Today I have the pleasure of presenting the gifted narrator of my romance novel, The Music of Us: Don Warrick. Don is an actor who spent his entire life presenting the written word, and is second to none in his storytelling. He is a musician of many skills: teacher, performer, conductor, and recording artist. And he is an audiobook publisher. One day, he took the advice of his son, a writer, and found himself on the ACX page. Many days later he came up for air, realizing that he found the place where all roads converge.
I asked Don to give me a glimpse of his work, and was delighted to get his article, Intimacy, which to me reads like poetry. It reveals so much of the fire within.
Let me share it with you:
There is a feeling, when you have tapped into the absolute emotion of a character and share it with an audience. It is the moment of transcendence when you become two. The words of the author, based on their most intimate imaginings find reality in your voice, your mind, your body. You become their character, and by extension you become them. When you find this nexus and stand naked in this light, you realize there is very little else in this life that approaches this kind of intimacy.
I don’t think I could narrate audio books if I had not spent lots of years on stage. I had the rare chance to look the audience in the eye, and hold their beating hearts in my hand. Intimacy.
This is my grail. This is my secret. And it is not something academic or theoretical that you can teach (I have tried). It is strictly experiential. It’s kind of one of those “when you find it, you will know” kinds of phenomenon.
Last week, I got a facebook note from someone I worked with on stage 20 years ago in Colorado. He wrote:
“Don Warrick! You were the Man of La Mancha with the Longmont Theatre Company sometime around '95. I was one of the prisoners and your long haired tap-dancing horse.
Your comedic timing, charisma, and ability to read the audience were all inspiring, but your singing voice and your intensely passionate emotions onstage were heart-stopping. I remember a few performances when I was huddled under a "prisoner shelter"(a low ledge of some sort) with the other prisoners, and the entire theatre was silent except for your voice, because we (the audience members as well as all of us onstage) were so entranced by the concentrated, amplified, laser focused, soulful, pure humanity that you were channeling. There were times I forgot I was on a stage, watching a character who was supposedly fictional. I definitely wasn't the only one. Sometimes I would suddenly remember I was in a play, and I'd look around at the other prisoners, or even steal a glance at some audience members, and it looked like everyone was forgetting to breathe. You had 100% of their attention.
I just wanted to let you know what a positive influence you had on my life back then. I was a teenager, with the usual emotional troubles and insecurities that tend to come with that time period, and you served as a role model of something solid, strong, fearless yet vulnerable, and thoroughly inspiring, especially to someone whose biggest goal was to overcome stage fright and make an audience truly FEEL.”
I don’t share this very personal message with you because I want or need to bolster my own ego (however, I am an actor so I know I have a big one) but since I am writing about intimacy I needed to share this with you. I haven’t even shared it with my wife or my best friend.
This is why we do what we do. Why you write. Why I act. Because for the briefest of moments we can transcend who we are and inhabit not just a character, but the minds and hearts of all who are listening.
What I really love about producing audio books is that as an actor I get to inhabit the lives of your characters for more than a couple of hours. My relationship with you is the most intimate of relationships. I alone have climbed inside your head and stood with your lovers and your demons. I have let your tears roll down my cheek, locked in a tiny little box in my basement, in front of a microphone and a script. Just the two of us.
Intimacy.
AudioBooks:
Let me share it with you:
Intimacy
by
Don Warrick
There is a feeling, when you have tapped into the absolute emotion of a character and share it with an audience. It is the moment of transcendence when you become two. The words of the author, based on their most intimate imaginings find reality in your voice, your mind, your body. You become their character, and by extension you become them. When you find this nexus and stand naked in this light, you realize there is very little else in this life that approaches this kind of intimacy.
I don’t think I could narrate audio books if I had not spent lots of years on stage. I had the rare chance to look the audience in the eye, and hold their beating hearts in my hand. Intimacy.
This is my grail. This is my secret. And it is not something academic or theoretical that you can teach (I have tried). It is strictly experiential. It’s kind of one of those “when you find it, you will know” kinds of phenomenon.
Last week, I got a facebook note from someone I worked with on stage 20 years ago in Colorado. He wrote:
“Don Warrick! You were the Man of La Mancha with the Longmont Theatre Company sometime around '95. I was one of the prisoners and your long haired tap-dancing horse.
Your comedic timing, charisma, and ability to read the audience were all inspiring, but your singing voice and your intensely passionate emotions onstage were heart-stopping. I remember a few performances when I was huddled under a "prisoner shelter"(a low ledge of some sort) with the other prisoners, and the entire theatre was silent except for your voice, because we (the audience members as well as all of us onstage) were so entranced by the concentrated, amplified, laser focused, soulful, pure humanity that you were channeling. There were times I forgot I was on a stage, watching a character who was supposedly fictional. I definitely wasn't the only one. Sometimes I would suddenly remember I was in a play, and I'd look around at the other prisoners, or even steal a glance at some audience members, and it looked like everyone was forgetting to breathe. You had 100% of their attention.
I just wanted to let you know what a positive influence you had on my life back then. I was a teenager, with the usual emotional troubles and insecurities that tend to come with that time period, and you served as a role model of something solid, strong, fearless yet vulnerable, and thoroughly inspiring, especially to someone whose biggest goal was to overcome stage fright and make an audience truly FEEL.”
I don’t share this very personal message with you because I want or need to bolster my own ego (however, I am an actor so I know I have a big one) but since I am writing about intimacy I needed to share this with you. I haven’t even shared it with my wife or my best friend.
This is why we do what we do. Why you write. Why I act. Because for the briefest of moments we can transcend who we are and inhabit not just a character, but the minds and hearts of all who are listening.
What I really love about producing audio books is that as an actor I get to inhabit the lives of your characters for more than a couple of hours. My relationship with you is the most intimate of relationships. I alone have climbed inside your head and stood with your lovers and your demons. I have let your tears roll down my cheek, locked in a tiny little box in my basement, in front of a microphone and a script. Just the two of us.
Intimacy.
The Music of Us, audiobook edition
His body of work:
AudioBooks:
Mary Campisi
|
A Family Affair: The Promise (Truth in Lies book #7)
A Family Affair: Winter (Truth in Lies, Book 6)
A Family Affair: Christmas (Truth in Lies, Book 5)
A Family Affair: Fall (Truth in Lies, Book 4)
A Family Affair: Summer (Truth in Lies, Book 3)
|
Michael J Dawson
| |
Oleg V. Oksevski
| |
Richard James Chance
| |
Julie Elizabeth Powell
| |
John Franz
|
Artistic Direction
Dayton Playhouse, Dayton Ohio
Central Ohio Professional Theatre, Columbus Ohio
Covered Bridge Theatre, North East Maryland,
Performance
A Little Night Music - Fredrick
Kiss Me Kate - Petruchio
Mack & Mable - Mack Sennett
Man of La Mancha - Don Quixote
Sound of Music - Capt. von Trapp
South Pacific - Emile DeBeque
Sweeney Todd - Sweeney
The King and I - King of Siam
Two by Two - Noah
The Grand Duke - The Grand Duke
HMS Penafore - Ralph
Pirates of Penzance - The Pirate King
The Merry Widow - Danilo
The Mikado - Nanki Poo
Orpheus - Mercury
Les deux aveugles - Patachon
Die Fledermaus - Eisenstein
Gianni Schicci - Gerardo
La Boeheme - Parpigno
|
La Traviata - Georgio Germont
Marriage of Figaro - Don Basillio
The Impressario - Herr Eiler
A Lion in Winter - Henry
Lend Me a Tenor - Tito Merrelli
Medea - Jason
Oleanna - John
On Golden Pond - Norman
Plaza Suite - Jessie Kipplinger
The Odd Couple - Felix
The Rainmaker - Starbuck
Zoo Story - Jerry
Brigadoon - Tommy Albright
Camelot - Arthur
Candide - Candide
Jacque Brel - Player
Convenience - Abe
Fantastics - El Gallo
Godspell - Jesus
Guys and Dolls - Sky Masterson
|
Amazing, not only can the man sing and act and everything else, but he can write, too! Thanks for sharing this with us, Uvi and Don. ;o)
ReplyDeleteAmazing he is :) So true, Aaron
Deletewonderful article. Thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteYes it is, my pleasure Charlene :)
Delete