Students in theatre aren’t just reading stories. 

They’re bringing them to life with character voices.

In theatre class, students are working on a storytelling project where they choose a children’s book and perform it using multiple character voices. The assignment is designed to help students experiment with pitch, tone, and emotion as they switch between at least four different characters. 

“The voice is one of the main tools we have in theatre, because we are trying to tell the story,” Theater teacher Kristopher Allen said. “So we are using text of the play to express that, and the text creates different people then we then try to inherit I can’t have my students like different character if they only sound like themselves so we have to learn how certain characters might have different vocal qualities and then we apply to each character”.

Students might use a high, squeaky voice for a small animal, a low, rumbling growl for a monster, a soft and gentle tone for a parent, or even a loud, over-the-top hero voice for the main character.

“Using different character voices help me really understand the personality and emotions of the characters and also made the story interesting to perform,” sophomore Samhita Ujji said. “The audience can distinguish the characters better without getting confused.”