can always have the choice.

Can you do a diagnostic of Catalan voices: qualities and problems?
I’ve found a lot of holding in the breathing, controlling what you’re feeling by fighting holding the breath. I’ve found a lot of tongue tension. It’s maybe because of the vowels… In my students in the U.S. I have a lot of problems with the sound being too fore back in the mouth. I have to say I haven’t found that as much here. But the tongue seems to be very involved in pushing the sound out in the students here. But I don’t know if that’s typical or not.

Recommendations for beginners…
A good voice teacher. That’s what I would recommend. Somebody you feel comfortable with. I think the teacher is more important than the method. Someone who listens to you and who’s very interested in your progress and gets the student a clear guide of what to do. And I guess I would also recommend patience. And to stay with it. Because I think it does take a long time. And also to know that changes happen all the time.

And for professionals…
I would say to continue studying. I’m also an actor and a teacher and I think my training is life long. And to just keep on learning other things. To be curious about that. I feel really lucky that I’ve found a field that I love, I’m interested in, I’m fascinated by. And I think maybe that’s the best thing for an actor. To continue working: because I don’t think there ever is a time when you’re done.

What about voice fashions…
What I like very much about Linklater method and I see there’s in other methods right now is that there seems to be an integration of the physical work and the voice. And I think that’s really important. I’ve been studying different voice teachers from a hundred years ago looking at their books and writings and talking to people that work with other methods and there seems to be a separation between the voice and the body, a lot of the work is done just sitting in a chair. What I do like about the train now is that is a more physical work, it makes sense, of course voice involves the hole body.

How can we know if a technique we’re learning is good or bad?
That’s tricky because you could have a student who’s practising badly. But if the technique is consistently showing damages to voices, it is obviously bad.

Is it possible to completely control our voices? Do we achieve it? Is it good?
Controlling my voice… the Linklater method searches a transparent voice, to know the person through the voice. That implies a freedom. Then, if I wanted to be less transparent, I would control my voice.

Are there pretty and ugly voices?
I don’t know if I would use those categories… I listen for voices that are used well and then voices that are unused well. Linklater method it’s really about finding an individual voice that has good use, that isn’t getting tired and causing pain… And also a voice that has a great degree of expression. I guess that I would consider as an ugly voice should be one with a lot of constriction.

Christine Adaire y Eduardo Ríos

Why do the actors cry or shout on the stage?
Well, I think shouting is a bad choice. I had a teacher in Chicago who said: “when undoubted, don’t shout”. And I love that because many times I think when actors don’t know what they’re doing, when they’re not sure of what’s happening in the scene, they shout. And it’s not effective and I think it’s a very general choice. Crying is another issue. I think if it’s genuine and coming out of the moment, then that’s ok. But a lot of times actors get obsessed for crying. In real life usually people don’t want to cry. But shouting… shouting is an easy way out. Many times when people shout they disconnect of what they’re feeling.

How can actors bear a healthy voice with the every day playing life?
I come back to the practise. Certainly if an actor is doing 8 shows a week in a theatre I would hope he works on his voice every day and he warms up before performance and takes care of it after. And also, he observes good vocal health: drinking enough water… I always teach my students about vocal health.

Personality or vocal health / Technical accuracy or interpretative emotion…
Absolutely I think you need all of them. Though as a voice teacher I should say I’m for the technique and also the interpretation, because in addition to voice I also teach text. So I really thing those too things go hand in hand. But I think it also depends in what medium the actor is working at. In the U.S. there are many famous and wonderful actors who just work in film. You don’t really need much voice technique if you’re working on film. But a lot of those actors if they’d decided to do stage, they’d have many many problems and work to do.

Is there a vocal culture or the voice is the great forgotten?
Is almost ancient art. I think the voice is becoming less and less important in our society, and it makes me very sad. But I honestly believe in the power of the voice, the power of live performance on stage and what can happen in that relationship between a live actor and a live audience. Words are losing purpose. For example, when the government doesn’t say the truth, the power of the word is diminished. People stop believing word. My mission is to keep that power alive. There’s nothing that can communicate like the spoken word.

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