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AUDIOBOOKS As Narrator, Should You Seduce The Listener - Or Satisfy Author? Note: The author teaches a two-day Narrator's Audio Book Workshop, April 28-29, 2012, in Studio City, CA - a small session in which participants will be coached, directed and recorded. Please click here for details.  By Paul Ruben Producer, Director, Casting Professional & Teacher
Confronting all narrators as they prep a book is an either/or proposition that is located in their relationship to the narrative: Either I "impress" the text by prioritizing my vocal acuity or I defer to the author's syntax and play the subtext. In effect, will I seduce
the listener by flaunting my vocal stuff, highlight words and phrases
I'd prefer to emphasize, as if they somehow require my input, or will I
reflect inwardly in order to mine my performance cues from the author's
emotional intent? Clearly most
narrators would agree that the text should arbitrate the storyteller's
vocal choices. If that's true, then what's the problem? WHEN VOCAL SKILL TRUMPS TEXT I think what's at stake is that narrators - particularly those who work
alone, or with an engineer, or without the benefit of subtextual
feedback from a director - may have a tendency to prioritize their vocal technique (ironically, especially if they are experienced, facile
storytellers) over the author's intent, rather than the reverse. Why?
I'm not sure. But I suspect that at least some of this desire is
perpetuated by a kind of low hanging and tempting performance fruit:
accolades and congratulatory notices from listeners and reviewers who
mistake rock 'em, sock 'em energy for storytelling. DIFFERENT KINDS OF FRUIT The more authentic performance fruit (the subtext), I'm suggesting,
sways - equally plump and tasty - beneath the words, where the text's
feeling is located. This fruit - which supplies vitamin point of view - need only be acknowledged and then prioritized by narrators in order
for them to take their direction from it. PLEASE THE AUTHOR Bottom line: In order to address the listener's needs, the narrator must satisfy the author's. To further unpack this notion, read the following text and think: So,
okay, how would I respond emotionally to these words so that I tell the
story, not as I'd prefer, but as the author wishes me to? "The trees had begun to change with the sugar maples leading the way,
their golden-red leaves glowing through the rain-spattered windshield. "It was October. Sam loved the ephemeral majesty and beautiful decay of
fall, yet she couldn't enjoy it. "Winter loomed. The promise of cracked
lips from parched indoor heat, burned cheeks from pin-prick winds, the
grit of sand and salt everywhere. "This would be their third winter in
Madison and she wondered how she would bear it, stuck inside with Ella
who was increasingly mobile, crawling circles around the living room, as
darkness closed them in by four o'clock." THE SEX-IT-UP TECHNIQUE The narrator's seduce-the-listener approach might be: "Hmmm,
melodramatic stuff. I can feel the tension. And, yeah, certain words
just beg for my highlighter pen so I can be sure to stress them. "Yeah,
I'm gonna really pace this up and, let's see, I'll highlight
'rain-spattered,' 'cracked lips,' 'pin-pricked' - ohh that'll give 'em
the creeps - and, yeah, 'crawling circles.' Scary, scary!" And so the narrator begins looking at this text from the outside, in. That is, she immediately calls up her performance melodrama model,
knowing she's gonna scintillate the listener with her vocal technique.
NOW SATISFY THE AUTHOR By contrast, the narrator's satisfy-the-author approach might be: Unpacking the text
from the author's lens, believing that the subtext will, if prioritized,
direct the narrator, alerting him to volume, pace, emphasis, etc. How does the subtext direct the narrator's emotional choices? Primarily
by alerting the narrator to "point of view." Regard each sentence and
wonder, whose POV is this? CONSIDER THE POINT OF VIEW
So, with this paragraph, I'd ask the prepping narrator to focus on highlighting POV as a way to consider vocal choices. Sentences one and two: "The trees ... spattered windshield." "It was October." The omniscient storyteller. Sentence three: "Sam loved ... enjoy it." Sam's POV. Sentences four and five: "Winter loomed ... and salt everywhere." The omniscient storyteller. Sentence six: "This ... four o'clock." Sam's POV. SEEK ORGANIC EMPHASIS Once narrators engage point of view - that is, allow the text to direct
them vocally - volume, pacing, and emphasis have an opportunity to occur
organically (from the inside, out). Intuitively, the narrator comes to
understand that because his vocal choices are now dictated by the text, they'll match the text, they'll give back emotionally what's given to
them. For narrators, the question may not be, do I prepare, but how do I? Do I value the text first? If I do, what do I look for? ABOUT PAUL ... Paul Ruben has produced and directed numerous
award-winning audiobooks for every major publisher since 1987. His many
Audie Awards include work for It's Not About the Bike, Raymond and Hannah, The World is Flat, A Slight Trick of the Mind. He also received the 2003 Grammy (Best Spoken Word Album) for Al Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, and the 2009 Grammy for Always Looking Up by Michael J. Fox. He has directed regional and summer theatre productions, contributed features on audiobook narration to Audiofile
magazine, and was elected to the Audio Publishers Association Board of
Directors in 2005. Based in New York City and casting and directing many
first-time narrators - some of whom have become outstanding and
award-winning working narrators - he also teaches audiobook narrator
workshops through his company, Tribeca Audio.
Email: paul@tribecaaudio.com
Web: www.tribecaaudio.com
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So interesting! Talk about "food for thought"! I think many VOs think of narration as their chance to bring out their storytelling talents, but you make some excellent points. Thank you!
Lori