Voice Work and the Acting Craft: Conversation with Georgina Onuorah

08/22/21 • 41 min

This episode is part of a series where I talk with actors I’ve worked with about how they incorporate voice work into their craft. Georgina Onuorah is a London-based actress, singer and dancer. Her professional debut was playing Alice Fitzwarren in Dick Whittington at the National Theatre and she is currently the alternate Cinderella in the West End production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella . She graduated from ArtsEd in 2020, where I was one of her voice and speech teachers. During our conversation, Georgina had some profound insights about how voice work has helped her find her authentic center as a performing artist.

Themes that come up in the conversation are:

How voice work and warming up can give you something positive to focus on in the moment before an audition and help you present yourself more confidently in moments that matter— like introducing yourself in an audition
Georgina’s definition of voice work: a kind of centering— a centering in yourself so that you can fully bring yourself to the table. This includes a physical centering, a vocal centering and a feeling of centeredness in the psyche.
The difference between how Georgina feels about voice work now vs. what she thought it was going to be in her first voice class. There is a misconception about voice work (even among some voice teachers!) that it’s about “correcting” your voice or the way you speak. Now Georgina feels it’s much more about truly discovering your authentic self through your voice and even your vocal history.
How spoken voice work and singing voice work interlink
Georgina’s experience working on the Olivier at the National Theatre in London— an infamously difficult stage to work on vocally
working with mics
the value of using text work on songs rather than focusing solely on sounding good
the balancing act of the musical theatre performer between three disciplines and how voice work can compliment and work with those disciplines because breath is the unifying factor in each
Georgina’s voice warm up and how it adapts to her day to day needs before a show

This one is a super interesting episode for professional actors, musical theatre performers and enthusiasts, actors in training, or anyone who is interested in what the craft of acting is all about.

Themes that come up in the conversation are:

How voice work and warming up can give you something positive to focus on in the moment before an audition and help you present yourself more confidently in moments that matter— like introducing yourself in an audition
Georgina’s definition of voice work: a kind of centering— a centering in yourself so that you can fully bring yourself to the table. This includes a physical centering, a vocal centering and a feeling of centeredness in the psyche.
The difference between how Georgina feels about voice work now vs. what she thought it was going to be in her first voice class. There is a misconception about voice work (even among some voice teachers!) that it’s about “correcting” your voice or the way you speak. Now Georgina feels it’s much more about truly discovering your authentic self through your voice and even your vocal history.
How spoken voice work and singing voice work interlink
Georgina’s experience working on the Olivier at the National Theatre in London— an infamously difficult stage to work on vocally
working with mics
the value of using text work on songs rather than focusing solely on sounding good
the balancing act of the musical theatre performer between three disciplines and how voice work can compliment and work with those disciplines because breath is the unifying factor in each
Georgina’s voice warm up and how it adapts to her day to day needs before a show

This one is a super interesting episode for professional actors, musical theatre performers and enthusiasts, actors in training, or anyone who is interested in what the craft of acting is all about.

Previous Episode

Voice Work and the Acting Craft: Conversation with Sam Buchanan

This episode is part of a series where I talk with actors I’ve worked with about their voices and how they incorporate voice work into their craft. In this episode, I talk with Sam Buchanan. Sam is a 23-year old actor from Kent, England. He graduated from ArtsEd's BA Acting program in 2019, which is where we met. I was one of Sam’s voice teachers there. He has appeared on “EastEnders”, is currently shooting a new global thriller for Amazon called “The Power” and a new BBC3 series called “SuperHoe”, written by and starring Nicole Lecky.

Sam and I had a rich conversation about his evolving relationship with voice work and how it’s impacted his craft on both stage and screen.

Themes that come up are:

— what voice work is vs. what it isn’t. Spoiler alert: it’s not about being loud and sounding posh. Sam talks about his process in drama school training—- realizing that voice work made the difference between feeling panicked and self-conscious and allowing him to be present, grounded, responsive and emotionally available in the moment. However, it takes awhile of being in the process to get to that place.

—Sam talks about embodied voice work allowing an actor to have intimate moments (like a love scene on a park bench) on the Olivier stage but be heard in the last row.

— we talk about the difference in voice work between stage and screen: how an adjustment of intention is required and how important voice work is for staying present, connected and emotionally available on screen.

— Sam talks us through a typical body and voice warm up he does before a show and the importance of having a warm up that’s responsive to what you need on any given day. He talks about how his priorities shift when he’s warming up for screen.

— the value of a cool down that allows you to come back to yourself after a show or a shoot

— Sam offers his advice to current and incoming drama school students: stay open to learning, trust the process and find ways to shift your attention off of yourself and onto receiving.

This one is a super interesting episode for professional actors, actors in training, or anyone who is interested in what the craft of acting is all about.

Next Episode

The Story behind the General American Accent Course Pack for Brits, my online video course

In case you haven't noticed, I have recently released my first online video course, The General American Accent Course Pack for Brits. In this episode, I talk about the inspiration behind the making of this course and what the course entails.
Designed to be like a digital book/online course/ accent coach in your pocket, the course has over 3 hours of content and is broken down into 59 (short and easily digestible) videos that cover everything you need to know to authentically own a General American accent in your own voice, which you can watch in your own time, at your own pace. You also get a LIVE 30-minute coaching session via Zoom with me upon completion of the course. It's specifically designed for UK-based actors and coaches who work with UK-based actors. As an American accent coach who spent almost a decade living in London, a huge portion of my portfolio in both my drama school work and private coaching business has been coaching this accent to UK-based actors, and along the way, I have learned the typical pitfalls they can fall into. This course is the culmination of that experience.
But why an online video course instead of a live virtual or in-person class? In this podcast, I talk about what inspired this course: namely-- my own personal love for online education, which allows me to learn at my own pace. I discovered this love while I was pregnant during lockdown and I took this amazing birthing class online that was a series of videos which I could watch over and over again. In the midst of taking that course, it suddenly occurred to me: this is a perfect format for accent training!
Listen to the episode to hear more about my story and the course. If you'd like to purchase the course, go to voiceandaccentcoaching.thinkific.com or to the "Course Packs" page of my website at voicewhatmatters.com.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at [email protected].