Upon attending a performance of The Golden Age, audience members received a dramaturgy “bit,” as I have come to call them. In the place of language-heavy display boards, these “bits” were meant to serve as jumping off points for audience members on an individual level. Each one contained a different piece of information, sometimes in the form of a quote, a picture, a poem, an historical fact, a provoking question, or an analytical question. My hope was that these cards would spark conversation and investigation between audience members and each other as well as the play itself, giving each person their own ‘insider’ information through which to access the play in a non linear way.

On the cards I included a link to this blog, saying that if anyone was confused by what they saw or read they should visit this blog for clarification. True to my word, I am providing links to all the dramaturgical information amassed for this production.

• Actor’s Packet v.7
• Director’s Packet v.9 copy

I also worked on an annotated script that I will post as soon as I gain permission from copyrighting.

I hope everyone enjoyed the show as much as I did!

Learning about Autism has been revelatory for me as a ‘high-functioning’ person.  It has shown me that challenges which are more pronounced in people Autism are present in all of us.  At Boston Higashi School (The International Program for Individuals with Autism) they put it to me like this, “Everyone is on the spectrum”.  Actually, ‘Everyone’ was said in reference to every student at the school—meaning the students; I misinterpreted it to mean that every human being is somewhere on the spectrum, and this became one of the seeds of my character development: Essentially, the frustration of communicating our desires is a universal constant.  Our fears and insecurities often stop us from saying what is in our heart, even to the closest friends and family.  It also prevents us from listening to ourselves.
One characteristic of Autism can be a dramatic decrease in spacial/relational awareness.  This is recognizable in decreased awareness of socio-physical boundaries, or a confused nervous system that might make the sound of crinkling paper as agitating as the sound of gunfire.  I can usually depend on my senses to remind me of my relationship to a wall (or in someone’s comfort zone), my emotional world is often so tumultuous as to rearrange my perceptions of the corporeal world, turning the familiar into the unfamiliar.

In regards to Stef, I believe that he is a symbol in this play for the chaotic inner experience that underlies our endless capacity and relentless effort to appear of normal.  But it is not just about placating social norms, it is also a relentless effort to organize the chaos, in order to experience even a brief moment of wholeness and comprehension.  All of us make this endeavor every day.  We get up feeling somewhere between 0 and 100%, and we set out to raise or sustain that number.  Our unique circumstances and personalities determine the frequency with which we reset and drop to 0; our thoughts and perceptions dictate when we believe we are at 0% and what is the feasibility of ever reaching 100%. If you are reading this having seen the show, what you observed in Stef is a very high frequency of resets.  I imagine it is like paddling in water to the point of exhaustion and then finding a brittle log to grab onto in glimpsing a spoon; it’s shape and brilliance are articulated in such a way that he can feel concrete again.

On one hand, it is very sad to watch someone in constantly struggling to organize their world and be understood by family and strangers alike.  On the other hand, it is very fun for me (Joe) to rediscover the world every moment in a brilliant flash of red, in the drifting lullaby of a piano, in the look of acknowledgement and affirmation in someone’s eyes.

As we digest and synthesize our experiences, our selves are just that fluid.  I might spend months in a depressed state because I feel unwanted, then, in a moment, experience joy from a small act of friendship and be released from the bulk of my suffering into a more capable form.

For me, the ideas of perseverance, and small victories, have been the gems of this exploration.

The life of someone on the spectrum highlights the tendency of our high-functioning society to over-celebrate major victories.  It is the star basketball players and the movie stars who are most celebrated; people with amazing talents that far surpass the abilities of the common man.

Conversely, our overemphasis of major victories turns attention to major failures.  In pop-culture and mainstream news, we are drawn to either the one-in-a-million phenomenon or the catastrophic failure.  But due to the nature of exceptional events, it is more common to hear about the greed and corruption of a senator, than it is to hear about the one who is trying to reduce homelessness by passing quiet bits of legislation.  We are also more likely to hear about the poverty and violence in developing country than it’s beautiful culture or the heroes who are fighting to develop it, and so we come to define those places by their suffering.  Listening to the news, you might think that every other country in the world is burning in an apocalyptic fire.  We are not as accustomed to hearing about small victories, in which good people’s perseverance is helping the victims of injustice. In the play Speak Truth to Power by Ariel Dorfman, Kek Galabru from Cambodia is quoted, saying:

When a person comes to see us and they say, “I know that I would have died if you were not here,” that gives us

more energy.  If we only save one person—it’s a victory.

On my second visit to Boston Higashi School with Director Benny Ambush, it was awesome to see the progress of one particular student who was a major inspiration for Stef’s physicality.  When we met him the first time around, he was new to the school and a teacher had been assigned to be in his face all day long.  A couple weeks later, this student can follow his teacher down the hall without being led by the arm.  He can also descend stairs by himself.  To many, this kind of progress is only noteworthy during infancy or sickness; but in this student’s life, they are mountains climbed. Having struggled against chronic fatigue for almost two years, this work has inspired me to draw energy from small victories.

Studying Autism has also reminded me that perseverance is intrinsic to our basic life force.  In Speak Truth to Power, the Dalai Lama is quoted, saying:

When I hear bad news from Tibet my natural reaction is one of great sadness.  Yet there is no point in being

discouraged.  Feelings of helpless anger do nothing but poison the mind, embitter the heart, and enfeeble the will.

We must place this is context and remind ourselves that the basic human disposition toward freedom, truth, and

justice will eventually prevail.

Passing through classrooms at the Higashi School, you can see how vital it is for someone with Autism to have a patient, perseverant caretaker (which is evident in the relationship between Stef and Betsheb).  If we apply Augosto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed perspective to this relationship, we could refer to this ‘caretaker’ as and ‘ally’: someone who helps the victim when they are having trouble confronting oppressive forces.  An ally helps people who are in weak or vulnerable position, simply because it is the right thing to do:

I did what I had to do.  Anything else would have tasted like ashes

-Desmond Tutu in Speak Truth to Power

All this is to reflect on the idea that, if we more readily celebrated our small victories, our shortcomings would have less power to defeat us.  Through our perseverance as individuals and allies to each other, we could have a revolutionary impact on the lives of our human community.

Although The Golden Age takes place in Australia, not all of the dialects are central to that area. Theresa Masse, who plays the highbrow society lady Elizabeth, studied a different accent for her character.

Just like all the other actors, Theresa worked with Liz Hayes and Amelia Broome in individual hour-long blocks to refine the dialect. Elizabeth’s dialect is British Received Pronunciation, indicating that she has been received in the highest society. Many Australians actually forced themselves to have this accent, as they were embarrassed about their heritage; being truly British was much safer in this time period.

Theresa began her process by diving right into the dialect. She says that it is important for her to speak her lines with the accent right away, and refine it from there. “The British accent comes easily,” she says. “The important thing is hearing the vowel shift. The consonants don’t really change.” Theresa has a very good ear for sounds, and through her own mix of mimicking, using the International Phonetic Alphabet, and scoring her script, she was able to find Elizabeth’s unique voice.

When asked if using this dialect helps Theresa get into her character, the answer was an enthusiastic yes. “Elizabeth isn’t exactly a villain, but she certainly isn’t nice,” she says. “The accent enhances her villain-hood… it adds a touch of juice.”

Listen closely to Elizabeth’s accent in the show… do you think it makes her seem more villainous?

IPA for Vowels

Phonetics

As I am currently enrolled in a phonetics class, I decided to do an exploration of the Australian accent from a phonetic standpoint given what I have learned in the last 4 weeks. We learned the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and have worked on basic transcription techniques. As a warning: I have in no way mastered the art of transcription, especially variations of American accented English so please do not take any of my transcriptions to heart as there may be errors based on what I still have not learned. More than anything, this is meant to give you a more clinical look at the work actors might be doing to deal with their dialect requirements.

Refer to these charts if you are wondering where I’m getting the symbols for transcription:

Phonetics, in regard to theatre, can be extremely helpful when learning accents or trying to help another person learn one. With phonetics training one can identify accented sounds by ear and then identify where they formulate in the mouth. Then, one can transcribe (you will see what I mean by ‘transcribe’ below) a given accent into a readable form. For example, if an actor were having trouble with the pronunciation of a particular word in an accent, he/she could write a transcription of the word in their script and refer to it later, reading the transcription for sound and not spelling.

What makes an Aussie sound like one?

Some Australians believe that their accent is a bastardized version of Queen’s English; others subscribe to the idea that the bright Australian sun forced convict-settlers (known as First Fleeters) to squint their eyes, causing a tight-mouthed, horizontal sound to their words; still others like to think that there were so many flies when the First Fleeters landed that they learnt to speak while opening their mouths very slightly, their lips forming a thin, pinched line, in order to keep from having a mouth full of flies. And finally, some believe that there was so much pollen in the air that the First Fleeters had to stuffed noses, creating a nasally sound. These myths, however silly they may be, bring up an interesting and illusive question: what is the Australian accent? Or, rather, what does it sound like and where did it come from? (The Sound of Aus).

How did it start?

A more reasonable conclusion for the beginnings of the Australian accent is with the children who either traveled over around the time of the first fleet or were born in Australia shortly after. Because most of the convict-settlers were from Britain it is reasonable to believe that there were multiple English language accents represented in the group, including Welsh, Cockney, Queen’s English, Irish, and Scottish among others. Thus, when young children came together to play, they may have developed an accent that was a hybrid of the many differentiations existing in their environment. Because children, in many cases, are the instigators of changes in accents, some say that these new Australian children rebelled against their settler parents in an attempt to consolidate a new identity—a uniquely Aussie identity (The Sound of Aus).

The 3 Aussie accents

Whether or not there are regional differentiations is highly debated, but, geographically, there is a remarkable similarity to the way Australian’s speak in general, a phenomenon that some believe links all Australians together in a unique identity separate from that of their British roots in England. Based on recordings of a man born in the 1870’s who lived in a remote location, suggesting that he was not influenced by any other ‘modern’ accents, it is believed that, until recently, most Australians spoke in what is now identified as the General Australian (GA) accent; the GA exists between the Broad Australian (BA) accent, which is the stereotypically thick, and the Cultivated Australian accent or Received Pronunciation (RP) accent, which is very near the Queen’s English pronunciation in Britain (The Sound of Aus).

The Broad

The BA is the very stereotypical Australian accent and, apparently, the general population does not speak with such a thick accent. When the process of elocution began (see history below) the BA became the mode through which uneducated and unrefined people spoke. It was, and, though I cannot be sure, perhaps still is, seen as rural. A fair comparison is the difference in connotation an American might make between a Middle American accent (the way news casters speak) and a deep southern, let’s say Oklahoma, accent.

As with most accents the largest differences in the BA are found the in pronunciation of vowels, diphthongs (a sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable), the elongation of vowels, and the stresses of syllables as demonstrated below:

Following these patterns of vowel pronunciation, you will notice words like ‘grape’ are pronounced /grɔip/.

• The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.

/ðə ˈraɪin in ˈspaɪin ˈfuwz ˈmaɪinli æn ðe ˈplaɪin̩/

• Ask the master to pass the banana.

/æʰsk ðə ˈmæstᵊ ɾə pæs ðə bəˈnaʰnə/

Many of the variations that cannot be captured with my transcription abilities are due to elongation of vowels and the use of a nasal sound to alter diphthongs.

The General

The GA is a milder form of the BA while still maintaining a characteristically Australian sound. It is not so easy to distinguish from a British accent except in words like ‘ask,’ ‘pass,’ and ‘banana’ where the ‘a’ resembles the BA. The most difficult aspects about the GA are how much it varies, the degrees of its relation to the BA changing by degrees in nearly every individual, and that in some but not all places where the BA greatly elongates vowels and diphthongs, the GA does not.

To give it context, you may look to actors Nicole Kidman and Rachel Griffiths for an example of the GA accent. They will sound mostly British, but you will catch glimpses of the Aussie in words like ‘dance’. They will pronounce it /dæns/ as compared to the English /daʰns/.

• The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.

/ðə reɪn ɪn speɪn fuwz meɪnlɪ ɒn ðə pleɪn/

• Ask the master to pass the banana.

/æsk ðə ˈmastᵊ ɾə paʰs ðə bəˈnaʰnə/

Received Pronunciation

Received pronunciation does not distinguish itself in a significant way from British accented English; even the vowel elongations, stresses and rhythms sound the same.  In particular, notice words like ‘dance’ having the very strict /a/ sound as demonstrated below in the “Ask the master to pass the banana,” example.

• The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.

/ðə reɪn̩ ɪn speɪn̩ fəlz ˈmeɪnli aʰn ðə pleɪn̩/

• Ask the master to pass the banana.

/aʰsk ðə mastᵊ tʊʰ pas ðə bəˈnanə/

Comparison Chart

Brief History of continued development

After Australia was federated in 1901, there was a change in the instruction of Australian English in schools from the GA accent to RP, the most noticeable changes occurring in the pronunciation of vowels and diphthongs. The idea behind this shift was that RP indicated education and correctness and a heightened social standing. This movement, called elocution, and those who endorsed it in Australia generally did so in an attempt to fulfill notions of British high class with their lingual pronunciation.

The social and identity crises that took place for many Australians during the World Wars made a significant impact upon the Australian accent. Socially, Australians were divided; some supported the British Empire and believed Australia owed allegiance to the Crown and should therefore join the battle in Europe; others felt coerced into the European war and resented fighting for “The Empire” that they did not see as their own. As a small act of rebellion or defiance, the ANZACS—Australian and New Zealand Army Corps—tried to sound more Australian to distinguish themselves from British soldiers by using a thicker accent, what probably is now the BA.

On the home front, the social disparity over WWI in particular grew deeper.  One group decided it was a waste of life to die for “The Empire” and worked diligently to assert Australian identity in every aspect of life—the accent highly included. As a result, a battle commenced between those who identified with the “Empire state-of-mind” and those who sought an “Australian way-of-life,” much of the disparity arising through popular culture. The upper hand went back-and-forth constantly. When the talkie films began using very broad accents, the Australian ABC News battled back in 1932 with radio shows that endeavored to sound just like the BBC—accents and all. Many of the casters were sent from England and scorned any announcers that sounded even remotely Australian.  By the 1940’s and 50’s the accent-divide became so bad that some Australians became offended by Australian accents! They said that they would much prefer to hear an English or an American voice rather than an Australian one, which, to their ears, was hard to listen to and displeasing.

In the 1950’s and 60’s an influx of migrants not only changed the population, but had an affect on the Australian accent as well. As new sounds were introduced into the lingual society, so were new politics, cultures and ways of life. By the 1970’s a “deregulation of the accent” was ushered in and more variations of the Aussie accent began to take hold in the mainstream; this includes indigenous voices as well as migrants and their descendants. The Australian accent was once again altered, giving it new life, new meaning, and new purpose.

In the end, and, of course there never truly will be since, like the individuals that make up a nation, there will be no end to the variation and procession of constant change, it is not what the accent sounds like, but what stories they tell, how they make speakers feel and what they say about the history of development (The Sound of Aus).

Works Cited

The Sound of Aus. Dir. John Clarke. ABC Television. 2007.

I recently spoke with Max Schadler about some of the work he did with dialect coaches Liz Hayes and Amelia Broome. Max’s character Francis has a basic Australian dialect, so Max has been working since before winter break to perfect his accent. “You find what works and what doesn’t,” he says. Max used a combination of phonetics and mimicry to find his accent. He watched many videos on the internet of native Australians as well as studying the vowel structure of Francis’ speech. Working with dialect was also a big part of finding the character, and a major transition for Max was the moment he realized he wasn’t afraid of the dialect anymore. He knew that all of the character work he did wouldn’t mean anything if he didn’t find Francis’ voice, so when he found he was comfortable in the dialect, he was able to move forward with character work. Of course, Max still faces challenges during every rehearsal; Australian slang is particularly difficult to master. Watch out for Max’s quick monologue about Saturday afternoons watching football, as he says this was his most difficult dialect to perfect.

An example of standard lexical sets.

Below you will find some of the work assembled by Liz Hayes, one of the vocal coaches working on The Golden Age. She came in at the very beginning of the rehearsal process to introduce the various forms of the Australian accent-there are three-that are required from everyone in the cast.

She compiled a wonderful play list of music to aid the actors in learning not just the accented words, but the rhythms and stresses that are characteristic to the Australian accent; these are important because, based on the sound of a word, its meaning and/or connotation can change, greatly altering the communication of an idea.

Please enjoy the songs she put together and look forward to a brief analysis of the Australian accent to come!

Many thanks to Liz Hayes for sharing her wonderful work:

For the most part (with the exception of the National anthems at the conclusion of the CD), my playlist was inspired by the different rhythms of the pieces more than their actual countries/cultures of origin. The notes you’ll find below are little tidbits about the pieces that merely hint at additional context—it’s more interesting for you to put your own spin on them, embracing the tracks that are helpful to your exploration of the play/your character, and chucking the ones that are not. I’m a big believer in going with the gut—what feels right—at the beginning of the process, which usually results in happy accidents. When I came across the Scottish ensemble The Cast, I noticed that they included a definition of the word CAST in Scots Gaelic in their liner notes. It’s a perfect link to the multiple meanings and usages of words in THE GOLDEN AGE, as well as to the way in which you will all work, as a cast, to share them with your audience.

“CAST (Scots) noun: 1) a turn or twist; 2) one’s lot, fortune, fate; 3) an opportunity, chance; 4) a friendly turn, helping hand; 5) a look”

TGA PLAYLIST

1) Stolen Purse                                                            Lúnasa

Notes: Live recording; sample of uilleann pipes

2) Marcshlua Uí Néill                                                            Seán Ó Riada

Notes: Live recording; sample of drum (bodhran), flutes and whistles

3) Ríl Mhór Bhaile An Chalaidh                                    Seán Ó Riada

Notes: Live recording; sample of fiddles

4) A Chomaraigh Aolbhinn o                                    Solas

Notes: Studio recording; sample of Irish language and vocal ornamentation

5) Scots Callan o’Bonnie Dundee                                    The Cast

Notes: Contains many recognizably English words, but with a Scots Gaelic construction

6) The Flowers O’ The Forest                                    The Cast

Notes: (see handout—acapella song of mourning)

7) The Royal Visit                                                            The Cast

Notes: Sample of a set of lyrics with no surviving melody—the group arranged the lyrics about the royal visit to Scotland in 1822 to a country dance tune entitled, “Kiss Me Quick, My Mither’s Coming”

8) Ratcliffe Highway                                                            Roy Harris

Notes: Sample of an English sea song, accompanied by concertina

9) The Forester                                                             Norman Kennedy

Notes: Sample of an acapella song with a driving rhythmic quality and “nonsense” syllables

10) I’m Seventeen Come Sunday (Grainger)            Ambrosian Singers

Notes: Percy Grainger’s arrangement of an English folk song; sample of a choral, “cultivated” performance that also incorporates the following nonsense syllables:

With a rue-rum-ray, fol-the-diddle-day,
Whack-fol-lare-diddle-I-doh

.

11) Movement 4. Eastern Intermezzo (Grainger)

Notes: Influenced by Grainger’s exploration of Melbourne’s Chinatown as a young man

12) Walking Tune (Grainger)                                    Nigel Cox

Notes from the man himself: “I composed the little tune on which this piece is based as a whistling accompaniment to my tramping feet while on a three day’s walk in Western Argyleshire (Scottish Highlands) in the summer of 1900. At that time–I had just turned 18–I was deeply in love with thoughts of the Celtic world. I had already made settings of several Scottish, Irish & Welsh folksongs. So I was delighted to find that most of the older folk in the glens of Western Argyle spoke only or mainly Gaelic–though most of the children spoke both Gaelic & English. It was in this pro-Celtic mood that I worked up my walking tune into the Walking Tune.”

13) Colonial Song (Grainger)                                    Nigel Cox

Notes: [The song was] “an attempt to write a melody as typical of the Australian countryside as Stephen Foster’s exquisite songs are typical of rural America.” Originally intended to be part of a collection of ‘Sentimentals,’ Grainger never wrote any other pieces in this series. Colonial Song was not well liked. “Upon hearing the piece in 1914, Sir Thomas Beecham wrote: ‘My dear Grainger, you have achieved the almost impossible! You have written the worst piece of modern times.’ ”

LH note: perhaps I’m imagining this or simply want it to be there, but I hear strains of Advance Australia Fair (first performed in 1878) in the piece.

14) O Waly Waly                                                            The King’s Singers

Notes:             A combination of The Bach Prelude to Suite #1 for Solo Cello (composed between 1717-1723 and “The Water is Wide” Old English Folk song (from the 1600s)

15) Things Ain’t What They Used To Be                        Duke Ellington and His Orchestra

Notes: I loved both the name of this tune, as well as the title of the album on which it appeared—“Jam Session: America’s Jazz Ambassadors Embrace the World”

16) God Save the Queen                                                British National Anthem

17) Advance Australia Fair                                                Australian National Anthem

Other Helpful Links:

The History of the Australian Accent (gotta love the subtitles!)

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOnx21oL9zo&feature=related

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMZoWwvqOE0&feature=related

Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjIh7v9SYdI&feature=related

Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApgcGX1fSts&feature=related

Article: The Sociolinguistics of Australian English by Emily Trekell

(I handed out an excerpt in the workshop)

http://smu.edu/ecenter/discourse/Trekell.htm

Website: Australian Voices

http://clas.mq.edu.au/australian-voices/australian-accent#variation

Website: Radio Program on Waltzing Matilda

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/magazine-articles/waltzing-matilda

Website: International Dialects of English Archive (for ALL cast members)

http://web.ku.edu/~idea/

Website: The Speech Accent Archive (ditto—for all)

http://accent.gmu.edu/