In celebration of National Arts Month, the University Center for Culture & the Arts in partnership with University Supreme Student Council of University of Rizal System conducted a Voice Acting seminar-workshop, held at the Blanco Family Academy in Angono, Rizal on February 26, 2016.
With the theme “Fostering Artistic Excellence through Dynamic Involvement and Contagious Expertise,” the event was designed to educate the students on the power of their voice in professional and personal relations, as well as to cultivate their artistry through the use of their most powerful human instrument.
As the country’s most recognized and respected voice artist, Pocholo “The VoiceMaster” Gonzales was invited to facilitated the whole-day workshop. He brought along with him 2 of his trainers and protégé’s from Pochology Academy – Voice Care Queen Ada Cuaresma and Voice Monster Andrew San Fernando.
After the opening ceremonies, not to mention a superb medley performance by an acapella group, the workshop opened with a motivational talk by the VoiceMaster. After entertaining the audience with his numerous character voices and a repertoire of “hugot lines,” the VoiceMaster inspired the students by sharing his story on how he used he has, for 20 years, used his talents and skills to make other people better and happy. He shared his stories of challenges, setbacks, obstacles and victories that made him who he is today, the “Man BEHIND a thousand voices”. He encouraged the students to not waste their youth or wait for the “right time” to discover and pursue their passion, because the right time is always NOW. He left a powerful message to “do something today that your future self will thank you for.”
After the VoiceMaster’s empowering talk, Ada stepped up onstage for a short but informative workshop about the voice. She talked about the importance of voice in everyday life, that it’s HOW WE SAY things that is important in building personal and professional relationships. She covered 2 important things about the voice. First is vocal power, where she used exercises to help participants produce their voice with more power, confidence and efficiency. The second thing is vocal variety, where, by learning to use the various elements of the voice, words spoken become more meaningful, engaging and memorable.
Andrew was the last speaker, who talked about voice acting. He taught the participants how to “play” with their voice – by exploring pitch, pitch character and tempo. He also taught them how to include human reactions in the context of voice acting, such as laughter, cry, trips and falls, and even eating and drinking sounds. Towards the end of the voice acting module, Andrew called some volunteers to do a “fun dub”. The volunteers performed a quick dub of an excerpt from the cartoons Voltes V.
At the end of the workshop, the VoiceMaster also announced that URS will be heading the establishment of Voice of the Youth Network in Rizal, where the students get the opportunity to become volunteers to VOTY’s radio shows.
Hundreds of students attended the workshop from various URS campuses including Tanay, Angono, Cainta and Antipolo.