backstage
For the past few years, I’ve been learning about voice from Leigh Wilson Smiley, Director of the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies, at the University of Maryland. I thought if I was going to get into podcasting, I ought to know something about the craft of “voice.”
What’s happened since then is that, working with Leigh, I’ve developed a passion for reciting Shakespeare and poetry. It’s now become a fun hobby of mine. The Readings on this page are the current results of some of those efforts. I have learned that you can never get these exactly “right”, just how you’re feeling and interpreting the words at the time. I highly recommend that you give it a try.
You learn a lot from the process, and from the words of the great artists. Hope you enjoy them.
-Bill Walton
Length: 3 minutes
"Nephelidia"
Nephelidia by Algernon Charles Swinburne From the depth of the dreamy decline of the dawn through a notable nimbus of nebulous noonshine, ...
Length: 2 minutes
"Here’s Macbeth in Act I, Scene 7 trying to decide whether or not to kill King Duncan."
...
Length: minutes
"Sonnet 65 Reading by Bill Walton"
Bill reads Sonnet 65 by William Shakespeare ...
Length: 2.01 minutes
"The Windhover Reading by Bill Walton"
Bill reads The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins ...