It does not require power to ensure that one’s voice is heard till the very end of the hall or room. A newborn baby at a hospital has no power, yet the entire building echoes with the baby’s cries.
Veteran actor Khalid Ahmed, who currently heads the theatre academy of the Arts Council of Pakistan (ACP) Karachi, made these observations while holding a workshop on voice techniques on the concluding day of the Arts Alumni Festival 2025 on Sunday.
Voice, remarked Ahmed, is as essential an aspect of an individual’s personality just like face and attire. He advised the workshop attenders to work on improving their voice and be conscious of it the same way they are always conscious of how they look.
He said that learning voice techniques is essential for theatre artistes, and in any acting school, voice is taught over three years. However, he added, mastery over voice is also useful for other professions such as teaching, news reading, and interviewing and podcasting.
He also said students do not like to attend classes of teachers that do not have voice modulation because they sound boring and fail to inculcate others’ interest in their subject. Learning voice techniques is also beneficial for singers, and in Western countries some singers do learn voice, he added.
The veteran actor said that breathing from the diaphragm, and a relaxed state are the key to effective voice throwing. The more stressed one is, the more their muscles are unable to effectively project their voice, he explained.
On the belly breathing or diaphragm breathing, he said that most people breathe through their chest but the breath coming from the chest is not beneficial for effective human voice. He demonstrated some exercises to show the participants how they can learn breathing through the diaphragm.
To elucidate the difference between chest breathing and diaphragm breathing, he invited a few participants to come forward. Some of the participants were trained in voice techniques and others were not.
When Ahmed asked them to breathe, the chests of those who were not breathing through the diaphragm could be seen rising and returning. However, the trained ones who were breathing through the diaphragm had no visible effect on their torso as they took in the air and released it out.
The actor said that newborn babies produce far-reaching voice because they are not in stress, and they breathe through the diaphragm. He then spoke on the importance of resonators in the human body. He said that several parts of the respiratory system act as resonators and using them to throw one’s voice imparts a unique feel and emotion to it. He explained that in reciting Azaan, normally the resonators in the mouth are used that give a loud feel to it.
He also touched upon the importance of articulation, which means producing the sound from the right place and in the right manner. He said that what made Zia Mohyeddin special was his impeccable articulation.
He also said that often people lisp, which means they do not accurately produce the sound of the ‘s’ as they articulate it by placing their tongue between their teeth, which makes the sound resemble that of ‘th’.
The three-day Arts Alumni Festival began on Friday. It was a first-of-its-kind event held by the ACP to showcase the talents of the graduates of its various academies. The last day of the festival also featured a discussion on textile design, music and dance performances, and a stage production of Iqbal Nazar’s translation of Tennessee Williams’ ‘The Glass Menagerie’ directed by Adil Shakir and enacted by Hassan Malik, Sheryl John, Fatima Adil and Syed Usman Hikmat.
The last-minute change of timings and venues of different programmes of the festival caused a lot of confusion. The ACP administration must ensure that such events take place as per the schedule. If there are delays of 15 to 20 minutes, they might be condoned, but shifting a play from the 7pm slot to 9:30pm mars the experience of many visitors who arrive at such events with a predetermined mindset regarding what they would do.