They go almost unnoticed. They are, however, essential players in the cultural milieu. The duty offers a series of portraits of shadow trades, through the confidences of professionals who practice them or have already practiced them. Today: diction and voice pose teachers.
In Jesus of Montreal (1989), by Denys Arcand, two great French actresses, Marie-Christine Barrault and Judith Magre, scratch their image during a hilarious scene in a dubbing studio where pornographic films parade on the chain. Before the recording session, they deplore the poor quality of a production of the Dream of a summer night of Shakespeare. “These actors, we do not understand a word of what they say, they have no diction”, laments the first. “What do you want, nowadays, they do improvisation”, retorts the second by way of explanation, before simulating you know what.
In a room with poor acoustics, during a voice recording in the studio where time is running out, in the midst of the whirlwind of a physically demanding staging, the voice of the actor is sometimes abused. It is however essential to make oneself understood, to communicate a large quantity of information, and to convey a whole range of emotions. Contrary to what some might believe, we are no longer in the register of the innate or the acquired, or so of the indefinable “natural talent”. In the same way that an actor must learn to occupy the stage with his body, he must know how to occupy the space with his voice – no matter how big or small, cozy or excessive. And this, without breaking his vocal cords or constantly gasping for breath.
“The goal of diction is to be heard and understood, but in connection with the character. Articulatory agility competitions don’t interest me,” says Maude Bouchard, diction and voice teacher at Lionel-Groulx College and at the Montreal Conservatory of Dramatic Arts. For this actress who quickly developed a great passion “for the microphone and the voice”, as well as for teaching, her classes are so many opportunities for her students to build up “a great toolbox and thus “broaden their palette”.
In front of them, she never arrives empty-handed, having synthesized her method in an educational tool, Bouchard voice and diction, containing of course vocal exercises, but also lessons on the sounds of normative French in a context of dubbing (“These are not phonemes similar to those with which we speak at the moment”). The one who dreamed of being a speech therapist during her baccalaureate in language sciences, before returning to school in theater, quickly followed in the footsteps of her masters (Marie-Lise Hétu, François Grisé, Catherine Bégin), while emphasizing the importance of “valuing the different ways of speaking”.
More than a voice
“We don’t really say diction anymore, but theatrical elocution,” says Pascal Belleau, an actor trained at the Montreal Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in the early 1980s, professor at the UQAM School of Theatre. He too is part of the continuity of the important figures who trained him, including Monique Lepage, and especially Huguette Uguay, from whom he learned a lot for many years. This did not prevent him, according to his own expression, “from giving the lessons he would have dreamed of having” during his training.
“In my time, at the Conservatory, everything was compartmentalized: voice, phonetics, reading and interpretation, remembers the one who also teaches at Cégep de Saint-Laurent. When I started at UQAM, in my classical playing classes, the students didn’t articulate. I made sure everything was integrated, from vocals to anchoring to body enlargement. According to Pascal Belleau, the actors must be athletes of emotion, but also physical athletes… while ensuring that the effort is not perceptible. “There are all kinds of techniques and mechanisms, both for projecting and for crying. But the real challenge for aspiring actors isn’t necessarily in the acting schools, which are all good, but on the way out. Imagine a pianist who wants to play Rachmaninoff and does not practice his fingering for six months: forget it…”
Nathalie Naubert fully adheres to this principle of vocal routine and continuing education. Actress who was one of the first graduates of the Montreal Conservatory of Dramatic Arts after its founding in the 1950s, former student of Yvonne Audet and Huguette Uguay (“They made me discover a new, fascinating world, that of the theater “), she also transmitted her love of the game to the same Conservatory, and this, for many years.
The goal of diction is to be heard and understood, but in connection with the character. Articulatory agility competitions don’t interest me.
“As in any art, you have to master the technique”, underlines the one with an impressive theatrical track record, and who occasionally met a few students who did not want to put all the effort into it. She also compares the actor to the musician, and regrets that we can still believe “that because we can talk, we can play”. According to Nathalie Naubert, the relationship of the actors to the voice, and more generally to the game, “depends on their ideal”. A misplaced voice, a loose elocution, “all this limits their means of expression”.
Should we speak or “bead”?
Many equate good diction with an unfailing adherence to what some call international French, or the Parisian accent. A normative French model which testifies, for Klervi Thienpont, to an obvious “linguistic insecurity”. The actress knows what she’s talking about, having recently signed a master’s thesis titled (Re)thinking theatrical language on Quebec stages. Embodied to better express oneselfsubmitted to UQAM in September 2021.
“In the past, we wanted to break the Quebec accent, because we considered it inadequate, recalls the one who is currently playing on tour in The bath, by Jasmine Dube. Our accent is as valid as all the others, and I believe that the younger generations of actors will no longer be content to take a classic translated in France, and settle with that. Klervi Thienpont considers that when faced with a foreign text that has not been translated in Quebec, all the artisans of a show must ask themselves questions about how to express themselves on stage. “Some go to French from France, others stay themselves… and it sometimes hurts our ears! »
She does not hide her admiration for Maude Bouchard’s educational approach, which she describes as “uninhibited”, moving away from this famous “international French which, in any case, does not exist”. If the youngest generations of actors are sometimes surprised that their elders never depart from what others also dubbed “Canadian radio French”, there are historical reasons for this, underlines Pascal Belleau. “Since there were no theater schools in Quebec, many went to study in France. It was before the arrival of Belles-Sœbear [de Michel Tremblay], and the emergence of the Quebec identity. »
“When they arrive in their first diction lesson, the students believe that they have to speak well,” says Maude Bouchard. Their way of expressing themselves is part of their identity, and that should not be touched. On the other hand, each work has its challenges: that of diction, articulation, or prosody when it is necessary to say endless sentences. We kind of train virtuosos who have to think about all of this at the same time, and making it look easy. »