Company Teaches BYU Students to Articulate their Lines and Their Faith
This summer, the Olympic Games returned to Paris, one-hundred years after Olympian Eric Liddell refused to run on a Sunday in the same city and subsequently won gold in a different event less favored for him. On BYU campus this September, Searchlight Theatre Company reminded students and audiences what it means to be a disciple with performances of “Eric Liddell: The Chariot of Fire” and a voice masterclass with BYU theatre students.
The company put layers of meaning into their work on stage and in the classroom, showing how athletics, acting and discipleship are closely intertwined in practice and principle. Searchlight taught students in the setting of an actors’ voice class, where they could naturally explore the physical aspects of acting. The training was about more than individual skills, just as the Eric Liddell story was about more than one disciple’s triumph. Both became experiences that reminded students a good actor does her best when conscious of the troupe and a track star can do his best when he’s supported by coaches and teammates as part of a track team.
The masterclass began with introductions of the small company: David Robinson, artistic director, co-founder and actor; Michael Taylor, director, co-founder and leading man; Simon Rodda, who played small but significant parts in both the workshop and show; and Rebecca Rogers, who plays a romantic interest in the play. Rogers started the instruction with breath control, the most fundamental voice preparation and method for setting student actors at ease. (It has been known to reduce stress and increase relaxation, according to the National Institutes of Health.)
After preparing students as individuals, the company transitioned into exercises, led by Taylor, that helped participants synchronize as a troupe. The shift wasn’t emphasized and came slowly. The actors passed a clapping rhythm to each other, presumably focusing on whether it was a particular actor’s turn to catch and keep the rhythm, but then they had to pass a pretend ball to others in the circle and notice if someone seemed to drop the ball. Vocal sounds accompanied the catches and misses, and eventually the actors had to be so in sync with each other that they anticipated the vocalization of others about a miss and let it influence what they said and did.
Later, students watched some of a previous performance of “Eric Liddell: The Chariot of Fire” and Taylor discussed accent challenges and the need for articulation.
Taylor also mentioned how accents weren’t always about authenticity; Liddell was educated in English boarding schools and his parents lived in Asia, so it was not likely he had a Scottish accent, but because being a Scot was a significant part of his identity, they chose to have a Scottish influence on his speech.
Students were invited to ask questions after training. “I have to do a Polish accent for one of my characters in ‘The Hundred Dresses,’” said Emma Zimmerman, a first-year pre-acting student. “Do you have any suggestions on what sounds I should focus on?”
“Find a good Polish sentence,” said Taylor. “It will have a Russian Slavic sound. Once you find that sentence that helps you articulate all the sounds, run it before your lines, and if you have a line that is particularly hard, run that practice line into the new lines until you trip up into it.”
Rodda added that Eastern European speech has a slower speed than Western European accents such as French, Italian and Spanish.
Teaching Assistant Austin Zimmerman asked about how the company was formed. Robinson said he and Taylor founded the company in 1989 and that he had been involved in Christian theater all of his life. “I wanted to enjoy acting, enjoy giving a message, enjoy telling stories, enjoy bringing people life; I wanted to bring stories like Eric Liddell’s to the stage.” Robinson admitted that it hasn’t always been easy but advised students to stay true to their passion. “I think when you are called to do that, when you feel it is your passion and vocation, then keep going,” he said. “It’s always about looking at what’s next. What next can we create together? That’s what makes it interesting.”
The play that evening had a similar message of creating together to make events interesting. Searchlight’s version of Liddell’s story, which is perhaps best known for the awarding winning film it inspired called “Chariots of Fire,” was significantly similar to the film version, but some small journalistic contributions to the staged script allowed more people to identify with the team that worked together for the win. Liddell gave up the race at which he’d been most successful in order to keep the Sabbath Day holy. His coach made sure he had trained in another race and had a teammate take his place on Sunday. He accepted the opportunity to do a race he wasn’t sure would showcase his talent and won. Before Liddell started the more risky race in the play, the journalist Wallace Longfellow handed Liddell a scrap of paper with a scripture on it reminding him he was not alone: “The Lord saith… for them that honor Me I will honor.’”