Ellen Hemphill: Teaching, Training Coaching, and Research

(see also Cardea Creative Consulting cardeacreativeconsulting.com)

Through my years of study and training, I have developed an approach to
teaching voice and gesture that focuses on the individual artist or layperson and their
own habitual world of voice patterns and movements. Through this study and the
exercises I have created, I encourage the actor/artist, or the pupil to recognize and use
these patterns and either transform them for the artistic product or character work, or for public presentation and one-on-one communication needs (such as interviews or
auditions).

I have found that the method works, whether one is working with singers,
actors, dancers, or individuals that are looking to improve their public speaking skills. And with a Master’s Degree in counseling psychology, I also work with individuals addressing “vocal trauma.”

The voice work is based on understanding what one’s own voice issues actually are, how the voice can be strengthened and grounded, and how to discover and utilize different vocal resonators for different speaking or singing situations.

As far as the research in body movement and gesture is concerned, I bring
awareness to the personal space and gestures or physical habits of the individual, and
then awareness of public space, cultural space, and the space on the stage. Through
this awareness, the actor or student can begin to adapt their presentational skills
depending on the situation (character or otherwise) rather being at the mercy of habit.

Another area of interest and research involves the behavior, manner and
physical approach to working in a variety of cultures. Having lived abroad a good part of
my adult life (France, Holland, Japan), I have noticed that each culture has different
personal space and ‘gestural’ habits that might not be familiar to the actor or to the
American executive. Creating a truer character representation for an actor, or being
more aware and collaborative in the work place, is improved by recognizing these
differences, and learning some of the gestural and spatial relationships that belong to
other cultures.

I work in person and on Zoom nationally and internationally.

Writing for performance research

With over twenty theatre projects in twelve years, I have been required to
conduct extensive research into background of characters and historical
situations, as well as conduct comparative literature studies in various genres
including philosophy, memoir, poetry and folklore. Sample studies in the last ten
years of performance history include the reading and analysis of Greek
mythology with special reference to the Dionysian Mysteries; working with
Freud’s correspondences with the analyst Lou Andreas Salome and reading her
papers on narcissism as well as biographies of Salome, Nietzsche, Rilke, and
Freud.

In researching a piece on war I studied the literature of post-traumatic
stress syndrome, journalists accounts of heroism in war, and compared classical
epic to modern descriptions of warfare.

Each period of research lasted for approximately fourteen months and included tapping into expert advice either at the university or from adjunct advisors in a specific field.

Much of this research was in collaboration with Nor Hall, PhD, whose interdisciplinary work focuses on the history of psychoanalysis, classical mythology, and the modern imagination and theater.

In addition to studying writings on particular topics, I also did
research in musicology and musical genres for the development of each piece performed, and I developed materials to share with the cast, often six months prior to the initial rehearsal period.

I also am very engaged in the visuals of all my work, as many of the ideas
for a piece begin with a single image. I pass on these ideas to the set, lighting, and film designers, as well as the musical directors in each piece.

I consult with artists in all fields on their art works/performances/films based on my 40 years of experience.

Example Summaries of Sources for Research Topics:

Those Women: Denise Levertov,Nina Cassian, Rainer Marie Rilke, Marguerite Yourcenar, Linda-Fierz David, HD, James Hillman, Nor Hall, the Dionysian mysteries. Ethnic and polyphonic singing, and songs researched, plus original compositions.

Eulogy for a Warrior: Men and the Water of Life, Michael Meade,
If I Die in a Combat Zone, The Things They Carried, Going After Cacciato-Tim O’Brien, Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko, The Red Laugh, Leonid Andreyev, Shrapnel in the Heart, Laura Palmer, The Names of the Dead, Stewart Onan, Achilles in Vietnam, Jonathan Shay, Reflections on the Great War, D.M. Winton, Dispatches, Michael Herr, Last Letters from Stalingrad, trans. Schneider & Gullans, Letters from Vietnam, Glenn
Munson, The Iliad, and Vietnam, A Television History, WGBH-Boston.
Music: traditional Vietnamese music, music of the 60’s, original
compositions

Snow: Secret Snow Silent Snow, Conrad Aiken, The Folklore of Birds, Edward Armstrong, I Heard the Owl Call My Name, Margaret Craven, Extending the Family, James Hillman, The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann, Alive Together, Lisel Mueller, Kabloona Among the Inuits,Contran de Poncins, Winter, Rick Bass, Snow Man, Wallace Stevens.
Original Music

A New Fine Shame: The Life and Loves of Lou Andreas Salome: The
writings of Freud, Rilke and Nietzsche, and Lou Andreas Salome. The poetry of
HD, the literary socialist Olive Shreiner, The Bacchae, Euripides, Salome, Angela Livingstone, My Sister, My Spouse, H.F. Peters, Freud-Salome Letters, Ernst Pfeifer. Original Music/all speak singing

The Woman in the Attic: Poetics of Space, Gaston Bachelard, House, Charles
Campbell, Sufism of Ibn Arabi, Henri Corbin, Architecture of Intimacy, Nor Hall,
Sigil, HD, The Fall of the Sparrow, Robert Hellenga, Finnegans Wake, James
Joyce, She Just Wants, Beverly Rollwagen, Reasons, for Moving, Darker,
Blizzard of one, Selected Poems Mark Strand, Marriage, A Sentence, Anne
Waldman, The Tendrils of the Vine, Collette.
Original music and arrangements of pre-existing music.

Research also conducted for theatre pieces, Amor Fortuna, And Mary Wept,
Cassandra’s Lullaby,Binky Kite and the Oxymorons, Another Time, Another
Place, The Narrowing, all Duke performances that I directed, and all of the
films (see our YouTube channel).