From actor to better speaker

THE performing arts are a training ground for effective communication.

Every time I take the stage, I am required to send a message to the audience through clear delivery. As an actor, this includes projecting my voice and speaking clearly.

When I first started acting, I didn’t know how to control my breathing and was unfamiliar with enunciating when I spoke.

Over the years, I have learned how to produce clearer speech by using my mouth and body to combine a controlled, intentional breath with an emphasis on the consonants in my words. This has been invaluable.

The awareness of the clarity of my speech has followed me to all other aspects of my life that require speaking.

Chrisalynn: Words are not just words; they are often thoughts in pursuit of validation.

Effective communication also entails the ability to engage with the other party and express what we need to say, when we need to say it.

Firstly, if we want to communicate effectively, we must be able to connect with others. Secondly, we must know what our message is and the intention behind it. Thirdly, we must be able to read social situations and understand the appropriate timing for conveying our intentions.

Once again, this is illustrated by the tenets of theatre. Whenever I play a character, I need to be clear about what my character means when she speaks a line, and why she is saying what she is saying.

Words are not just words; they are often thoughts in pursuit of validation.

If I’m acting, and I say the line, “What are you doing?”, it can mean a host of different things, depending on the context.

We are able to ascertain the meaning by absorbing clues distinct from the phrasing itself. In the same way, I provide the intended meaning of my lines by presenting those indicators to my audience.

If my director asks me to appear more heartbroken, I may swallow hard or allow my body to sag. If anger is what we’re looking for, I might adapt my tone to a harsher quality. If I’d like to convey awkwardness, maybe I’d speed up my speech to a bumbling, breathless pace, or even add abrupt pauses to create a more distressed delivery.

In other words, the process of acting taught me to read behind the “what-are-you-doings” of life. This, coupled with clarity of delivery, is helpful in any kind of situation that calls for effective communication.

Be it onstage or offstage, whether I am on the giving or receiving end of the message, I can take what I have learned from my time in the performing arts and apply it – all so that I am equipped to understand my fellow humans better or be better understood by them.

I truly believe that the arts shed much-needed light on us as communicators, and further still, on us as introspective, intricate individuals.

Every time I take a final bow onstage, I take home another lesson on how to be an effective communicator.

Chrisalynn, 20, a student in Penang, is a participant of the BRATs Young Journalist Programme run by The Star’s Newspaper-in-Education (Star-NiE) team. To join Star-NiE’s online youth community, go to facebook.com/niebrats.