Interview with a Narrator: Holly Adams

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Holly Adams

As a performer and SAG-AFTRA member, Holly Adams divides her time between original pieces with physical theatre company Kakeru, audiobook narration for Audible, clown therapy projects, and typical acting gigs (mostly films and Shakespeare). Holly is also a passionate teaching artist; favorite recent projects have been working with girls in Kabul for the Afghan Children’s Circus and with the brand new Theatre Company in Balan, Haiti. Holly’s work as an artist-in-residence for schools and universities links academic and arts curricula while addressing socio-cultural challenges.

Favorite performances include the films Gotham Blue and Your Loving Virginia; web series The Chanticleer; plays Henry V; As You Like It, Love, Loss and What I Wore; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Macbeth; Further Adventures of Clown; and various audiobooks for Audible, Spoken Realms, and others. No matter what she is doing, Holly absolutely loves telling a story and bringing characters to life!

How did you become interested in narrating audiobooks?

Great question! Hmmmm…. Well, loooong ago, I loved listening to audiobooks. I was a young actor and dreamed of one day following in the footsteps of the incomparable Barbara Rosenblatt. How that happened for me — as an actor, I had done lots of radio plays (many with the great John G. Hetzler! God, what a voice), and someone from Full-Cast Audio invited me to audition! After that, I got into single-narrator (and duo narrator) audiobooks. I feel so honored, so lucky, and I absolutely love it. I also keep taking classes (acting, voice acting, and other performance) to continue to grow!

You have been on the stage since you were 5 and on screen since you were a teen. How does audiobook narration compare to those media?

For me, it’s more like stage plays I have done where I play multiple parts — you have to understand the whole play/ and each character’s arc in it, but when you are performing, none of the characters can anticipate what other characters are going to do or say, and oftentimes, are expecting something quite different than what happens. That being said, there are a couple ways that narrating is like film —- you can do very subtle things with your face and voice that make a huge difference, AND if you hate what you did or make a mistake, you can do it over!

You have both a B.A. and a Master’s in Theater, Education and Social Change. The theater and education part is pretty self-explanatory, but how does social change fit into theater?

I believe that art is how we really connect to, process, and understand our world, each other, our best selves, our worst selves, our communities, our divinities, our learning, our living, our dying; art has the power to make us think and make us invest emotionally, whether that art is wall scribbling, telling or listening to stories, or dancingactingsingingpoetrying. . . . So my degree is in Theatre as a tool for communities to find a voice or people to create, heal, express, or be taken on a journey AND arts-in-education as a way to transform academic curricula into a multi-learning strategy, engaging phenomenon AND how all these things affect community, self, understanding, and change.

Theatre for me encompasses all the kinds of acting I do, from narrating audiobooks to performing onstage (I do lots of Shakespeare) to films to circus and clowning. My Master’s thesis was on indigenous clown forms in Afghanistan —- the act of clowning is so essential to the well-being of anyone. I also have worked with and co-created lots of clown-therapy projects, mostly with dementia patients, but some with hospitals where children are treated for terrible burns or cancer. In my clown/clown therapy self, I have worked in Italy, Bali, Australia, Haiti, Russia and Afghanistan, as well as North America. . . . Bet that was more than you wanted to know! Sorry. I am very passionate about humans and always dedicated to using the skills I have to help somehow.

Holly Adams  Holly Adams  Holly Adams

You have performed in numerous places, such as Italy, Afghanistan, Haiti, Russia, the UK, France, and the Middle East, where you have become skilled in accents. How do you go about learning a new accent?

Great Question! I LOVE languages and have studied (and spoken to some degree at one point or another) French, German, Hebrew, Sanskrit and gotten a bit of brief tutoring in Russian and Arabic. . . and these baselines help a LOT. I usually start by listening to the radio in the language itself (the Internet is awesome -— you can listen to music and talk shows in any language!) to listen for rhythms and sounds and “feels.” Then I look on line for both professional coaches doing an explanation and demonstration of key sounds, patterns and mouth shapes, then I listen to several “Accent tags” videos until I find one that seems to really fit the other things I have learned and the characters I will be portraying. Of course, all this time I am practicing.

Then I find someone in my community who speaks the language and pay them for some conversation time and input. It’s important to offer to pay folks, especially since many of the people who are excellent sources are refugees, and both the income and the respect you are showing them helps a lot. I often ask the native speaker I am working with if I can record them speaking their own language and a couple lines from the text. Then I record myself doing it until I like it. And so on! This big process is for books where lots of characters are speaking with a certain accent. If there is only one or two lines, I typically won’t hire a native speaker, just do the online stuff.

You have over 50 titles on Audible. Which books are most memorable to you?

Oh geeeeeeez

Well, I loved narrating Prince Otto, a little-known sweet satire by Robert Louis Stevenson because I always wanted to narrate ANYTHING by him, and never thought I would have the chance. So that was wonderful. I love reading adventure-y books (mystery, adventure fantasy, swashbucklers), and the first Authors to give me the opportunity to narrate these genres were the incredible Jacqueline Rhoades (The Alpha’s Daughter was the first book of hers I did) and the marvelous Mindy Quigley (A Murder in Mount Moriah was the first book of hers I did). I have since been blessed with more mysteries and adventure books of various genres, and I am sooooo grateful for those first chances! Still waiting for my first Zombie or Pirate book though.

How do you prepare to record a new book?

Like a script. I read it to get the “feel” as a consumer, and a sense of the characters. I make notes on my character description sheets about who they are, what they want, how they feel about other characters and any acting notes I want to give myself to help me hook back into them when I am recording (for example, maybe a character is very bear-like or cat-like, or maybe a character reminds me very strongly of Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or maybe a character feels very Puckish or whatever). These notes don’t DEFINE the character, but they help draw me into the 3-D being-ness of that character’s way of moving through the world, their POV, their. . . well. . . whole dynamic selves. Then I also do research on things I don’t understand and pronunciations. Then I do the first 15/character tests requested by the RH.

I notice you have performed several cozy mysteries. One thing I like about that genre is the way the characters are each so unique. Does that pose special challenges in voicing them or make things more fun?

SO MUCH FUN. What theatre actor DOESN’T want to play all the parts?

Tell us about your at- home mystery packages.

Ahaha! I had created so many event-based interactive mysteries (1950s speakeasy galas to Agatha Christie luncheons and everything in between) that people suggested I put some together for at-home use. It’s fun to do.

According to your imdb page, you often play male roles in Shakespeare productions because you have training with the broadsword. What influenced you to do that? What roles do you get asked to play?

When I was very little, I read a LOT. I liked books, but none grabbed me by the heart and shook all my breath out. . . until I read an excerpt (for children) of 1001 Arabian Nights (it was mostly the Ali Baba tales and the Sinbad tales). And I was hooked. I never wanted to pretend to be the princess, I wanted to be the swashbuckling saver-person! That love translated into various forms of stage-combat training and sword-training. I have played Hotspur, the Duke of Orleans in Henry V (I got to have a double-sworded fight with the fight choreographer who was playing Henry. Heaven!!), and various soldiers and dukes. . . . And I just played Touchstone in As You Like It this summer!! Although he just cuts people with his tongue, the director knew I could master the crisp physical comedy and leaping about because of my other work.

Holly Adams

I have also been asked to be Capt Jack Sparrow for events! There’s a pic on FB of me doing that right now ?

© Thomas Hoebbel Photography

What narrators do you turn to for inspiration?

So many! I love listening to audiobooks, and I am always noting (even while I listen) different practices and techniques that are working amazingly well, and might be performance choices I wouldn’t have thought of. I am always learning and growing, and feel honored to be in a field with such stellar colleagues!

Thank you SO MUCH for this, Vicki!!!

To learn more about Holly, visit the following sites:

http://shearwaterproductions.com/voice-actor/
Facebook page
imdb page
Audible page

  Holly Adams  

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