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These days, the growth of podcasts and other audio services is enormous.  All of them rely on the human voice: its modulations, its volumes, its pauses, its expressions, its different tempi. 

How much expressive variety can we get out of one voice? What happens when two voices interact? How does the voice's delivery change the meaning of the text?

Are we helplessly delivered to sounding like newscasters, with their constrained delivery?

And is the only other alternative to sound like advertising sales people: Hollering their demands! that we buy! buy! and buy again!

How must a second person speak to a first --- so as to maximize the significance of their interaction? or to minimize that significance?

We'll do regular exercises that practice the variety and potentials for each persons' voice: when can a sudden change of volume emphasize the thought? When does a steady change of speed emphasize or de-emphasize a thought?  When is a sudden change of pitch desirable to emphasize the thought?

That's what we'll explore in this 8 credit class. 

We'll read scenes from plays and stories by James Baldwin, Bertolt Brecht, Dorothy Parker, Lorraine Hansberry and others.

We'll have presentations on how best to use microphone, recording devices, and editing software.

There will be individual projects in the first few weeks of the class, where individuals will prepare, perform and record texts.

Then, there will be three group projects, in which groups of students will prepare, perform and record excerpts of plays and short stories.

At the end of the quarter, there will be a public performance of radio plays for the campus community.