I’m tickled pink to have been cast in Mask & Mirror’s radio production of A Christmas Carol!
Oh, the acting bug had been biting hard again – it’s been two years since I was last on stage (you can read about my experience in Das Kaspar Theatre here: https://laurahandke.com/simply-authentic-your-soul-voice-is-calling-theatre-feels-like-home/) other than playing piano for Mask & Mirror’s wonderful production of Rabbit Hole last summer. “The Stage”, of course, looks very different now, thanks to COVID-19. The director, Daniel Hobbs, and all of we cast and crew members are working from home via Zoom. Performances (pre-recorded) begin December 18, 2020. You can read all about it here: https://www.maskandmirror.com/.
We’ve only just begun the rehearsal process, but I’m so excited already!
Das Kaspar was a huge stretch for me as an actress for many reasons. The dialog, subject matter, my first staged reading, playing drunk and falling off a barstool, ultimately dying on stage.
A Christmas Carol is a huge stretch for many other reasons. Dickens’ classic is one of the most beloved (including by me) Christmas stories of all time, re-written for radio by the director. The audience can’t see us; only hear us. I’ve been cast in three different small roles which require three different distinct voices. This is my first experience with voice-only acting, and I can’t even get together in person with my director and cast-mates!
Bah! Humbug!!
Just kidding.
I’m super excited about the show and invite you to join us for performances. We are all volunteers and the show is a gift to our audience. Yet I hope you will give a generous donation to support the theatre. We can all use more creative expression and uplifting entertainment in these challenging times. https://www.maskandmirror.com/
Whether you have on your holiday table “the bestest goose that ever was”, like Tiny Tim, a lasagna, like I’m making, or a turkey or tofurky, I wish you and yours a happy and blessed Thanksgiving. God bless us, everyone.
Please spread the love and pass this along to a friend!
Love Your Voice & Voice Your Love,
Laura
Lake Oswego’s Transformational Voice® Teacher (Transformational Voice® is a registered trademark of Transformational Voice® Training Institute, LLC, and Linda Brice.)
The holidays are going to be very different this year for a lot of people, thanks to COVID-19. George and I have decided it will be just us and Linn-Linn the kitten celebrating here. I still want to put up decorations and make nice meals, though; it will help me feel more festive. I’ve been thinking about simple menu ideas and we’ll likely be having an Italian-themed Thanksgiving dinner with Great Aunt Martha’s lasagna recipe; for Christmas, perhaps chicken cordon bleu with bearnaise sauce, wild rice and vegetables. (We like turkey; we just like other things better.)
If your household is like ours and you want to celebrate the holidays with tasty food, but on a smaller scale, this year, here are some cooking ideas for you.
Steamed broccoli: Get the water boiling before you turn down the heat, put the steamer dish loaded with the vegetables in the pan, and cover. Remove broccoli from the pan while still crisp and deep green in color, not more than 5 or 6 minutes.
Roasted chicken: This is the best way I’ve found so far to bake consistently flavorful and juicy whole chicken. (It might work well with other birds; I haven’t tried.) The night before you cook, or several hours in advance, rinse out and dry the bird. Loosen the skin as much as you can without tearing it. (If it does tear, no big deal.)
-In a small bowl, mix about 1/3 C olive oil (depending on size of the bird) with seasonings of your choice such as: salt, pepper, seasoned salt, unflavored meat tenderizer, garlic powder, tarragon, sage, poultry seasoning, thyme, basil, oregano. Also have your favorite paprika nearby. Mix together well; the mixture should be fairly thick.
-Start with the chicken breast-side up and generously brush the oil/seasoning mixture under and over the skin. Sprinkle generously with paprika and brush more to distribute. Then put the chicken breast-side down in the roasting pan and repeat the process on the back and sides of the bird. Stuff the cavity with large pieces of chopped celery and lemon. Fresh tarragon leaves are good too. Keep in the frig to marinate for several hours and bring to room temperature at least one hour before roasting in the oven, covered, at 350 for about an hour. Let sit before carving and serving.
Baked mashed potatoes: If you love mashed potatoes and gravy, but want a make-ahead dish, this is it. Boil and drain your potatoes (I keep the skins on.) Mash potatoes with dairy ingredients you have on hand (no milk, maybe a hint of cream) such as butter, sour cream, grated cheese, cream cheese and seasonings such as parsley, dill weed, garlic powder, chives, salt, pepper, seasoned salt. Spread into a pan and bake until warmed through and lightly browned on top – about 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the temperature of your oven.
Please spread the love and pass this along to a friend!
Love Your Voice & Voice Your Love,
Laura
Lake Oswego’s Transformational Voice® Teacher (Transformational Voice® is a registered trademark of Transformational Voice® Training Institute, LLC, and Linda Brice.)
I was fortunate to meet Maire Clement, and consequently her now husband and music-making partner, Davey Harrison, in the fall of 2017. That was when I began going through Linda Brice’s Transformational Voice® Teacher Apprenticeship Training Program for the second time, this time as assistant teacher.
I love the people, their music, the way this couple approaches life, and am thrilled to present this 34-minute interview, which closes with a rousing rendition of “The Quarantine Blues”.
Please spread the love and pass this along to a friend!
Love Your Voice & Voice Your Love,
Laura
Lake Oswego’s Transformational Voice® Teacher (Transformational Voice® is a registered trademark of Transformational Voice® Training Institute, LLC, and Linda Brice.)
I’m pleased to have had the honor of being asked to provide a guest blog post for Nancy Christie’s “A Writer’s Place.” You can see it and learn the Four Steps for More Comfortable and Confident Public Speaking right here!
The next Saturday Voice Lab: Improv & Technique is Saturday morning, 10/17, 10:30-noon. Just $20. Register here! https://laurahandke.com/
Please spread the love and pass this along to a friend!
Love Your Voice & Voice Your Love,
Laura
Lake Oswego’s Transformational Voice® Teacher (Transformational Voice® is a registered trademark of Transformational Voice® Training Institute, LLC, and Linda Brice.)
My mother, Sally, turned 75 on September 21st. A milestone! She married my father at the age of 18, and birthed me smack dab 9 months later, still at the age of 18. I, of course, don’t remember this, but I’m told I was practically born in the car before they arrived at Watertown Memorial Hospital.
Apparently, I was very eager to get out into the world.
But certainly not to become a wife or mother at the age of 18. I graduated from high school at 17. At 18, I was just starting college, and marriage and motherhood were the very last things on my mind.
On my mind was compiling change with my friend Sandie so we could put enough gas in her 1972 green Pontiac LeMans to make it to the Lucky Lady in time for 99 cent pitchers of 3.2 beer. We’d get there early for happy hour, buy four pitchers, save a table, and let the beer sit there and get warm for all of our friends coming later.
But, I digress. This really isn’t about how our brains work. Or perhaps it is. Perhaps all those pitchers of cheap, warm beer, along with the wine choices that have come since, have impacted my brain capacity to this day.
All the same, this is what I meant. Sometimes we get stuck in old thinking ruts, regardless of how much or how little cheap, warm beer we drank in college.
My brother and I coordinated on a gift to be delivered to Mom, but I also wanted to send her a little package to unwrap along with my birthday card and letter. Mom used to love Erma Bombeck, so I thought she would enjoy a book from my humor writer friend, Dorothy Rosby, who happens to live in Rapid City, South Dakota.
I placed an order well in advance of Mom’s birthday and – even with Amazon Prime – was told the book may not arrive until after her birthday. So, I talked with Dorothy about her mailing me one directly. Then we both started wondering if the shipping from Amazon is so delayed because of the wildfires everywhere, and if her shipment might be as well. I decided just to forget it, and send Mom the book later, for no occasion, after it arrives from Amazon.
Can anyone tell me why it didn’t occur to either Dorothy or me sooner that I can just mail Mom my copy of I Used to Think I Was Not That Bad and Then I Got to Know Me Better? when another is coming to me from Amazon?
Please spread the love and pass this along to a friend!
Love Your Voice & Voice Your Love,
Laura
Lake Oswego’s Transformational Voice® Teacher (Transformational Voice® is a registered trademark of Transformational Voice® Training Institute, LLC, and Linda Brice.)
I had a breakthrough in my first voice lab with Laura Handke. I had never before made the connection between breathing and speaking, so at first it was awkward. After some practice, I remembered other meditative practices like mindful eating, breathing, and movement. Laura’s technique can be described as mindful speaking. After just one session, I am more cognizant and attentive about how sound travels through me and how to effectively use my vocal cords. The skills I am learning in Laura’s Voice Lab: Vocal Improv & Technique will make me a confident and effective speaker. I’m excited to continue this practice with Laura and look forward to this mindful voice journey! -Sidra Nasir, Portland, OR
Between COVID, politics, police brutality, police kindness, racism, standing up again racism, protests and riots, now being surrounding by wildfires here in Oregon – if I were a member of some religions, I’d think the apocalypse was here, that the end of the world is coming.
Geez, though, none of this is easy! It doesn’t just seem like one thing after another is happening, it actually is. I may be a positive thinker but hearing about people I love needing to evacuate their homes and smelling smoke, even inside our well-insulated house, is scary. Fortunately, rain is predicted soon.
What can we do? Or perhaps I should say what did I do? I let go of expectations. A bunch of stuff I was supposed to do didn’t happen at all. And I made it okay. Instead, I did stuff that made my creative juices flow, that brought me joy, as Martha Beck always suggests.
I took naps. I coordinated with my brother about a gift for our mother’s 75th birthday. I scheduled a reading of a play my co-author and I have been working on. Kitten Linn is a never-ending source of joy whether she’s nice kitty or crazy kitty. We love all of her energy. I sang songs I hadn’t sung in a while after having a lesson with my teacher. Performed in on-line karaoke. I considered different improv exercises for the next voice lab. And I didn’t walk outside because of all of the smoke. I did yoga stretches inside instead when I wasn’t taking an extra nap, with the kitten.
And I came to the realization that sometimes just having a relatively clean house, doing laundry and making dinner is enough. If you don’t have the energy to clean, do laundry or cook, that’s okay, too. Sometimes we just need to nap. The energy will come later. One thing to remember is you can be the vessel for God’s voice in these hard times. That’s one thing that has helped me.
The next Saturday Voice Lab: Improv & Technique is Saturday morning, 9/19, 10:30-noon. Just $20. Register here! https://laurahandke.com/
I had a breakthrough in my first voice lab with Laura Handke. I had never before made the connection between breathing and speaking, so at first it was awkward. After some practice, I remembered other meditative practices like mindful eating, breathing, and movement. Laura’s technique can be described as mindful speaking. After just one session, I am more cognizant and attentive about how sound travels through me and how to effectively use my vocal cords. The skills I am learning in Laura’s Voice Lab: Vocal Improv & Technique will make me a confident and effective speaker. I’m excited to continue this practice with Laura and look forward to this mindful voice journey! -Sidra Nasir, Portland, OR
Please spread the love and pass this along to a friend!
Love Your Voice & Voice Your Love,
Laura
Lake Oswego’s Transformational Voice® Teacher (Transformational Voice® is a registered trademark of Transformational Voice® Training Institute, LLC, and Linda Brice.)
