IB Theater students at Binghamton High School are used to performing on stage for a live audience. But voice acting for a crowd they won’t even be in front of? That’s a little, or perhaps a lot, different.
“It’s a lot less body movement and a lot more trying to convey everything with your voice. I have a narrator voice, and I have a Grinch voice,” said senior IB Theater student Evelyn Barron.
These students, under the guidance of teacher Maggie Haines, have teamed up with peers from Ken Starr’s Music Production class to bring holiday stories to life in the form of audiobooks. Mrs. Haines’ students provide the narration, while Mr. Starr’s class sets up and edits the recordings.
“We get everything set up, record the audio, and make any changes to it as need be. It takes a lot of trial and error, often times there will be bits where it won’t work because there is a plug that’s halfway out or something,” said junior Music Production student Kingston Mecklenborg.
After recording the sound and working out the kinks, they’ll be shared with some of the youngest Binghamton Patriots – Pre-K students within the BHS building. A total of nine different holiday audiobooks are being produced in the collaborative learning effort.
“It’s exciting to give kids the opportunity to hear the books and experience the emotion of the story,” said junior Music Production student Madison Hurd.
It’s more than just a fun class project, Starr says. From creating videos for a presentation at work to producing huge Hollywood films, recording sound is a skill that virtually all professionals are using to some extent.
“It’s absolutely important that they learn these skills now,” Starr said. “All of this stuff comes together, whether they’re going to go into sound recording with music or they’re going to go into some sort of media production, they’re going to need to work with these types of equipment.”
And with the proliferation of audio content on the market, Haines says any of her students who pursue acting after high school will benefit from this innovative assignment.
“Because we live in a digital world and there are so many things that use our voices, like books and video games and movies, tv, and commercials there are so many job opportunities for voice acting,” Haines said.