I'm talking to the audience.
I'm re-living an experience in front of the audience.
I'm portraying other people from the experience I'm re-living in front of the audience.

When you speak in front of people, you'll find yourself talking in several different modes. A speaker flows between them. Each mode is distinct, but the time we spend in each might be short and the way we express it might be small. Maybe a little in the eyes, the voice. It doesn't take much. Let's look at three of the most common ones:

DIRECT ADDRESS MODE. I am talking to you, the audience, in this room. This is the one we probably think of first. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today,” or, “on behalf of the executive team I want to recognize all of the hard work that went to the most productive quarter we've ever had,” or, “thanks, everyone for coming out tonight, we've got a great show for you!” Direct address is you in this room with this audience. We greet. We inform. We celebrate. We recognize. We indicate.

NARRATIVE MODE. This is you describing another moment in time. As you set the scene, your mind's eye now tracks the different pieces of the setting you describe. You might even indicate them physically. Are you still addressing the audience? Absolutely. But now your focus is on building a world with them. In Narrative Mode, your body changes slightly as it reacts to the different space it's in. But this is isn't a one-hundred-percent acting transformation. It's storytelling. So the indications of that other space are gossamer, ghostly. Could there be moments where that time and place really shine through and come to life? Sure. But don't lose your connection to the audience in the room and put up a fourth wall between you and them.

MIMETIC MODE. (Mimetic is a fancy word but it just means, “imitative.”) This is you taking on, for a moment, points of view of the people in the narrative setting you created. In Mimetic Mode, you're playing other characters or things your scenes from Narrative mode: Your dog. Your best friend. A customer. A tire that blows out. These tend to be flashes of embodiment. A line of text. A sound effect with an accompanying hand that momentarily indicates the explosion of the tire. Again, this is not acting, it's storytelling, so we're not talking huge transformations most of the time, unless you're the kind of speaker who really lives in huge transformations.

The audience delights in seeing you shift from mode to mode. So how do you do it? Follow the points of view for each mode. What were you thinking when you describe yourself in meeting that person 10 years ago? What was the person doing when they said what they met you? As you rehearse, notice any slight or subtle changes in your body and you vocal intonation as you play those different points of view. See what works, what seems fun, what seems to make the story richer.

And if you want help with any of that, send MUSE an email and we'll do it together!