Actors mumbling

[mkmswain]

Posted: 3/15/16 at 6:55am

Lots of talk about actors in TV dramas not speaking clearly enough. Do you think theatre actors have better diction, or have you experienced the same problem?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/15/16 at 10:37am

Some do but a bigger problem is spitting. If you sit close, especially in a small theater, you need rain gear or you will be soaked when they start in speaking especially if it is a high charged speech.

[jasonbrody]

Posted: 3/24/16 at 12:01am

It's difficult to be a mumbling stage actor and I'm not sure one exists. Live theater relies on the emotional evocation of its audience, it's intended to be felt. Stage actors annunciate because it achieves this intimacy. Their voices have to reach every corner of the room, which on a Broadway or West End scale, is pretty vast. So yeah, a little spit here and there, but plays are performed for the mezzanine, too.

TV is a different medium, a more private one, and it has the luxury of volume thermostat. Screen actors have more freedom in the sense that we can easily manipulate how we experience their performances. We can tinker with the volume on a laptop, zero in on the more important parts, but in the theater these elements are decided for us. ("Hey, Lin! Can you repeat that?! Rewind for a sec?!" <--Not how theater works).

So, yeah. Screen actors get away with mumbling and stage actors don't (SEE: Marlon Brando). But I don't think either style is better or worse, to pick a side is to split hairs between the mediums and I don't see the use of that.

[kp]

Posted: 3/24/16 at 8:54pm

"It's difficult to be a mumbling stage actor and I'm not sure one exists." Believe me they do! Inaudibility because of poor diction or poor projection is a major and growing problem. And no the problem isn't caused by declining hearing. I have seen many plays where some of the actors can be heard perfectly well but others. Something is going wrong in the training process. You need to hear the words! 

[Spotlight61]

Posted: 3/27/16 at 1:37pm

I'm currently working in a rehearsal room with a group of actors of varying ages on a new play. The older actors project and make themselves heard in all parts of the room when required to do so.

The younger ones offer what I call a TV performance. A quieter delivery relying heavily on the aid of a microphone to both pick up and make heard what is being said.

When asked to speak up, they tend to feel they are shouting and this affects their delivery/performance. They clearly feel that speaking at a natural level is more realistic and more in keeping with their character.

Some of this may be because of their training or even a lack of confidence in the rehearsal room.

However, I struggle to hear them and wonder whether they have the ability to sufficiently project their voices within the theatre space. Time will tell.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/29/16 at 10:43am

"Screen actors get away with mumbling and stage actors don't (SEE: Marlon Brando)."

I never found Brando unintelligible, but was he known as less of a mumbler on stage than he was on screen?