AudioAssignments567 – Assignment Bank

Wicked One-Man Play

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We had to select 8 or more stars of additional audio assignments this week and my first additional one is One-Man Play which is worth 3 1/2 stars. For this assignment you had to use Soundcloud and act out a scene from a play by yourself. I had a really hard time thinking of a play, but then I remembered I had seen Wicked last year and thought that would be perfect. The only problem I had is that Wicked is a musical so I had to find a scene with little to no singing. I picked Act 1: Scene 7, but I omitted the song at the very end because I promise you that no one wants to here me sing. This is a conversation between Elphaba (the future wicked witch) and Galinda. Galinda is preppy so I used a high pitch voice and a lower voice for Elphaba. Here is the script is you want to read it.

I think I did alright. Wish I could have gotten my voice to go a little lower. This is why I don’t act and never will.

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The Show Must Go On

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The biggest project on this week’s checklist was finding three audio challenges that I could do on SoundCloud, with a combined difficulty rating of at least stars. Believe it or not, I actually had a couple of extra entries left over after I completed the necessary tasks, with mixed results; for the sake of brevity, though, I’ll only focus my attention on the main three.

Ergo, the first task I completed was “The One-Man Play,” in which I had to, quote, “act out a scene from a play by myself, using different voices for different characters.” This was one of two challenges that currently has a difficulty rating of three-and-a-half stars, when previous attempts were made under a four-star ranking.

My selection for this performance was from the anthology, “Dialogues of the Gods,” written by Baudelaire Jones, and based on the original works of Lucian of Samosata; as the title implies, this was a series of satirical dialogues, intended to mock the Greek myths as told by Homer, author of The Iliad and The Odyssey. As for the scene itself, written by Jones in 2008 for the book’s commercial release, it revolves around Hermes’ first run-in with his son, Pan; for this performance, I gave a Scottish brogue to Pan, who has every right to feel offended for being born half-goat, and a deep, rumbling voice to Hermes, which fits because he’s “the fleet-footed messenger of the gods,” for those of you who didn’t get to see Xanadu on Broadway.

The fact that all of the SoundCloud entries this week were completed, more or less, in one take, is a testament to my work ethic. Factor in how easy my account accepted these files once the paperwork was completed, and this was actually a rather tame week, all things considered.

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Life by Savanna 2015-03-14 22:53:16

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So as I was searching the assignment bank going, ummm yeah:

And then I found this little gem! A one man (woman in this case) play. So I decided to do this for Andrea, but with her dead husband, so that her level of crazy is really conveyed to you all. She’s talking to her husband’s ghost? Take a listen:

Link to Assignment–Character for 3.5 stars

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3..2..1.. Action!

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I used the episode from the Twilight Zone: Time Enough At Last for my play! I used the end part of part 1 of the episode. I thought this would be very to do with just my voice! I liked the back and forth! I loved how it goes from different emotions! It’s great! It was so much fun acting out Henry and Helen! I really enjoyed doing this! I used an app on my iPhone called SoundCloud to record my voice. I also listened to the section that I wanted to act out and kept rewinding and writing down each line! It took a lot of patience but I liked doing it! Had tons of fun! Listen to my reanactment of this scene!

Reenact a play! Have fun with it! I sure did! Don’t be afraid to mess up! Just laugh about it! It makes the play funnier! It’s great to be able to laugh at yourself! No one is perfect! Have some fun!

This is what I got from listening to this scene!

Helen: Henry?

Henry: Yes my dear?

Helen: What have you got Henry?

Henry: Got?

Helen: Got!

Henry: Nothing my dear.

Helen: What’s this?

Henry: That?

Helen: This?

Henry: Aw how did that get in here?

Helen: I can only hardly guess. A book of modern poetry. Yours Henry? Would you like to read me some?

Henry: What do you mean read you some? You mean read out loud out of the book?

Helen: Do you want to?

Henry: Oh, I would love to! There are some lovely things in here!

There are one or two things from teat, Elliot, edmes invincible vela, Robert Frost, Carls Sanburgh.

Helen? Who did this Helen?

Helen: Who do you think did it Henry? You can think me really. A grown man who reads silly ridiculous nonsensicle dogaral.

Henry: Disgensraldogral? There are some beautiful things here.

Helen: I say dogral. I also say it’s a waste of time.

Henry: Helen, Helen! Don t do that! Helene Please Don’t do that!

Why Helen? Why do you do these things?

Helen: Because I’m married to a fool.

LOL! I seriously loved doing this! I deff butchered some parts! But hey! I had a blast and Laughed at myself trying to say some of the words!LOL!

Whats the Count?

Stars: 3.5

Total: 7.5

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3..2..1.. Action!

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This is what I got from listening to this scene!

Helen: Henry?

Henry: Yes my dear?

Helen: What have you got Henry?

Henry: Got?

Helen: Got!

Henry: Nothing my dear.

Helen: What’s this?

Henry: That?

Helen: This?

Henry: Aw how did that get in here?

Helen: I can only hardly guess. A book of modern poetry. Yours Henry? Would you like to read me some?

Henry: What do you mean read you some? You mean read out loud out of the book?

Helen: Do you want to?

Henry: Oh, I would love to! There are some lovely things in here!

There are one or two things from teat, Elliot, edmes invincible vela, Robert Frost, Carls Sanburgh.

Helen? Who did this Helen?

Helen: Who do you think did it Henry? You can think me really. A grown man who reads silly ridiculous nonsensicle dogaral.

Henry: Disgensraldogral? There are some beautiful things here.

Helen: I say dogral. I also say it’s a waste of time.

Henry: Helen, Helen! Don t do that! Helene Please Don’t do that!

Why Helen? Why do you do these things?

Helen: Because I’m married to a fool.

LOL! I seriously loved doing this! I deff butchered some parts! But hey! I had a blast and Laughed at myself trying to say some of the words!LOL!

Whats the Count?

Stars: 3.5

Total: 7.5

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The One-Man Play- 4 Stars

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Okay, so for the rest of my stars this week, I decided to do this audio assignment I found randomly. I chose to do my favourite play, “No Exit.” It’s a really good play, so I recommend you read it (you know, unless you’re not into existentialist writing, then I probably wouldn’t look at this).

Anyways, the play is about these people that are dead and are in “hell.” The play has four characters, three of which are in the section I picked: Garcin, Estelle, and Ines. Although there were many good scenes in this play, I chose the one I did because I really wanted to record the famous line “Hell is other people.” For each character’s voice, I tried to do something that reflected their personalities. For Garcin, I was trying to be manly, yet cowardly at the same time (he was a coward that committed suicide). For Estelle, I was trying to come across as an air-head rich gal (she was a high-society lady). And for Ines, I was trying to sound mean and blunt (she was a very manipulative person).

Side note: that’s little T.J. in the background making coos if you were wondering. I legitimately tried doing over three takes until I finally decided that this was good enough. Of course now he’s sleeping quietly next to me now that I’m done recording. Thanks, Taishi.

Anyways, I hope my clip wasn’t as awkward to you as it was to me (I tried so hard not to laugh during Garcin’s and Estelle’s parts). Let me know what you guys think!

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Macbeth Act 1 Scene 1

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This is an extremely amazing rendition of Macbeth’s opening scene. It’s was so good, my parents were laughing in the other room and my dog didn’t even bother to look up. I was asked to do this by the One-Man Play assignment. I had to act out a scene from a play, and play all the parts by myself. I used the program Audacity to record, and to record over myself to give the part where all three witches are talking its affect. I then uploaded it to SoundCloud toooooooooo share it with youuuuuuu!

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The One-Man Play

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For this Audio Assignment I chose to do a scene from a Broadway play my high school drama teacher introduced me to called In the Heights. I chose to do the scene when Nina is coming home and trying to figure out how to explain to her parents that she lost her scholarship to college. I recorded myself on SoundCloud while I performed this scene.

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The One Man Play

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http://soundcloud.com/eric_greenlaw/time-stands-still

I had a ton of fun with this assignment. I recently had to present a scene from Time Stands Still by Donald Margulies in one of my classes so I decided to use it for this assignment. It was entertaining doing different voices for each character, Richard using my own voice, James using my deeper, wierd voice, Mandy using my best attempt at a bubbly girl’s voice, and Sarah using an angry woman’s voice. Please let me know how I did. The assignment itself was pretty simple, I just recorded myself using Audacity then uploaded it to Soundcloud. If I do say so myself, I’d say it was a performance worthy of the Broadway stage.

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Exit, pursued by Creeper Oberon

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My One-Girl Shakespeare Scene ended up starring the creepiest version of Oberon ever (also a profusion of tinkly fairy sound effects). The scene I chose was from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and involves Hermia confronting Demetrius over the whereabouts of her lover, Lysander. When Oberon enters to discover that that his servant, Puck, has mistakenly enchanted another man instead of Demetrius, he decides to go about it himself, sending Puck off to find the lady who is actually in love with Demetrius while he completes the magic spell.

Anyway, creepy fairy king ahead. You’ve been warned…

My first exposure to Shakespeare was through a set of tapes my mom bought for me and my little brother that all featured one guy reading through abbreviated versions of the Bard’s greatest plays. I wish I could find an example of his excellent narration, but sadly this was years ago and I can’t recall enough about the name of the cassettes to even begin searching for them. I do remember listening to those tapes over and over again, especially “Midsummer,” which has been my favorite to this day. When I saw the one-man play assignment in the audio repository I knew I had to try a scene from that play.

Technically I did ask a friend to help me out on this one–he and I both recited Oberon’s lines at the same time, creating a really nifty effect that didn’t involve any technical tinkering to achieve. Recording Hermia and Puck’s voices was similarly simple, but Demetrius, the guy Hermia is supposed to marry and attempts to run away from, proved a challenge. My voice is pretty high-pitched naturally, and while talking like a dude is less about pitch and more about tone, cadence and vocabulary (seriously. Check out the concept of gendered language in any sociolinguistics textbook. It’s fascinating stuff!) I still ended up re-recording his lines; I also lowered the pitch of those audio segments just a bit in Audacity. Unfortunately that led to Hermia’s lines sounding more echo-y, since I recorded them right outside of the kitchen, and Demetrius’ lines sounding more muted since they were recorded in my bedroom. I didn’t have the time (or the technical skill) to properly remedy that problem, but I hope it doesn’t detract too much from the overall piece.

As usual, Freesound.org proved invaluable in adding depth and nuance to my little snippet of audio. The first (and most essential) scene-setting sounds I needed were some nighttime background noises. I also knew I wanted some tinkly fairy sounding stuff to act as sound cues for when Oberon and Puck showed up. By searching for “fairy” I found some really nice wind-chime noises that I layered under Oberon’s lines, as well as a fantasy flight sound effect that I used for Puck’s exit and even an entire fairy-themed soundscape that was perfect to signal the fairies’ entrance, as well as Oberon’s magic spell.

Once I’d downloaded everything I needed (and converted a few files into .WAV format with the ever-useful Online-Convert.com) I imported everything into Audacity and got to chopping, cutting and rearranging. The things I learned from the radio show proved incredibly useful here, especially the ability to add tracks and move sound clips around as I needed them. Overall the technical parts of this assignment weren’t too difficult, but I wish I had a bit more experience with this program so that I could at least appease my perfectionist side (the levels of all the sounds aren’t as balanced as I’d like, for example).