PODCASTS Training the VOICES behind audiobooks and podcasts

STORY BY JIM HARRINGTON PHOTOS BY KARL MONDON/STAFF

The slight brunette approaches the microphone, steeling herself as she casts a glance at the script sitting on a clear acetate music stand.

“Bow, my servants,” she says. She clears her throat and repeats the line — commandingly, imperiously. And then — “Bow, my servants!” she bellows. “Kill them all!”

It’s just another day of murder and mayhem at San Francisco’s Voice One, the voice-over acting school where today’s game plan clearly involves some Lannister-level Game of Thrones-ian menace. Depending on the day and class, those voices could just as easily be channeling pipsqueak toons, perky ad copy or quirky fictional personalities.

Some of these students are lawyers. Others are former techies. There’s even a professional dancer or two among the ranks learning to create funny voices, interesting characters or highly accented international men — or women — of mystery.

Voice One owner Sally Clawson was one of those professional dancers back in 2002, dancing with the Bay Area-based Margaret Jenkins Dance Company when she was sidelined for a few months.

“I was on tour in Chicago, and I injured my hip,” she remembers. “I started answering phones while healing, and

Podcasts

people told me I had a nice voice.”

So when she picked up a magazine at her doctor’s office and started reading about Voice One and its founder, Elaine Clark, it seemed like a sign.

“I checked (the school) out, and I loved it,” Clawson says. “I studied with Elaine for about a year, made my demo and met a talent agent in one of the classes – and I got signed and started booking work.”

She’s been there ever since. This year, Clawson bought the training school from Clark, who still runs a recording studio on site.

Of course, voice-over acting — where you hear the voice, but don’t see the person — is nothing new. It’s long been a mainstay in the entertainment business. Think Tom Hanks playing the voice of Woody in “Toy Story” and every movie trailer that starts with the words “In a world...”

It was a bit of a niche field in 1986, when Clark founded Voice One on the bottom floor of the KPIX building, says Clawson, whose own resume includes voice-over work for Toyota, Pixar, Apple, Google and Lucas Film.

“Elaine was an actress – a theater and teaching major – and started doing voice over. People started asking her for advice and tips, so she started teaching,” Clawson says. “She built it up to what it is now, really the premier school in San Francisco for voice over and acting.”

The voice-over realm has expanded dramatically in the last decade. It’s not just movies and TV, now. These narrators drive audio books, podcasts and video games, and they voice Alexa, Siri and your car’s navigation system.

“With this digital age, there’s so much. Audio books are all the rage right now. Our devices speak to us,” Clawson says.

And those serious, baritone

“in a world” voices no longer resonate.

“That announcer sound – that purely technical, deep, male voice that speaks perfectly – is an antiquated sound,” she says.

“(Instead) it’s really real voices, narration videos for companies such as Intel, Panasonic, Salesforce, Mastercard and Coldwell Banker. The Pacifica resident says she was drawn to both the business end and “the craft of voice acting and all the different areas, corporate narration, animation, commercial, audio books.”

“I took all the core curriculum classes, so I could explore where I thought my voice fit in the industry,” says Fitch, who now teaches a class on the business aspects of voice-over. “The essence of voice over is acting, not the sound of your voice. It is important to get continuous coaching, as there may be things that I’m not aware of when I’m alone in my WhisperRoom vocal booth.”

The profession draws a wide variety of people, Clawson says.

Above, Clawson listens to Adriana Echandi expound. At right, she demonstrates an exercise that enhances vocal delivery.

Some are entering the field as a second career; they’ve raised their kids or worked in the tech industry or want a creative outlet. Fitch isn’t the only lawyer in the group, either. San Mateo attorney Pam Kelly may have a background in information technology, but she’s hoping to make a transition into voice-over work in commercials and narration, she says.

And then, Clawson adds,

“There’s the younger generation, who is listening to video games and watching Cartoon Network, who want to come in and learn how to do (this for) animation or video games.”

To them, Clawson has just one thing to say: Step up to the microphone. The future awaits – and those servants are at your command.

LOOKING FOR A NEW PODCAST? HERE ARE FIVE POSSIBILITIES.

Winnetka

This hot new memoir-meets-podcast by “Suspiria” star Jessica Harper made its debut in February with a tale of Eisenhower-era Illinois, posttraumatic stress disorder and family secrets. Harper and her five siblings recall their childhood over 10 episodes, starting with their father’s funeral and the discovery a few days later of “an awful piece of our history that none of us can change, misremember or deny.” Read more at www.winnetkapodcast. com.

Modern Love

In 2015, the popular New York Times column about contemporary love and romance teamed up with NPR to create an equally popular podcast, with actors as varied as Catherine O’Hara (“Home Alone,” “Schitt’s Creek”), Christina Hendricks (“Mad

Men,” “Good Girls”) and Stanley Tucci (“A Private War”) narrating Modern Love columns. Best part? They bring the writers on the show to provide an epilogue to their tales. www.wbur.org/ modernlove

LeVar Burton Reads

If you grew up on Reading Rainbow — or your kids did, in which case you spent many hours watching the charming children’s book series, too — here’s some happy news. Actor LeVar Burton (“Roots,” “Star Trek Next Generation”) brings that same literary enthusiasm to an adult audience with this 2-year-old podcast, which showcases eclectic short fiction — sci-fi, fantasy, mystery — and authors that range from Neil Gaiman and Haruki Murakami to Octavia Butler and Charlie Jane Anders. It’s Reading

Rainbow for grown-ups. www. levarburtonpodcast.com

You Must Remember This

Film critic Karina Longworth shares stories about classic Hollywood from a cultural and historic perspective in this addictive podcast that spans Tinseltown’s first glitzy century, from Elizabeth Taylor’s heyday to Charles Manson’s Hollywood, Howard Hughes’ love life and Madonna’s cinematic debut. www. youmustrememberthispodcast.com

Bear Brook

If you’re a fan of true-crime fiction or the Serial podcast, this coldcase podcast, which began airing in October, may be just your cup of poison. The Bear Brook case involved four unidentified female murder victims discovered at Bear Brook State Park in New Hampshire in 1985 and 2000. Six podcast episodes unfurl this chilling mystery about two barrels, four bodies and a serial killer; two follow-up episodes — and more to come — bring the story up to date. www.bearbrookpodcast.com