Been making a rather mad rush lately to catch up on loads of LibriVox readings that have been piling up on my to-do list. As such, I recently finished and posted my contribution to a collaborative reading of Mary Augusta Ward’s classic British novel Lady Rose’s Daughter. An excellent story and an enjoyable read…though my particular chapter reading (chapter 17) took quite a long while to get to the finish line. And here’s why.
I had originally become interested in the project because my friend Dan (who happens to be a diversely talented actor/model/musician/vocalist/composer/film producer) had narrated the second chapter of the book several months back, and I’d been thoroughly impressed by his reading. Great narration and character work, overall. (And that – as he himself admits – was all done with just a cold read!)
Obvious talent aside, Dan was able to approach said reading with an automatic advantage for a novel such as this: he’s a London native, a born and bred Eastender. And he can manipulate his voice to sound (in terms of English-specific accents) anywhere from genuine Cockney to quite believable RP English. Considering that this novel is a work of classic British literature, that’s a pretty nice edge to have. It’s certainly true that narration performed in an accent/dialect that matches the story’s cultural/geographical context usually has a transporting effect, bringing the listener into the story in a very natural way. Much the same effect that a native Mississippi accent would have for a narration of Huckleberry Finn.
Though I can pull off a fairly decent RP English accent, I do not have that particular benefit of the natural British-English narrative voice. (Almost attempted it for this reading, but stopped myself just in time. I might have been rather embarrassed by the results of such an attempt…possibly, anyway.) Regardless, being as impressed as I was with Dan’s reading, I decided that I would give it a go and pick up one of the remaining chapters that needed a reader. With a relatively good idea of the main characters’ voices already in mind, I jumped into the project…
…and found myself immediately in over my head.
It was ridiculous. So many male characters, for starters. The female characters were not a problem at all. I could totally see them, could fully envision them in my mind’s eye. But the men! My goodness. Several older men, too! And a couple requiring that gruff, weathered, I’ll-not-take-any-guff-from-the-likes-of-you-you-cheeky-lad! kind of voice. Yikes. Overall, quite a challenge. Especially when only reading one chapter out of an entire novel…no time and space to really get to know the characters…out loud, that is.
With a base of standard RP English for the character voices, I hobbled along, playing around with them and developing them as I went. And all the while, as I struggled to find my voice with each of these various characters, I kept thinking of how Dan was somehow able to pull these great vocal characterizations right out of his back pocket with nothing more than a cold read. I have to admit…I found myself for a moment feeling just a tad jealous of that kind of ability that comes from a mix of natural talent, innate confidence, and years of voice acting experience.
So, whilst doing a metaphorical doggy paddle to keep my head above the emblematic waves of vocal quandary (yeah…sorry, my inner nerd needed a momentary outlet), I read and reread the chapter and finally found voices that I felt sufficiently captured the characters…and I’m hoping it worked. (I might just have to listen to my contribution of the completed and published work with a ready willingness to flinch a bit at certain points…)
I can hardly wait to get to that place of such confidence and skill that would allow me to get through a cold read of a chapter like that, being able all at once to pull off the many character inhabitations that such a read requires.
All I can say is, good on you, Dan. And the same to all the other incredibly talented LibriVox readers out there with crazy-good character acting skills. Good on you all, I say!
With that for an intro, if you’d like to have a listen to any or all of the completed chapters of this particular project, here’s the link to the now-published LibriVox audiobook, Lady Rose’s Daughter.
As always, thanks for reading.
Cheers, people. 😀
