Working with Ogres, Trolls, Orcs and Other Related Monsters

Who’s the monster under your bed? Well, it could be your patient or student! This hands-on seminar offers instruction on how to safely create monster effects, such as growl or inhalation phonation, typically found in voice acting (movies, video games, cartoons, etc). Voice and Singing specialized Speech Language Pathologists, M. Eugenia Castro and Megan Urbano, will share their experience and training to unlock unique and interesting vocal choices guided by evidence-based practice.

Due to extreme demands on the voice, vocal athletes are often at higher risk for voice disorders, which can lead to poor quality of life and loss of income1,2. Voice actors in particular are often in long and strenuous recording sessions and report resulting vocal fatigue and discomfort, but often do not seek care or guidance for these issues3. However, research shows that extreme vocal effects can be performed without incurring vocal injury4. Sometimes clinicians and singing teachers may feel that they lack sufficient tools to help this population, but with some tweaking and some thinking outside the box, Ogres don’t have to go through vocal injury to be scary.

This workshop will focus on practicing hands-on techniques to maintain vocal health while supporting strenuous voice acting sessions as well as a long-lasting career. We will begin by using a case study to demonstrate how we have used these techniques in the therapeutic space. An eclectic approach to voice therapy, as well as singing or voice over training, can be implemented including a combination of indirect and direct, physiologic approaches. We will discuss how to integrate and adapt common physiologic approaches, such as SOVTEs5, RVT6, and Estill Voice Model7 tenets to create a modified approach to target extreme vocal effects and character’s voices. Lastly, we will practice each technique as a group and in small break-out practice groups. The aim of this workshop is for participants to leave with practical techniques to apply in their practice to help their clients meet vocal demands required for work with increased endurance and sustainable phonation patterns. Join us for an interactive exploration of how to perform healthy and sustainable scary Monsters.

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References
1. Cazden J. Screaming for Attention: The Vocal Demands of Actors in Violent Interactive Games. J Voice. 2017;31(1):1-2. doi:10.1016/j.jvoice.2016.02.001
2. Leborgne WD, Rosenberg MD. The Vocal Athlete. Plural Publishing; 2019.
3. Urbano M, Timmons-Sund L, Gibson C, Castro ME. The Voice Behind the Mic: Evaluation of Vocal Health Status in the Voice Acting Community. Poster presented at: The Fall Voice Conference; October 2023; Washington, USA.
4. Guzman M, Acevedo K, Leiva F, Ortiz V, Hormazabal N, Quezada C. Aerodynamic