Liz Mills - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Liz Mills

Recherches sémiotiques, 2018

The focus of this article is Western theatre voice practice and discourse. With the voice conceiv... more The focus of this article is Western theatre voice practice and discourse. With the voice conceived as the trace of language, the main intention is to reveal interstices for creative vocal or sonorous play by unsettling the relationship between voice and language.The project references the shift to the ‘natural voice’ in Western theatre voice practice and how, in spite of this shift to sound that is strongly located in the person of the performer, voice does not exploit the riches of either its originating practice in orality or its own essential nature as sonorous vocality. This article proposes that Western theatre voice’s strong link to a devocalized logos as argued by Cavarero, and logos as text informed by Habermas’s concept of communicative rationality, do not allow the voice to transcend a single representation rooted in language.

Voice and Speech Review, 2005

Mise en scène is a modern notion concerned, in western theatre, primarily with scenic arrangement... more Mise en scène is a modern notion concerned, in western theatre, primarily with scenic arrangement. It is understood to be a function of the director’s authorship of a production; that authorship being essentially a mediation of processes and factors spanning both the pragmatics and the conceptualisation of any piece of theatre.2 It is the immediate sense of considered action realised in performance that is attractive about the notion of mise en scène. And, in respect of theatre voice, the idea of conscious creative and artistic choice applied to the use of the actor’s voice in theatre. The following exploration of mise en scène, according to Pavis’ writings on the subject3, will both map out the director’s activity in creating meaning through the directing process and suggest that the notion of mise en scène offers a way of approaching theatre voice that insists on conscious decision making within a range of theatrical choices.

South African Theatre Journal, 2005

This is, strictly speaking, not a conversation as I will be the only person ‘speaking’ for the du... more This is, strictly speaking, not a conversation as I will be the only person ‘speaking’ for the duration of the paper and it is, of course, a paper. But I have chosen to call this ‘a conversation that is research’ because conversation as a mode of communication best suits my subject matter and at this point in time reflects my perceived need for theatre practitioners located in the academy to be vigorously engaged in conversation about research.

South African Theatre Journal, 2009

... Theatre Voice: Practice, Performance and Cultural Identity Liz Mills University of Cape Town ... more ... Theatre Voice: Practice, Performance and Cultural Identity Liz Mills University of Cape Town ... operation of power relations through language. Hoch was raised in the Bronx of New York by his speech pathologist mother, whose mother tongue, English, was a minority language in ...

Modern Drama, 2009

This article explores a notion of “vocal image” understood as the generating of or presence of vo... more This article explores a notion of “vocal image” understood as the generating of or presence of vocalized sound intended to form an acoustic image either linked to language or independent of language. Vocal image is considered, here, from a very particular space: the space of performance practice. It is suggested that the actor's resistance to a playful exploration of sound in the abstract or within language has its roots in the layers of reasonableness inherent in language and in a concept of character as person. This resistance arguably inhibits a dimension of vocal creativity as well as possible vocal access to the articulation of the various texts of postdramatic theatre. In response, Julia Kristeva's identification of the semiotic and chora provide the basis for a theorizing of an intertextuality of voice that references a dimension of sound play already evident in the theatre and performance practices of experimental theatre.

Voice and Speech Review, 2001

The methodology of the voice/speech specialist can seem obscure and esoteric to the uninitiated. ... more The methodology of the voice/speech specialist can seem obscure and esoteric to the uninitiated. So too, can seem the language and practices of the Performance Studies scholar. Therefore, we of the voice/speech community should read Liz Mills' article “The Theatre of Theatre Voice” with a spirit of adventure. Our thanks to Professor Jacqueline Martin of Queensland University of Technology, and one of this journal's regular columnists, for providing some useful context in the following introduction. — LC, assoc. ed.

South African Theatre Journal, 2007

This was the second of the Dramatic Learning Spaces Conferences conceived, planned and organised ... more This was the second of the Dramatic Learning Spaces Conferences conceived, planned and organised by Veronica Baxter at the Department of Drama Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The two conferences funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) have provided a very welcome space for sharing research, engaging in conversation and networking within the discipline. Increased participation at the 2006 conference points to the success of, and the excitement generated by, the first conference in 2004. 2004. The conferences, proposed as a series of biennial conferences, have been a timely refocusing of research energies within the discipline.

... Theatre Voice: Practice, Performance and Cultural Identity Liz Mills University of Cape Town ... more ... Theatre Voice: Practice, Performance and Cultural Identity Liz Mills University of Cape Town ... operation of power relations through language. Hoch was raised in the Bronx of New York by his speech pathologist mother, whose mother tongue, English, was a minority language in ...

... Theatre Voice: Practice, Performance and Cultural Identity Liz Mills University of Cape Town ... more ... Theatre Voice: Practice, Performance and Cultural Identity Liz Mills University of Cape Town ... operation of power relations through language. Hoch was raised in the Bronx of New York by his speech pathologist mother, whose mother tongue, English, was a minority language in ...

Recherches sémiotiques, 2018

The focus of this article is Western theatre voice practice and discourse. With the voice conceiv... more The focus of this article is Western theatre voice practice and discourse. With the voice conceived as the trace of language, the main intention is to reveal interstices for creative vocal or sonorous play by unsettling the relationship between voice and language.The project references the shift to the ‘natural voice’ in Western theatre voice practice and how, in spite of this shift to sound that is strongly located in the person of the performer, voice does not exploit the riches of either its originating practice in orality or its own essential nature as sonorous vocality. This article proposes that Western theatre voice’s strong link to a devocalized logos as argued by Cavarero, and logos as text informed by Habermas’s concept of communicative rationality, do not allow the voice to transcend a single representation rooted in language.

Voice and Speech Review, 2005

Mise en scène is a modern notion concerned, in western theatre, primarily with scenic arrangement... more Mise en scène is a modern notion concerned, in western theatre, primarily with scenic arrangement. It is understood to be a function of the director’s authorship of a production; that authorship being essentially a mediation of processes and factors spanning both the pragmatics and the conceptualisation of any piece of theatre.2 It is the immediate sense of considered action realised in performance that is attractive about the notion of mise en scène. And, in respect of theatre voice, the idea of conscious creative and artistic choice applied to the use of the actor’s voice in theatre. The following exploration of mise en scène, according to Pavis’ writings on the subject3, will both map out the director’s activity in creating meaning through the directing process and suggest that the notion of mise en scène offers a way of approaching theatre voice that insists on conscious decision making within a range of theatrical choices.

South African Theatre Journal, 2005

This is, strictly speaking, not a conversation as I will be the only person ‘speaking’ for the du... more This is, strictly speaking, not a conversation as I will be the only person ‘speaking’ for the duration of the paper and it is, of course, a paper. But I have chosen to call this ‘a conversation that is research’ because conversation as a mode of communication best suits my subject matter and at this point in time reflects my perceived need for theatre practitioners located in the academy to be vigorously engaged in conversation about research.

South African Theatre Journal, 2009

... Theatre Voice: Practice, Performance and Cultural Identity Liz Mills University of Cape Town ... more ... Theatre Voice: Practice, Performance and Cultural Identity Liz Mills University of Cape Town ... operation of power relations through language. Hoch was raised in the Bronx of New York by his speech pathologist mother, whose mother tongue, English, was a minority language in ...

Modern Drama, 2009

This article explores a notion of “vocal image” understood as the generating of or presence of vo... more This article explores a notion of “vocal image” understood as the generating of or presence of vocalized sound intended to form an acoustic image either linked to language or independent of language. Vocal image is considered, here, from a very particular space: the space of performance practice. It is suggested that the actor's resistance to a playful exploration of sound in the abstract or within language has its roots in the layers of reasonableness inherent in language and in a concept of character as person. This resistance arguably inhibits a dimension of vocal creativity as well as possible vocal access to the articulation of the various texts of postdramatic theatre. In response, Julia Kristeva's identification of the semiotic and chora provide the basis for a theorizing of an intertextuality of voice that references a dimension of sound play already evident in the theatre and performance practices of experimental theatre.

Voice and Speech Review, 2001

The methodology of the voice/speech specialist can seem obscure and esoteric to the uninitiated. ... more The methodology of the voice/speech specialist can seem obscure and esoteric to the uninitiated. So too, can seem the language and practices of the Performance Studies scholar. Therefore, we of the voice/speech community should read Liz Mills' article “The Theatre of Theatre Voice” with a spirit of adventure. Our thanks to Professor Jacqueline Martin of Queensland University of Technology, and one of this journal's regular columnists, for providing some useful context in the following introduction. — LC, assoc. ed.

South African Theatre Journal, 2007

This was the second of the Dramatic Learning Spaces Conferences conceived, planned and organised ... more This was the second of the Dramatic Learning Spaces Conferences conceived, planned and organised by Veronica Baxter at the Department of Drama Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The two conferences funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) have provided a very welcome space for sharing research, engaging in conversation and networking within the discipline. Increased participation at the 2006 conference points to the success of, and the excitement generated by, the first conference in 2004. 2004. The conferences, proposed as a series of biennial conferences, have been a timely refocusing of research energies within the discipline.

... Theatre Voice: Practice, Performance and Cultural Identity Liz Mills University of Cape Town ... more ... Theatre Voice: Practice, Performance and Cultural Identity Liz Mills University of Cape Town ... operation of power relations through language. Hoch was raised in the Bronx of New York by his speech pathologist mother, whose mother tongue, English, was a minority language in ...

... Theatre Voice: Practice, Performance and Cultural Identity Liz Mills University of Cape Town ... more ... Theatre Voice: Practice, Performance and Cultural Identity Liz Mills University of Cape Town ... operation of power relations through language. Hoch was raised in the Bronx of New York by his speech pathologist mother, whose mother tongue, English, was a minority language in ...