MANSFIELD – Think back to a passage in your favorite childhood fairy tale.
Perhaps it’s the story of a woman in a beautiful ball gown losing her glass slipper on the steps of a castle. Or maybe it’s the story of a valiant prince in a life-or-death battle with a mythical creature.
These aren’t stories you’ve seen played out in real life, but you can still picture them in your mind – right?
This is the premise of local theatre troupe Spoken Images, a theatre group performing for almost 20 years in Mansfield and surrounding areas. Dressed in neutral clothing, sitting on a simple stool, performers use vocal inflection, facial expression and gesture to tell a story while letting the audience fill in the details with their imagination.
“The idea is we’re sharing the story so our audience will have the same kind of experience from us as they do when they pick up a book and read it,” said Dr. Keith Guion, creator of Spoken Images. “When you’re reading a novel you can see everything in your mind; you can almost place yourself there. That’s what we try to achieve with our performances.”
Spoken Images began as a readers theatre class taught by Guion at Richland Academy in the mid 1990s. The students enjoyed the class so much, they decided to form a group to offer performances in the community. The group’s first gig was in December 1997, and they’ve been together ever since.
With a traditional theatre performance, cast members employ the use of costumes, sets and stage blocking in telling the story – lots of visual cues for the audience. With readers theatre, performers focus on character development through the text of the story.
“The characters themselves become very important because we need to establish them very quickly,” Guion explained. “Every movement and every facial expression you have becomes extra important. You can convey a lot just with a smile or the turn of the head. You use the tools you have, which is basically your voice and your body.
“It’s a challenge because there’s not that much for the audience to see,” he continued. “This tells the audience to use their imaginations to create the settings we don’t provide for them. In a way it’s almost a freeing thing, that you don’t have to go by the set designer’s concept of what the story should look like. You come up with your own.”
That’s not to say the Spoken Images members do not also enjoy regular theatre. However, according to Keith’s wife Wendy Guion, readers theatre appeals to a subset of theatre lovers who are not comfortable memorizing lines and being on stage.
“You’re going to pull different actors than you would for a performance,” Wendy Guion said. “I won’t go audition for a show, but I’ll work backstage. I will do this because I’m comfortable with the spoken word but not with memorizing blocking and parts.”
Another Spoken Images member, Mary Ann Calhoun, is comfortable with both theatre styles but enjoys exploring her characters more in-depth with readers theatre.
“I really like doing this because you can get into character, but with your voice,” Calhoun said. “I can memorize lines and blocking and I do it, but it is also nice sometimes to just be able to concentrate on the character and read the lines in character instead of having to do more physicality with it.”
Spoken Images has performed in all types of venues, from schools and libraries for children to business meetings and nursing homes. The group determines their program based on their audience, and many programs are either originals are adaptations written by Dr. Keith Guion himself.
On Friday, July 1 at 7 p.m. Spoken Images will perform at Element of Art in downtown Mansfield to kick off July as National Ice Cream Month. As such, the script they are working from is ice cream-themed.
“One story we’re doing is about two friends sharing an ice cream cone,” Guion said. “We’ll be employing off-stage focus where readers are facing the audience, but having a conversation as if they are facing each other. The advantage is the audience can see reactions and facial expressions from everybody involved.”
The future of Spoken Images is entirely depending on member enthusiasm. Overwhelmingly, the dozen active members want to continue. The troupe is also welcoming new members, including through a readers theatre class taught by Calhoun at Peace Lutheran Church in Ashland this fall.
“It’s partly to attract new members to the group, but also to provide theatre opportunities for young actors,” Guion said. “I like the idea of a multi-generational readers theatre. But the future of Spoken Images depends on how things go and how people feel.”
For more information on booking performances, attending classes or joining Spoken Images, contact Mary Ann Calhoun at 419-756-7517 or email myacttwo@netscape.net.
