SMILE

posted by James Reel

    Some of us in the radio biz already know this, but it comes as a surprise to a lot of people: You can actually hear a smile in someone’s voice. Now there’s a study to prove it. The conclusion, according to one of the researchers: “When we listen to speech we hear the general pitch, and people associate a  rise in pitch with more smiley sounding voices," she said, adding that "we might also be picking up on more subtle cues, like the spread of frequencies within the voice, and how intense the voice is." You can find a news account here.

'SCHUBERT SHADOWS' UPDATE

posted by James Reel

    Chamber Music Plus has found a fine replacement for Richard Moll in Schubert Shadows: Douglas Mitchell, a veteran stage and TV actor I reviewed enthusiastically in an Invisible Theatre production of The Business of Murder and who did a very good job directing Neil Simon's Chapter Two at Live Theatre Workshop.

MOLL-IFIED

posted by James Reel

   For health reasons, veteran actor Richard Moll has withdrawn from this weekend's Chamber Music Plus performance, Schubert Shadows, about the relationship between Franz Schubert and a baritone who championed his songs. Bass-baritone Burr Cochran Phillips and pianist Sanda Schuldmann are still in the show, written by Harry Clark, but they're scrambling to find a last-minute replacement for Moll. I'll tell you more if I get news before I take off on vacation.

PLAYERS AT WORK

posted by James Reel

    My contribution to the latest Tucson Weekly considers proposed upgrades at a local community theater ensemble:

    This new year marks the 25th anniversary of the Catalina Players, and the theater group's executive director is ready for a change.
    Oh, Priscilla Marquez isn't going anywhere. She believes in change from within--which makes sense, considering that the Catalina Players began as a self-help-through-acting group in 1983. So rather than abandoning the ensemble she has belonged to from the very beginning, and run since 1988, Marquez is helping the Catalina Players grow up.
    That means more finished productions and a more serious, even slightly provocative, choice of scripts.
    "There's so much going on in the world," says Marquez, "it's time for a message."