Spoken word artist for commercials
In this post of [A]mandatory Blog, voice-over and spoken-word talent Amanda Terman discusses what voice actors can learn from poets.
Voice actor Amanda Terman was invited to perform live spoken-word poetry at a community event in Cleveland.
An actor by birth, a poet by trade
My middle school English teacher could’ve easily predicted that I’d grow up to be an actor. I put my whole heart into our class production of Bye Bye Birdie, channeling bombshell Ann-Margaret as only a 12 year old Cleveland kid can.
But even though I lived for the memorable characters and clever lyrics of musical theater, poetry was never on my radar. I thought it was boring: A poet writes alone, silently, but my heart thrived on sound and action.
Only now in retrospect do I see how dissecting scripts and executing complicated musical motifs prepared me to be a poet, and likewise, how studying poetry augments my voiceover skill.
Grounded in heart and creativity, these skills allow me to offer authentic spoken-word style performance and content for commercials and other projects. If you want to collaborate, contact me!
A poet and spoken-word artist
Clearly, I love poetry now, but I didn’t become a poet and spoken-word artist on purpose. In fact, I was probably more surprised than my middle school English teacher would be.
When I unexpectedly moved back to Cleveland from Los Angeles—under less-than-ideal personal circumstances—I didn’t know anyone, so I needed to find a community. Making new friends as an adult is notoriously difficult . . . and even more so when you work in a literal isolation booth, so I was on the prowl for pals. One of the communities I found was the ad club AAF-Cleveland. Another was a poetry group:
While out exploring the city, I entered a venue, started chatting with some friendly strangers (cuz this story is set in the Midwest), and received an invitation to attend a poetry workshop. I figured the chance to make friends was worth doing a little writing homework, so I joined, and never looked back! Since then, I started frequenting several more groups, and began performing original spoken-word at venues throughout Great Cleveland. Learn more about my poetry.
Writer and voiceover talent Amanda Terman was a guest judge for this literary journal’s poetry contest.
Poetry for connection
I joined the writers community actively looking for friends. But I think all writers are seeking connections. As I wrote in UpJourney’s article What Makes Good Poetry (According to 10+) Experts:
Great poetry leverages language’s limitless potential to highlight moments of heightened emotion, unexamined minutia, universal tragedies, or just bemusing nonsense. What might otherwise go overlooked or unshared gets a public placard.
~ Amanda Terman
In other words, poetry allows us to share experiences, even otherwise private ones that are difficult to articulate.
Spoken word vs. voice over vs. song
Being a spoken-word performer informs my voiceover performance in all genres, not just for scripts that literally ARE poetry (like spoken-word-style ads and anthemic videos for brands), but also in more "straightforward" contexts (like medical e-learning narration) where communication is key and nuance changes everything.
My clients often have a short window (30 , 15, or even 6 seconds) to communicate a universal feeling that may never have been noticed before. One goal of great voiceover, like great poetry, is to instantly remove us from autopilot for a novel shared experience. As I wrote in UpJourney’s article:
Great poetry pauses the cognitive algorithms that power daily life, so we can finally convert those solitary somatic sensations into communally experienced language; at its greatest, it taps into what we least expect, using language to inspire, provoke, or connect.
~ Amanda Terman
The question “What makes good poetry” is tough to answer. Like most art, including voiceover, the craft has many different forms and goals. But ultimately its primary goal is communication.
When I perform voiceover, I use every available resource, whether that be the character development training I learned in acting school, the rhythm, pitch, and dynamics sensitivity I honed as a singer, or the understanding of form and structure I gained as a poet. Ultimately, my goal as a voice actor, singer, and poet is to bring words to life.
If you want to collaborate, please contact me today!