Life With The Written Word Through Audio
In the spring of 1991, there were acting auditions for a new play entitled “Beyond Measure,” by Stuart Schulman and his brother Daniel. Originally, it had been a film script but then rewritten for the stage. It was a limited engagement at the Kampo Cultural Center in lower Manhattan, and I had been asked to audition. Happily, I got one of the leading roles as Annette Brewster.
The cast, after being selected, assembled and we began rehearsals. What a fun-loving company of actors, young and older. A longtime friend, Yolande Bavan, was also in the cast and we were delighted to work together. She pulled me aside one day, nearing the opening, and told me a staff member from The American Foundation For The Blind was coming to see her in the play, and she wanted me to meet him and audition, for she felt that I would be a good fit as a narrator, as she was already working with them and enjoying it so much. The opening was very well received and after I met her friend Paul, he invited me to come in to the studio and record an audition piece, unprepared. Two days later, I did. Tony Henderson, the head of the department, smiled and handed me a book to read from, and it was about a handful of Santa Clauses meeting in a room. I stepped into the recording booth, sat down and opened the book, selected a chapter, scanned it and began to read, after deciding I would give each one a different voice. That was so much fun! When Tony and Paul stopped me, they were laughing so hard and told me that as far as they were concerned, I was hired, but the final say had to come from the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
A week later I got the call that I had been accepted as a narrator for AFB (Talking Books, Inc.). From 1991 to 2011, I must have recorded hundreds of books and newsletters. A plethora of fiction and non-fiction, poetry and prose, biographies and auto biographies, children’s books to an Anthology of Black American Literature and Black Women’s Health Anthology. Most of the works I recorded were by Afro-American and other ethnic writers and occasionally, a few White writers, as well. I knew that I was a crossover narrator but I fought for that, for I could sound Black or White, when necessary. My thanks to Antonio Harrison for keeping me busy, and always having a book for me to narrate.
In the soundproof recording studio booth, for two-hour periods at a time, before a break, I lived the Life of “The Written Word” and the world continued to grow around me. Every time a book was presented to me, it meant reading the book from beginning to end, when I could, taking notes and listing words, titles, names, etc., whatever I was not sure of how to pronounce or know, and if I could not find the answers, the wonderful technicians and proofers who could find out anything were always there to help in the office. With each new book to record, I learned to be better with phrasing, nuances, accents, the flow of the sentences, voice types and to speak different languages. As a trained classical singer, I was comfortable with that, having sung and spoken in other languages. The work was tedious and concentrated. You wanted to read through the pages as smoothly as you could with few mistakes. Of course, in the end, after two or three different proofers listened to your book and notated any mistakes or noises, you would return to do “corrections.” Then, that book was considered done and sent off to the Library of Congress.
Reading and recording the volume of books that I was given opened my eyes, my mind and my soul with each new present from the many gifted authors from around the world. We give credit to Helen Keller and her incredible history and legacy. She lives on in the hearts of all, but especially, for those who cannot see, but who can listen, through the recorded books throughout the world, forever.
