Voice: An Interdisciplinary Field and a Field unto Itself

A Very Special Episode (Or Rather a Very Special Issue)

As a kid in the 1980s, American television shows had a trend of offering “a very special episode,” where they would address a social topic of the day. (Many people now make fun of this trend.) When working on this Voice and Speech Review (VSR) summer issue, someone referred to it as “a very special episode” in the history of this journal; it made me think back on this now old fashion and clumsy television trend and chuckle. But indeed, this VSR issue is important and unique.

This issue is a themed issue called Practitioner Research in Voice Studies, and it will be the journal’s fourth Special Issue as a Book (SPIB). Basically, in a SPIB, Routledge Press, the journal’s publisher, collects articles from the VSR and publishes them in book form to offer the articles to a more mainstream audience. All the peer reviewed articles in this issue will be in the book version, and there will be 16 other articles from the VSR over the past few years.¹

As noted in the book introduction, Practitioner Research in Voice Studies aims to support the artist-scholar who wishes to design and publish research in voice. The book is useful for the novice, who wants tangible tools to begin, and for the more experienced researcher, who wants varying perspectives on how voice scholarship has evolved. The book contains three sections:

• Conducting Practitioner Research in Voice Studies

• Getting Started

• Practitioner Research Examples.

The first two sections outline major themes, debates, and research approaches in the field, and many chapters offer step-by-step guides and tips. The final section presents example research articles that highlight numerous methods including qualitative, quantitative, mixed-method, action research, performance as research, practice as research, literature review, narrative review, and other kinds of multidisciplinary practices:

The articles in Section 1 (Conducting Practitioner Research in Voice Studies) are:

• “Research and Practice in Voice Studies: Searching for a Methodology” by Daron Oram (2015).

• “Voicing a Practitioner Research Methodology: Further Framing the Conversation” by Deborah Winter (2021).

• “Insights, Considerations, and Suggestions for the Practitioner-Researcher in Voice Studies” by Sophie Scott (2022).

• “Exploring the Narrative: Voice Practitioner Research and the Literature Review Process” by Deborah Winter (2023).

• “‘The Full Monty’: Taking a Fully Qualitative Approach to Research By Singers, With Singers, For Singers” by Melissa Forbes (2024).

The articles in Section 2 (Getting Started) are:

• “A Guide to Publishing in the Voice and Speech Review” by Rockford Sansom (2018a).

• “Voice Research Reflections: Tips for the Artist-Scholar” by Rockford Sansom (2024).

The articles in Section 3 (Practitioner Research Examples) are:

• “Voice Training Methods in MFA Acting Programs: Preliminary Descriptive USA Data” by Rubino and Stewart (2018).

• “Impolite Birth: Theatre Voice Training and the Experience of Childbirth” by Kris Danford et al. (2023).

• “Healthy and Efficient Voice Use Awareness in Amateur Group Singers: A Multi-Sensory Self-Assessment Protocol Trial” by Tara Leiper (2024).

• “Communication and Resilience in Acting Students: A Qualitative Study” by Jennifer Innes (2021).

• “Survey of University Acting Majors regarding the Most Useful Elements of Singing Training” by Manternach and Manternach (2019).

• “Keep the Arrows: Interrogating Discrimination in Fandom Through Solo Performance” by Alan R. White (2023).

• “La Casa de Inez: Investigating History, Voice, and Memory through Embodied, Site-Specific Storytelling: by Elisa Gonzales (2018).

• “Finding a Way: More Tales of Dyslexia and Dyspraxia in Psychophysical Actor Training” by Daron Oram (2018).

• “Accent Modification, Voicework, and ALS: A Case Study in Prolonging the Ability to Speak” by Andrea Caban (2018).

• “When Mouths Went Missing: A Post-Pandemic, Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration for Actors and Animators” by Cunningham and Kelley (2022).

• “Poetry, Voice, Brain, and Body” by Christina Shewell (2020).

• “Assessment in Musical Theatre: A Tool for Transparency, Equity, and Student Learning” by Amanda Flynn (2022).

• “Online Theatre Voice Pedagogy: A Literature Review” by Shannon Vickers (2020).

• “The Unspoken Voice and Speech Debate [Or] the Sacred Cow in the Conservatory” by Rockford Sansom (2016).

The goal of Practitioner Research in Voice Studies is to empower artist-scholars to engage in their own research. This collection is one that spans several years and various seasons of the VSR. As I consider this, I am reminded that voice studies is an interdisciplinary field, but it is a field unto itself. While we draw from research tools in the humanities, the social sciences, and the hard sciences, we are a unique discipline that celebrates a diversity of paradigms. And while I hope that this book brings some organization (for lack of a better word) to voice research in the performing arts, I also joyfully acknowledge the complexity of our field. In a workshop, I once described voice research as a “beautiful mess,” and I love it.

In This Issue

The issue opens with “When Mouths Went Missing: A Post-Pandemic, Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration for Actors and Animators” by Kathryn M. Cunningham and John C. Kelley. This article examines a pedagogical partnership between acting and animation professors during the COVID-19 pandemic; the professors devised a series of collaborative classroom projects for their students in both the visual and the performing arts. This article is an excellent example of practice as research. “Insights, Considerations, and Suggestions for the Practitioner-Researcher in Voice Studies” by Sophie Scott is about research. The article offers many step-by-step guides and tangible tools for researchers.

“‘The Full Monty’: Taking a Fully Qualitative Approach to Research By Singers, With Singers, For Singers” by Melissa Forbes extends the scholarly conversation on research within performing arts voice disciplines by exploring how “fully qualitative” research can help bridge the gap between rigorous and relevant research. This article is another excellent “how-to” conduct research article. Tara Leiper’s “Healthy and Efficient Voice Use Awareness in Amateur Group Singers: A Multi-Sensory Self-Assessment Protocol Trial” is a community-based, qualitative study. It looks at self-awareness within group singing. All four of these peer reviewed articles will be in the SPIB and are strong articles about research or exceptional article examples that are worthy of study.

As always, the Forum section offers essays that provide relevant commentary on current topics in voice. “Practitioner Research in Voice Studies” by Rockford Sansom serves as the formal introduction to the SPIB book. This article goes into more detail about the book and the articles within it. VASTA President, Antonio Ocampo-Guzman, offers his “VASTA President’s Note” and reflects on the organization. “Nonso Anozie: It’s Going to Come from Your Voice” is an interview article; Colleen Conroy interviews the highly regarded British actor, Nonso Anozie, and discusses topics in voice. Rockford Sansom published “Voice Research Reflections: Tips for the Artist-Scholar.” This article was also created specifically for the SPIB; it collects various sections of previously-published VSR Editor Notes that give tips on research.² The section closes with “Lynn Watson: My Journey to Now” by Lynn Watson. Lynn recently received the VASTA Lifetime Distinguished Member award. The My Journey to Now series consists of autobiographical reflections that honor and highlight distinguished practitioners from the world of performance, voice, and communication training and pedagogy. The hope is that this series offers wisdom and inspiration to other voice professionals and the VSR readership.

I hope you enjoy the issue.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rockford Sansom

Rockford Sansom PhD, MFA, is an Associate Professor of Voice at Louisiana State University and the voice coach of LSU’s resident Equity theatre, Swine Palace. He has coached Off-Broadway, Off-West End, in regional theatres, Fortune 500 executives, UN delegates, and members of the US Congress. As an actor, he performed Off-Broadway, regionally, and in international and national tours. He was the Editor of the Voice and Speech Review, and he has published the books The History of Voice Pedagogy, Vocal Traditions, and Voice and Identity. With Christina Shewell, he is the co-author of Voice Work (2nd ed.), a textbook about voice training used worldwide. VASTA Lifetime Distinguished Member. AEA, SAG-AFTRA.

Notes

1. The VSR has had three other SPIBs. For more information, see Sansom (2019b, 2019c, 2022a, 2022b, 2023).

2. For the full versions, see Sansom (2018b, 2019c, 2019d, 2021).