Gwyneth Lloyd at The Globe Eliot Short in War Horse New London
Theatre London Theatre Drury Lane
Watching the queue for Much Ado about Nothing at The Globe, London, in June 2011, Gwyneth Lloyd recalls her own solo role as Juno in the incidental music for Shakespeare’s play The Tempest on BBCTV in 1981. She was visiting London 30 years later to watch her son Eliot Short also performing the music in a drama as a singer/fiddler and in the role of Song Man in the renowned play War Horse in its third year at the New London Theatre Drury Lane after 9 years at the National Theatre. The puppet horses are worked and created by The Hand Spring Puppet Company from South Africa. The play has recently attracted Tony Awards in the USA and is being filmed by Steven Spielberg.
Eliot Short spent one year at Rhodes Music and Drama departments where he achieved excellent results and went on to honing his skills as a Celtic fiddler and singer. This is the combination of skills required of him as Song Man in War Horse, as well as acting various Devonshire and German minor roles throughout the play. He has recently graduated from Goldsmiths College London from a fascinating course on Community Music.
Gwyneth Lloyd was invited to present a workshop of her recent publication of The Connected Voice Procedures at Goldsmiths College to the undergraduates in this Community Music course on Friday 4th June. Goldsmiths’ unique combination of disciplines drives innovation and research methodology which casts a fresh light on relationships between arts and science in the 21st century. Goldsmiths claims to be the UK’s leading university for studying the Performing Arts. There is a strong commitment to a broader cultural agenda and the preservation of culture. The Certificate of Workshop Skills in the Department of Professional Adult and Community Education was the venue for Gwyneth’s demonstration of the Vocal Technique Procedures that she is now work-shopping with groups of singers in the wider community, working with both soloists and vocal groups. The Procedures are movements with sound, based on the natural and tension-free body principles of the F.M. Alexander Technique. These Procedures are the result of 17 years of vocal technique work with Rhodes voice students and EastCape Opera Singers, many of whom are now continuing with professional careers. The student participants in the workshop at Goldsmiths included singers who had actually experienced Alexander Technique and who responded well to the workshop, requesting follow-up email contact and undertaking to complete the questionnaires about their continuing work with the vocal technique exercises.
Since Gwyneth Lloyd has spent the last 20 years performing and teaching singing among singers from very diverse cultures and touring among their communities, she was fascinated to be in a vibrant and stimulating environment which prepares performers for careers in community-based music-making; where the performing arts are regarded as a valid and practical way of developing creative and socially engaged career paths; and where new methods of teaching singing were welcomed.
In recent years, singers that started their vocal technique lessons under Gwyneth’s guidance have reached high levels of achievement – a Rhodes graduate soprano is now at the Juilliard; an Mdantsane baritone who started in ECOpera aged 16 years is now at The Metropolitan Opera House; many have joined touring SA opera groups; another baritone and a tenor are winning competitions in Gauteng; graduates are being employed in schools and universities; a Fort Hare tenor has just won the National Grahamstown Music Competition. These and many other indications are the springboard for her current publication of The Connected Voice Procedures which are the basis for the workshops and questionnaires that she is promoting in the near future.
