Daron Oram

Bio: Daron Oram is an academic researcher from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. The author has contributed to research in topics: Voice Training & Active listening. The author has an hindex of 4, co-authored 6 publications receiving 42 citations.

De-Colonizing Listening: Toward an Equitable Approach to Speech Training for the Actor

Abstract: This article confirms and deepens an understanding of the negative impact of teaching culturally embedded speech standards to actors who are “othered” by a dominant “somatic norm” within th...

Research and practice in Voice Studies: searching for a methodology

Abstract: As more and more actor training conservatoires become subsumed into university structures there is a growing pressure on practice based teachers of voice to become active researchers. At the same time there is a growing area of scholarly research within Voice Studies. This article examines the shifting patterns of research and practice within Voice Studies and uses, as a case study, the author’s experiences of teaching at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (RCSSD). The author examines tensions between practice and research within a conservatoire setting and explores potential research methodologies in relation to this. The author proposes Practice as Research (PaR) as a suitable methodology for research within practice based Voice Studies and draws on current discourses relating to PaR within Theatre and Performance. The author proposes a model for Voice Studies PaR, which is based on the work of Robin Nelson, and demonstrates how this is being applied within Voice Studies research at RCSSD. The...

Losing Sight of Land: Tales of Dyslexia and Dyspraxia in Psychophysical Actor Training

Abstract: This article reports on the findings of a research project into the impact of psychophysical actor training methods on neurodiverse students. It illustrates how the application of a Social Theory o...

Finding a Way: More Tales of Dyslexia and Dyspraxia in Psychophysical Actor Training

Abstract: This article proposes a radical paradigm shift for actor training and voice training. Using heuristic practice-based research findings, the article highlights how progressive education meth...

Decentering Listening: Toward an Anti-Discriminatory Approach to Accent and Dialect Training for the Actor

Abstract: This article reports on the findings of practice-based research into the development of anti-discriminatory accents and dialects training for actors with diverse intersecting identities. The author reviews an earlier strand of research into speech training within a UK conservatory that identified a bias toward Received Pronunciation reinforced by colonized listening practices. This article explores the impact of those listening practices on accent and dialect training. The author responds to the challenges inherent in providing training that both develops high-level skills and meets industry needs, while aiming to center the experiences of somatically othered students. The author develops their previous decolonizing model into a decentering framework for an approach to training actors that draws on critical pedagogy and asks students to cross the border from the conservatory into the community. This approach to accent and dialect training builds on verbatim and documentary theatre-making techniques, resulting in a practice that values empathy, listening, embodied practice, and autonomy, and the approach allows actors to perform “multiple authenticities,” while offering the potential for political insurgency within the performing arts industries.

The gift of dyslexia

Abstract: Ade Adipetan MBE was a bronze medallist in the 2004 Olympics. He is one of the most athletic, talented, ambitious and charismatic people in Britain. Ade uses a wheelchair. Until the age of 12 Ade was adapting himself. With the well-meaning help of health professionals, he used callipers to enable him to function in the 'World of Normal People'. At the age of 12 two physiotherapists spotted him flying down the road with his mates pushing him in a Tesco's trolley. They didn't see a young black guy with a disability; they saw a potential athlete who would obviously be an asset to a team. Where would he be now if he hadn't been spotted by those two physios? What chance did he stand growing up in East London as a young black guy with a disability? The odds were stacked against him.

Freeing The Natural Voice

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Practice-as-research in performance and screen

Abstract: Ludivine Allegue, Simon Jones, Baz Kershaw and Angela Piccini, eds, Practice-as-Research in Performance and Screen (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) Let's consider the following fictional scenario. An academic observes a performance by an internationally renowned theatre company. Let's say the work is about the plight of asylum-seekers. He takes careful notes, meticulously studies the play's mise-en-scene, and expertly analyses the acting styles employed by the performers. He notes that the company skilfully transgress naturalistic genre conventions, and ruminates on this exemplary performance's cultural context. After considerable pause for thought, he concludes that the work is postmodern, and best approached with reference to Deleuze's concept of 'affect'. He publishes a scholarly paper based on his analysis in a prestigious academic journal - which submits all contributions to a rigorous refereeing process. The director of the performance in question is both an artist and a doctoral student undertaking a 'practice-as-research' degree. He has spent three years interviewing asylum-seekers, and detention centre personnel. He diligently analysed public policy documents, and spent countless hours rehearsing a group of amateur and professional actors in order to devise a performance, which attracts thousands of spectators. A plethora of prominent theatre reviewers and influential bloggers testify to its genius. However, his supervisor is concerned that while the student's performance is successful as a work of art, it has serious deficiencies as a piece of 'research' because it does not make an original or innovative contribution to knowledge. More seriously, the attentive supervisor feels that his student will struggle to produce legitimate scholarly outputs in the form of books or journal articles, and suggests that he take refuge in the nearest archive and produce a critical history of performances dealing with asylum-seekers. Who has produced the most rigorous work - the academic who adopts the role of expert spectator, or the artist who has produced a popular and critically lauded work based on extensive interviews? Is the artwork a form of research, or the product of a research process? How do we objectively assess this creative work's original contribution to knowledge, if indeed an artwork can make such a contribution? Would a critical exegesis of the work in question legitimate its research status? To what extent is the supervisor in thrall of conservative self-serving academic conventions that privilege some research practices over others? Does legitimate research have to take a written form? These are some of the questions that Practiceas-Research in Performance and Screen poses, and answers with varying degrees of success. Its publication is timely given the rapid growth of postgraduate 'practice-asresearch' degrees around the world, and especially pertinent to Australia given that the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative has accepted that the creative arts have a role to play in Australia's research culture. Significantly, the volume is one of the research outputs to come out of a project led by Baz Kershaw at the University of Bristol between 2000 and 2006, and indicates that research-funding bodies in the UK take practice-as-research seriously. Kershaw and his co-editors received a £347,000 grant from the British Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB) to investigate practice-as-research in performance (PRIP). This explains why the book primarily deals with work generated in the UK, although the last three chapters broaden this narrow perspective by examining the PRIP in France, Canada and Australia. Practice-as-Research in Performance and Screen comprises of a series of essays that vary in quality and theme. It also includes an extensive catalogue of practice-asresearch projects, and a DVD containing short video excerpts from the creative works listed in the catalogue. …

Voicing a Practitioner Research Methodology: Further Framing the Conversation

Abstract: This article responds to call for a Practice as Research (PaR) methodology and places the debate within a broader discussion of rigor and relevance. Drawing on the field of management studies, this...