Objective: The professional actor, or anyone who utilizes speaking in their work, needs to find helpful exercises to strengthen and clarify their speech. It is quite often the untrained, or under-trained, tongue that limits good and exciting speech. Because the cork work opens the jaw creating a larger space, it enables speakers to stretch the tongue muscle fully and with ease, resulting in less tongue tension, more flexibility and better speech.

Methods: After a brief vocal warm-up, attendees will be given a Shakespearean sonnet and a cork, which will have three different lengths. They will first read the sonnet to a partner, and then be lead through a series of isolation exercises: isolating and reciting only the consonants, isolating and reciting only the vowels, starting with the smallest end of the cork placed in between the teeth, leading up to the longest part of the cork in between the teeth. Finally, they will recite the monologues to each other without the cork.

Results: It is anticipated that the participants, as well as any observers, will hear a marked difference from the first iteration of the text to the last. Speech will sound more clear and fluid, and the participants will likewise report feeling more open and free when they speak, with crisp consonants and open, more rounded vowels. Participants will be able to move more deftly from one sound to the next.

Conclusion: This workshop will introduce attendees to a creative and enjoyable approach to voicework by removing the element of “self-consciousness” from clear speech.

Julie Czarnecki, MFA, MA, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Voice, Speech, and Acting, Dept. of Theater, Film, and Media Arts, Temple University