Preparation&Rehearsal-Vocal Warm Up

An actors most important tool is there voice and with essential regular exercises and warms ups this ensures the actors is prepared and ready to meet the deamds stage performance.
“Your body is your instrument, and just like any good musician, you need to take time to warm up that instrument!”-
As an actor, there are countless reasons why you should take the time to develop and implement a good warm-up routine. Not only does it feel great, it will increase your body and spatial awareness, help relieve tension and prevent strain and injury. Warming-up prior to a performance will assist you to respond physically, vocally and mentally and will prevent you from forcing your work.
Vocal exercises are part of an actor’s working life. In ancient Greek times, it was the greatest orators, those with the physical gift of a beautiful voice and a strong diaphragm, that were the actors and public speakers. There are references in some Shakespeare's plays to the vocal exercising of an actor before performance and the importance of enunciation and volume. There are many types of vocal exercises, and each addresses a different part of the vocal mechanism. You can look at each component as a cog in a machine that, when put together, will aid understandable and natural sounding speech that can easily be heard at the back of an auditorium. In this collection Jeanette Nelson, Head of Voice, takes actors through a warm up and a series of exercises typical for actors in rehearsal at the National Theatre.