SPEECH 101
1. To define oral interpretation both as synergism and as a literature.
2. To demonstrate recitation of a song and a poem
3. To discuss how oral interpretation differs from acting and public speaking
4. To discuss the history of oral interpretation
An amalgamation of the skills of literary appreciation and criticism, persuasive communication, and theatrical performance.
The interaction of discrete agencies such that the total effect is greater than the sum of the individual effects.
“MOTHER TO SON” by Langston Hughes
Well son, I’ll tell you. Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. It’s had tacks in it. And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor- Bare.
But all the time I’se been a-climbin’ on And reachin’ landin’s, And turnin’ corners, And sometimes goin’ in the dark Where there ain’t been no light. So, boy don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps ‘Cause you finds it kinder hard. Don’t you fall now— For I’se still goin’, honey, I’se still climbin’ And life for me ain’t been no crystal
stair.
“I KNOW I’LL NEVER LOVE THIS WAY AGAIN.”
(An excerpt) By Dionne
Warwick
I know I’ll never love this way again
So I keep holdin’ on before the good is gone
I know I’ll never love this way again.
Because you looked inside my fantasies
And made each one come true
Something no one elseHad ever found a way to do.
I’ve kept the memories one by one
Since you took me in I know I’ll never love this way again.
It is the art of presenting literature so that the textual analysis, communicative intent, and performance skills synergize to arouse a meaningful audience response.
Performing literature allows you to share known and unknown personal experiences.
With each public performance you gain experience and confidence in your abilities to bring to life these voices from a silent page of literature.
You gain critical and performance skills options.
It expands your knowledge of yourself and the world through literature.
It transfers your own feelings to the literary voice.
It enables you to study the world’s best literature.
You can view the world through another’s eyes.
Direct result of the performance experience –
a) Benefits from performing(poise, self-confidence, awareness of oneself, self-confidence, vocal control, flexibility and improved diction)
b)Benefits from viewing ( gives you the ability to support your opinions and sharpens your critical skills)
ACTING ORAL INTERPRETATION
Drama Literary text
On stage Off stage
No script With script
With costumes and make-up
Rely on their performance
Rely on scenery to create the illusion of reality
Recreate scenes in the chamber of the audience’s minds
Separated from the audience
Close to the audience
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ACTING & ORAL INTERPRETATION
ACTING ORAL INTERPRETATION
Play one role Many roles
Director’s production concept
The performer’s own direction and devises his/her own interpretation(Matching process takes place.)
Expenditure of gesture and movement
Economy of gesture and movement
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ACTING AND ORAL INTERPRETATION
Both share a performance with the audience.
Both can be considered an interpretive art.
Both do role play. Both are dramatic art and
require empathy.
PUBLIC SPEAKING ORAL INTERPRETATION
Extemporaneous Exact words of the text
Original speech Literary selection
Speakers remain themselves
Attempt to suggest someone other than themselves
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PUBLIC SPEAKING AN D ORAL INTERPRETATION
Literature was perceived as a thing to be heard or said rather than read.
In the 8th century B.C., itinerant performers called minstrels were invited to sing their original poetry in royal courts and rural villages. All Greek verse was accompanied by music.
The rhapsodes emerged in the Ionian district.
They were performers who told stories of gods, goddesses, and harrowing tales of adventures.
As “song stitchers” the rhapsodes took individualized verses or episodes and made them into connected stories.
They endured as performers until the time of Christ.
.
Other performers saw oral interpretation as a means to further their business ventures.
The Acropolis was then the hub for the book business.
An independent progression of oral recitation tradition materialized but in the religious context of the ancient Hebrews.
Antiphony, a recitative device wherein groups of people would respond as choral echo or question/response, evolved.
Praise the Lord! The Israelites were determined to fight; The people gladly volunteered. Listen, you kings! Pay attention, you rulers! I will sing and play music To Israel’s God, the Lord.
In the 6th century B.C., Israel was captured by the Babylonian empire and a liturgical format emerged. In the synagogue, a specially designated performer or Precentor led the recitation of scripture and liturgy.
After the 70 A.D. , the synagogue liturgy became a more ritualized service.
Rome further promoted the Greek tradition of oral recitation. Many of the major literary figures of the Augustan Age (including Virgil, Pliny, Horace and Ovid) performed their own works for royalty and commoner alike.
The ancients believed that the spoken word could also serve therapeutic values.
The mentally ill were treated by memorizing poetry or storytelling.
The Romans believed that reading aloud was essential in the education of the citizens.
The Jews and the Gentiles created a new institution – the Church.
The apostle Paul penned multiple letters to members of these early home-churches.
As worship services evolved into a patterned liturgy, the oral readings of the writings of the apostles and prophets became known as lections
Following the edict of Theodosius in 380 A.D. proclaiming Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire, the Church grew too large to continue meeting in homes or in the Roman catacombs.
Immense cathedrals called basilicas were built to house the crowds.
By the 5th century a standardized liturgy had evolved and was called the Catholic Missa or Mass.
The primary figures expressing opinions about the values of oral reading were Church saints. Jerome and Augustine advocated oral reading to improve diction, a knowledge of literature, and especially a comprehension of texts from the Bible.
The Benedictine monks practiced reading aloud privately.
When Christianity was introduced to Britain and Ireland, the early missionaries encountered a secular tradition of oral recitation, based on the Celtic heritage. The scop was a reciter of poetry, usually attached to a kingdom as a court entertainer. The gleeman was more likely to be an itinerant chanter of other person’s works.
In Ireland, the fili like their English counterparts, were poets who memorized sagas and myths of the Celts.
The masterpiece of English medieval literature is no doubt The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.
Beginning in Italy and eventually making its way to England, this renewed classical interest provided oral interpretation opportunities in schools and colleges.
The Protestant reformation and the invention of the printing press made the Bible and other books readily available.
It began with an emphasis on proper speaking and reading skills, but eventually degenerated into a prescriptive and stilted artificial performance mode.
Mechanical expression school emerged in the 18th century, calling for rules, uniformity, imitation and duplication.
Prescriptive rules began to dominate the teaching of expression.
As the Elocutionary Movement spread to the fledgling United States, the curriculum began to emphasize the excesses of the movement.
In the mid to late 19th century,an educational movement materialized paralleling the Elocutionary Movement but emphasizing the cultural legacy of authors, texts, and performances.Such American authors as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Mark Twain regaled local audiences with abbreviated versions of their larger works.
Many schools of speech, begun in the 19th century, joined nearby colleges and universities in the 20th century. These schools eventually evolved into our modern collegiate departments of speech, communication and theater.
Oral interpretation became a sister discipline to public speaking and emerged in separate course offerings in colleges and universities.
DEAD POETS SOCIETY