{"id":858,"date":"2013-08-30T13:13:40","date_gmt":"2013-08-30T17:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ammatte.ca\/?p=858"},"modified":"2013-08-30T13:50:31","modified_gmt":"2013-08-30T17:50:31","slug":"a-reading-is-a-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ammatte.ca\/?p=858","title":{"rendered":"A Reading is a Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u00ab\u00a0A reading is a performance,\u00a0\u00bb said Terry Fallis* in one of his University of Toronto\u00a0<em>Building An Audience<\/em> courses.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_866\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-866\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ammatte.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Sterling-AMMpr\u00e9sente1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-866\" alt=\"(Award Gala photo by Danielle Maheu)\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ammatte.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Sterling-AMMpr\u00e9sente1-200x300.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ammatte.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Sterling-AMMpr\u00e9sente1-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.ammatte.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Sterling-AMMpr\u00e9sente1-682x1024.jpg 682w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-866\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maybe I revive this outfit for one of the readings?<br \/><em>(Award Gala photo by Danielle Maheu)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>With three readings coming up over the next few months, I have reviewed my notes on the subject for a few hints that can help prepare the best performance possible:<\/p>\n<p>1. Choose a section that reflects the book \/ that reflects you as a writer.<\/p>\n<p>2. Make eye contact with the audience.<\/p>\n<p>3. When reading, it&rsquo;s good to \u00ab\u00a0act\u00a0\u00bb the characters a little.<\/p>\n<p>4. Use your voice as your instrument. Adjust your voice\/performance to fit the writing. Change volume &#8211; lower the voice for dramatic moments (but not so much as to be inaudible) and raise the voice for excitement.<\/p>\n<p>5. Vary the pace &#8211; slow down to add drama; use pauses, let the audience hang before delivering a punchline (coup de gr\u00e2ce), or speed up for intensity.<\/p>\n<p>6. Practice, practice, practice. Before the reading, try out your piece. Practice in front of friends, or in front of a mirror. You can even time yourself, so that you know how long your reading takes.<\/p>\n<p>I&rsquo;ve been rehearsing my readings, timer at hand, to help me choose the best sections. Want to know which I picked? Feel free to attend <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ammatte.ca\/?p=853\" target=\"_blank\">any one (or all) of the readings<\/a> to find out!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h6><em>*I know, I know, sometimes I should just call my blog a fan page for this award-winning author&#8230;<\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00ab\u00a0A reading is a performance,\u00a0\u00bb said Terry Fallis* in one of his University of Toronto\u00a0Building An Audience courses. With three readings coming up over the next few months, I have reviewed my notes on the subject for a few hints<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[320,432,435,434,425,85,14,433,101],"language":[7],"class_list":["post-858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-audience","tag-pace","tag-performance","tag-practice","tag-public","tag-reading","tag-terry-fallis","tag-volume","tag-writer","language-en_ca"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ammatte.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ammatte.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ammatte.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ammatte.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ammatte.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=858"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ammatte.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":865,"href":"https:\/\/www.ammatte.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858\/revisions\/865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ammatte.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ammatte.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ammatte.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=858"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ammatte.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Flanguage&post=858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}