World Voice Day
Today is World Voice Day.
This year the theme is “make your voice count” and we’re called upon to let people know about how important voice is in everyday life. From teachers, to politicians, to medical professionals, to lawyers, to law enforcement officers, to a person hawking fish at the market, our voices are essential to us all. For something the size of a postage stamp, the vocal folds can do some pretty amazing stuff, from pillow talk to filling a concert hall with glorious song.
Today is also a good day to remember to hydrate well—the old adage to pee pale is a good one, especially when we all tend to guzzle coffee and other caffeinated brown drinks by the gallon these days.
Won’t you share your love of voice with someone today? If you’re a twitterer, use the hash tag #worldvoiceday to share the love.
Eric Armstrong is the voiceguy. Eric is a dialect, voice, speech and text coach based in Toronto, Canada, where he normally teaches full-time at York University’s Dept. of Theatre. Eric has been teaching voice for the actor full-time since 1994, and has taught in Canada and the US, at the University of Windsor, Brandeis University, Roosevelt University, Canada's National Voice Intensive and York University. He has worked for nationally and internationally recognized companies such as Crow’s Theatre, Volcano, SoulPepper, & Canadian Stage in Toronto, and The Court Theatre and Steppenwolf in Chicago. Eric holds a BFA from Concordia University (Montreal) in Theatre Performance, and an MFA from York University (Toronto) in Acting. His mentors were David Smukler (York, Canada’s National Voice Intensive) and Andrew Wade (Royal Shakespeare Company). He has also studied at the Drama Studio, London, and Il Stage Internazzionale di Commedia dell’Arte in Reggio Emilia, Italy. He’s a long time member of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association, where he has served on the board, as a conference planner, photo editor for the Voice and Speech Review, Founding Director of Technology and Internet Services, and has written numerous peer-reviewed articles, essays and reviews for the VASTA Newsletter, the VASTA Voice, and The Voice and Speech Review.