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. This ambitious project includes leading international figures who write in a scholarly and accessible manner.
Utilizing research ideas and examples from a variety of voice disciplines, this book will be of interest to those studying voice, speech, singing, acting, public speaking, voice science, communication, music, theatre, and performance. Those writing a dissertation or thesis may also draw from this text. Articles from this book were originally published in the Voice and Speech Review journal.
Introduction: Practitioner Research in Voice Studies
Rockford Sansom
Section 1: Conducting Practitioner Research in Voice Studies
1. Research and Practice in Voice Studies: Searching for a Methodology
Daron Oram
2. Voicing a Practitioner Research Methodology: Further Framing the Conversation
Deborah Winter
3. Insights, Considerations, and Suggestions for the Practitioner-Researcher in Voice Studies
Sophie Scott
4. Exploring the Narrative: Voice Practitioner Research and the Literature Review Process
Deborah Winter
5. “The Full Monty”: Taking a Fully Qualitative Approach to Research By Singers, With Singers, For Singers
Melissa Forbes
Section 2: Getting Started
6. A Guide to Publishing in the Voice and Speech Review
Rockford Sansom
7. Voice Research Reflections: Tips for the Artist-Scholar
Rockford Sansom
Section 3: Practitioner Research Examples
8. Voice Training Methods in MFA Acting Programs: Preliminary Descriptive USA Data
Marianna Rubino and Celia Stewart
9. Impolite Birth: Theatre Voice Training and the Experience of Childbirth
Kris Danford, Lee Roosevelt, Alexandra Vroom, Lisa Harris and Ruth Zielinski
10. Healthy and Efficient Voice Use Awareness in Amateur Group Singers: A Multi-Sensory Self-Assessment Protocol Trial
Tara Leiper
11. Communication and Resilience in Acting Students: A Qualitative Study
Jennifer Innes
12. Survey of University Acting Majors regarding the Most Useful Elements of Singing Training
Brian Manternach and Jeremy N. Manternach
13. Keep the Arrows: Interrogating Discrimination in Fandom Through Solo Performance
Alan R. White
14. La Casa de Inez: Investigating History, Voice, and Memory through Embodied, Site-Specific Storytelling
Elisa Gonzales
15. Finding a Way: More Tales of Dyslexia and Dyspraxia in Psychophysical Actor Training
Daron Oram
16. Accent Modification, Voicework, and ALS: A Case Study in Prolonging the Ability to Speak
Andrea Caban
17. When Mouths Went Missing: A Post-Pandemic, Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration for Actors and Animators
Kathryn M. Cunningham and John C. Kelley
18. Poetry, Voice, Brain, and Body
Christina Shewell
19. Assessment in Musical Theatre: A Tool for Transparency, Equity, and Student Learning
Amanda Flynn
20. Online Theatre Voice Pedagogy: A Literature Review
Shannon Vickers
21. The Unspoken Voice and Speech Debate [or] the Sacred Cow in the Conservatory
Rockford Sansom
Biography
Rockford Sansom, PhD, is a voice teacher and communication coach. For seven years, he was the Editor of the Voice and Speech Review. His book publications include The History of Voice Pedagogy, Vocal Traditions, Voice and Identity, and Voice Work: Art and Science in Changing Voices (2nd ed). He is a VASTA Lifetime Distinguished Member.
