Vocal Development and Tongue Twisters

Vocal Development

Volume - The degree of loudness or intensity of a voice.

Rate - How fast or slow you speak.

Pitch - The highness or lowness of voice

Flexibility - The manipulation of pitch to express emotion.

Projection - The placement and delivery of volume, clarity, and distinctness of voice for communicating to an audience.

Articulation - The clear and precise pronunciation of words.

Diction - The pronunciation of words, the choice of words, and the manner in which a person expresses himself or herself.

The Ultimate List of Tongue Twisters

Unique New York

Three free throws

Red Leather, Yellow Leather

I thought a thought.
But the thought I thought wasn’t the thought I thought I thought.

One-One was a racehorse.
Two-Two was one, too.
When One-One won one race, Two-Two won one, too.

Say this sharply, say this sweetly,
Say this shortly, say this softly.
Say this sixteen times very quickly.

Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers! (Repeat. Increase the tempo.)

Silly Sally swiftly shooed seven silly sheep.
The seven silly sheep Silly Sally shooed Shilly-shallied south.
These sheep shouldn’t sleep in a shack; Sheep should sleep in a shed.

Red Bulb Blue Bulb Red Bulb Blue Bulb Red Bulb Blue Bulb

Red Blood Blue Blood

I wish to wish the wish you wish to wish, but if you wish the wish the witch wishes, I won’t wish the wish you wish to wish.

She sells seashells on the seashore.

Mix a box of mixed biscuits with a boxed biscuit mixer.

A proper copper coffee pot.

Toy boat. Toy boat. Toy boat.

Betty bought butter but the butter was bitter, so Betty bought better butter to make the bitter butter better.

I thought a thought.
But the thought I thought wasn’t the thought I thought I thought.
If the thought I thought I thought had been the thought I thought, I wouldn’t have thought so much.

How much wood could a wood chuck; chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood.

Comical economists.

Which wristwatches are Swiss wristwatches?

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

Sascha sews slightly slashed sheets shut.

She should shun the shinning sun.

The big black back brake broke badly.

The big beautiful blue balloon burst.

A shapeless sash sags slowly.

Smelly shoes and socks shock sisters.

Which wrist watches are Swiss wrist watches?

Dick kicks sticky bricks.

Shave a single shingle thin.

Stick strictly six sticks stumps.

Cinnamon aluminum linoleum.

New York is unanimously universally unique.

Cooks cook cupcakes quickly.

Flora’s freshly fried fish.

A bragging baker baked black bread.

Buy blue blueberry biscuits before bedtime.

She sold six shabby sheared sheep on ship.

The sixth sick sheik’s son slept.

These thousand tricky tongue twisters trip thrillingly off the tongue.

Radio Play History and Significant Moments in the Era

Radio drama is over 70 years old, and, for all serious purposes, has been dead for 50 of those years, being used only occasionally in the classroom as a novelty or curiosity. During the middle to late 1940's, radio drama reached its peak, then, with the advent and expansion of television, it quickly faded into history. Before the 1920's formal radio programs were unknown. Most broadcasts were one time events consisting mainly of talk and music. Broadcast hours were irregular, usually four or five hours a day, and the only regularly scheduled broadcasts were weather reports. Once in a while, musical events such as symphonies and operas were broadcast from the locations where they were being performed. Occasionally stage plays were broadcast from the theatre, and sporting events were broadcast with play-by-play announcing.

In the mid 20's, larger stations began to develop programs using announcers or narrators. These programs used definite openings and closings and were built around specific program ideas. Radio drama was born in 1927, when networks began adapting short stories, and even writing original scripts, for broadcast.

During the last part of the 1920's many one-hour, sponsored network programs started. Musical variety and concert music programs were the most popular forms during this period. Some of these network variety programs used a different format each week—a musical program one week, a talk or a debate the next week, and perhaps a dramatization the third week. During this period the network schedules included two or three minstrel variety programs and a comedy variety program using a series of several comedy acts in a half hour. Song-and-patter teams, usually two person teams that used talk between songs, became popular during this period. Later on patter-only comedy acts appeared. The Amos 'n' Andy show was one of the first to use this format. At first Amos 'n' Andy presented patter five nights a week for fifteen minutes each night.

During the 1930-31 season, the comedy dramatic form became an important part of radio programming, when Amos 'n' Andy adopted a story line. Amos 'n' Andy was so popular that the program survived even into the TV era.

In the early 1930's national advertisers recognized the potential for radio advertising and became willing to buy air-time and sponsor programs. As this happened, networks competed for their share. The result was the development of many new program forms. Among the new program types were: vaudeville variety programs, dramatized news programs, programs built around a comedian, advice/interview programs, amateur contest programs, town meeting programs, daily network news programs, daytime "soap opera" serialized drama, after school juvenile serialized adventure drama, and hillbilly variety programs. As network daytime serials became popular, stations developed daytime schedules.

In order to survive the depression years, many local stations scheduled commercial religious programs, programs with cultural appeal (country music for instance), and astrology programs that included strong appeals for donations to keep the show on the air. During this time, local news programs were usually one fifteen-minute broadcast per day, getting their news from daily newspapers.

In the early 1940's, radio programs reflected America's involvement in World War II. As the number of news and human interest programs grew, evening variety, musical, quiz, and audience participation programs shrunk. During this time, evening dramatic programs exploded in number.

As a result of the country's involvement in the war, the number of hours per week devoted to news broadcasts nearly doubled. It was probably this abundance of war news that propelled the spectacular growth of evening dramatic programs. As listeners grew tired of war talk, they turned to other programs for escape. The forms that offered the most escape were comedy-variety, comedy drama, and thriller drama. As a matter of fact, one of the dramatic series created during this period was entitled Escape. During the 1944-45 season, the networks scheduled 8 hours of comedy variety, 8 hours of comedy drama programs, and 14 hours of thriller drama each week. By the end of this period, networks offered 47 hours a week of dramatic programs during the evening and on Sunday. Thriller drama programs counted for about 25 hours of these each week.

In the early years of television, not enough homes had a TV receiver and national sponsors were hard to find, therefore, production costs had to be controlled. It was too expensive to create new forms and take a chance on an unknown show, so the forms that existed at the time on radio were moved directly to television. In fact, many of the successful radio series went directly to television. Gunsmoke, an extremely successful western drama, was one among several that could be heard on radio and seen on TV. Suspense, radio's longest running thriller series, was another.

Web Resource: balancepublishing.com

Radio Play Project (4 people per group): 

Students will create their own radio play, Murder Mystery. 

Materials Needed: 

character plot, plot mountain, script, sound effects, commercials, recording device, lots of imagination

Duties:
Two Playwrights: It is the responsibility of the playwright to write the actual script for the radio drama. The other members of the group will provide creative input, but the playwright will be held accountable for actually writing the script on paper.

Foley Artist: It is the responsibility of the Foley artist to create the sound effects (six) for the radio drama. This person will be responsible for ensuring that all props are brought to the recording studio when needed. The Foley artist will make sure that the playwright includes all sound effects in the script.

Advertising Executive: It is the responsibility of the advertising executive to write the commercials (three) for the radio drama. This person should decide where the commercials should be placed in the script and inform the playwright of these decisions.

Radio Play Project

Murder Mystery Radio Play Project

This is a group work project. Your group is going to write a Radio Play script. The theme of the play will be a murder mystery. Before you can begin you must make some choices.

1 – What? We already know this scenario; a murder has taken place.

2 – Where? Where will the play take place (at a school, the mall, a Halloween party, the zoo…)?

3 – Who? Who is in your play and what is their relationship to each other? Are they friends, strangers or enemies?

Use this table to create your characters.

Who is the Protagonist (the good guy/girl)? This is ONE person. Name and describe them.

Who is the Antagonist (the bad guy/girl)? This is ONE person. Name and describe them.

Who supports the Protagonist? One or multiple characters Name and describe them.

Who supports the Antagonist? One or multiple characters Name and describe them.

Now it's time you create the plot of your murder mystery!

Radio Play Plot Mountain

Exposition – In this section you will introduce your characters and backstory.

Beginning Action – In this section we will see the first glimpse of conflict.

Rising Action – In this section the conflict escalates.

Climax – In this section the conflict reaches its peak (example – someone dies, is kidnapped, gets into a fight, gets arrested…).

Falling Action – In this section the conflict begins to resolve.

Resolution – In this section the conflict is resolved. The resolution does not have to be good. It is simply a means to an end (example – the missing person’s body is found, the most lovable character is sentenced to life in prison…).

Silent Film History

Silent Film History




Silent Film Project - Your group will use your mime, pantomime and combat mime scenes to create a silent film by mapping it out on a storyboard.

Storyboard - A sequence of drawings, typically with some directions and dialogue, representing the shots planned for a movie or television production.

Silent Film Project

-         Create a storyboard to map out your planning for your Silent Film.

What should be on my storyboard?

Shots and Signs - Each square represents a shot (video recording of scene work) or sign (written dialogue or narration). The squares are designated for writing descriptions of what happens in your scenes/shots or to show what your signs will state.

Types of Shots - Close-up, Long and Mid-range (You should have at least one close-up and mid-range shot in your film). You will receive three storyboard sheets, one for each section of your film (Beginning, Middle, Ending). Each sheet contains six squares for shots/signs. You may not need to use all six squares for each section.

What is on a sign?

Dialogue - "Oh no! Watch out!!!"

Description – The next day….

Group________________________________________                                              
Silent Film Project Storyboards
Beginning/Exposition

*Remember, you should have at least one close-up and mid-range shot in your film.

Title Page – What is the name of your Silent Film?	Sign – Brief, introductory dialogue or narration to set up the beginning of your film.	Shot – First filmed scene for the beginning section of your film.
Sign – Brief dialogue or narration for the beginning of your film.	Shot – Second filmed scene for the beginning section of your film.	Sign – Brief dialogue or narration for the beginning of your film.

Group________________________________________                                              
Middle/Climax (conflict)

Shot – First filmed scene for the middle section of your film.	Sign – Brief, introductory dialogue or narration to set up the middle of your film.	Shot – Second filmed scene for the middle section of your film.
Sign – Brief dialogue or narration for the middle of your film.	Shot – Third filmed scene for the middle section of your film.	Sign – Brief dialogue or narration for the middle of your film.

Group________________________________________                                              
Ending/Resolution

Shot – First filmed scene for the ending section of your film.	Sign – Brief, introductory dialogue or narration to set up the ending of your film.	Shot – Second filmed scene for the ending section of your film.
Sign – Brief dialogue or narration for the ending of your film.	Shot – Third filmed scene for the ending section of your film.	Sign – Brief dialogue or narration for the ending of your film.

Project Example/Previous Student Work

Friday Night Football!

Showstoppers first performance of the season!