Is Proper Diction “Old School”?

According to The Guardian, some people say that young stage actors in Britain have taken the every man “real person” voicing style too far, resulting in poorly annunciated lines barely audible to audiences past the first few rows.

In efforts to determine why impeccable diction is now considered old-fashioned, thoughts have turned to the challenges that present themselves to live stage actors in performance.

Blame it on the java scene or the latest North American trend of natural voicing, but perhaps the answer has more to do with architecture, technology and poor audience etiquette.

For instance, some potential hurdles to the reception of clean and properly projected voicing include noisy audiences and poorly designed theatres.

In his article, British actor Michael Simkins identified five performance venues actors would do well to avoid, including:

• Open-air theatres
• Pantomime
• Theatres designed after 1950
• Any London musical on Friday matinee days (also known as the easyJet special)
• Anywhere sharing a space with another event

Source: The Guardian