In PLACE OF SHOUTING

Abstract

Fides Krucker is a singer of contemporary opera who specializes in extended vocal sound. For three decades, her passion has been interdisciplinary co-creation. Extended, or ‘expanded,’ voice is an effective mode of expression and communication. It can marry with theatrical forms in multiple ways. This article dips into (1) the work of the music-driven feminist collective URGE, (2) Krucker’s history in electroacoustic opera, (3) ‘vocalography’ for choreographer Jessica Runge, and (4) devised theatre at Humber College Theatre Performance. There is practicality, purpose, and economy to non-verbals—from groan, growl, and sigh through to scream, squeal, and shriek. This palette becomes the rough material for aesthetic shaping, and the sounds—often taboo and definitely stimulating—are emotion turned inside out. They affect the listener in biologically direct ways that are surprisingly spiritual. It requires training to develop a body of performers willing and able to go to these ‘improper’ vocal places. It takes an imagination that loves and understands these sounds to create compositions based on their loamy soil. This terrain is a fertile meeting ground for theatrical impulse to marry with the structural values of musical composition: dynamics, timbre, layering, motifs, range. Physical and devised theatre are a part of the Canadian performance landscape. Could vocally driven theatre create a robust avant-garde aesthetic capable of going beyond shouting to express the urgency of our times?