The Wolf in the Voice

This intimate piece unveils the connection between music and emotion through personal stories, songs and staging as we examine the intricate dynamics of the human voice. The Wolf in the Voice explores the human experience through the ‘vocal break’ – that fragile, vulnerable, and dangerous spot in a singer’s range that is normally deeply hidden yet also reveals how all people must negotiate fear and doubt as they seek to express themselves. 

A singing voice breaks. Is it the sound of a soprano reaching for the top of their range? A voice growing older? A boy becoming a man? A singer risking too much, or holding back in fear…. That’s The Wolf in the Voice.

In The Wolf in the Voice performers Neema, Jane and Taurian negotiate entertaining but hugely demanding arrangements of music from Bellini arias to a wild jazz arrangement of a Gilbert & Sullivan classic; from a Renaissance madrigal to a not-to-be-missed new version of ‘Bat out of Hell’…with Dave Brubeck’s ‘Blue Rondo’ and the gorgeous musical theatre gem ‘Believe in Yourself’ added to the mix. As they navigate this challenging repertoire, they invite us inside the science of the voice and add their own hilarious and moving stories of vocal emergencies to take us deep into the wolf at the heart of all of our voices.

Nightswimming was thrilled to partner with Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre to bring The Wolf in the Voice to the stage in 2025. A huge thank you to everyone at the Tarragon for your fabulous contributions to this project!

Read more about the production here, and you can access the audience resource guide for the show here – it contains lots of excellent background information on the science of the voice, singing, and how singing is deeply connected to our sense of our selves.

The Wolf in the Voice is an experimental theatre/performance piece, devised with three singer/actors. The term “wolf in the voice” was discovered by Brian (in an Icelandic crime novel!) as a description for that vocal ‘break’ between chest voice and head voice, most notable in men, but existing in all vocal instruments. This infamous, mysterious, and contested ‘middle voice’ is an in-between territory, a place of vulnerability and transition. A group of three is the smallest possible ensemble, a vulnerable assemblage of individuals prone to constant social transition and negotiation, a constantly jockeying, an in-between territory. That is the territory of the ‘wolf’.

Martin Julien

Dramaturgy and process

Inspired by our work together on Blue Note, Martin and Brian set out to explore two pathways: first, the nuances of how a trio of singers works together by negotiating the complicated and at times vulnerable push/pull of how three people collaborate; second, the vocal break that so often reminds us of the fragility of the human voice, as in adolescence when the voice ‘changes’, even for altos or sopranos. 

How do singers make those extraordinary sounds…and at what cost? With Wolf, we’re seeking ways inside the human voice and its vulnerabilities, and in doing so asking us all to think about the fragile parts of our lives and loves.

Created during a series of in-studio creation sessions and public presentations, our process mined scientific research about the voice, the physical mechanics of singing, and stories about the relationship of singing to fear and doubt. The Wolf in the Voice has also explored a wide range of repertoire as Martin, Brian and collaborators sought ways to invite audiences into the hidden world of singers’ anxieties, and invite audiences to consider their own vulnerable places.

Our studio sessions always including asking the performers to bring in several pieces of music that they were comfortable teaching to the other two singers. We would ask them to learn the song, in whatever way suited the artists and the song, and to then create a three-part arrangement that (if possible) placed the song in the vocal break of at least one of the singers. The goal with these tasks was for Martin and Brian to observe how the three singers navigated the challenges we asked of them: how would they teach the song, what devices did they use to develop the arrangement, how did they negotiate not only with one another but also with each other’s voices? Many of the songs and arrangements we ultimately included in the production were introduced to us by this process.

We also sought out various books, articles and online videos and resources about the physiology of singing (how the vocal folds function, for example), the parameters of the voice such as the three ranges (another trio!) of chest voice, head voice and between them the elusive middle voice within which lies every singer’s vocal break.

As we watched the singers absorb new music, and as we brought in books and research materials, we also shared personal stories – so many stories! – about singing, our voices, and how they sit in our lives. Some of these are shared directly by Neema, Jane and Taurian in the show. Some were mediated and compiled into other narrative forms during studio sessions that sought to make, for example, some individual stories into group pieces which combined body percussion and action.

With all of these approaches, we sought entertaining, accessible and rigorous ways to open up the mysteries of the voice to the audience; to share in a very immediate way the voices of our three performers with no mics and only an electric piano as support; to invite them to be vulnerable with their voices and with the stories they told about them; and to identify ways to invite the audiences’ voices gently into the room, should they wish to join.

The Wolf in the Voice received a work-in-progress presentation featuring Neema, Jane and Thom, with a public audience at the Redwood Theatre in Toronto in December 2019.

Nightswimming returned to The Wolf in the Voice after a long pandemic-induced hiatus, in a workshop at Factory Theatre in December 2021. During the workshop, the collaborators discussed how their relationships to music, singing, and their own voices had changed during the pandemic. The collaborators also watched an archival recording of the 2019 workshop production and imagined how The Wolf in the Voice might evolve in future iterations.

A subsequent two-week creation process in 2023 brought Taurian into the ensemble as Thom stepped out of a performance role while remaining a key collaborator. New arrangements shaped by Taurian’s voice plus exciting new material and music were showcased to artists and producers from several Toronto companies at the end of those two weeks leading to The Wolf in the Voice premiering at the Tarragon Theatre as part of its 2024/25 season.

One final creation session in late 2024 explored design elements, including a fantastic ‘floor piano’, a device that has been central to all of our explorations and now took on new life as designed by Rebecca Picherack. The floor piano was for many workshop sessions simply taped onto the floor; it enabled us to make the vocal ranges of the singers visible; when they stepped on a key, they would sing that note. As we played with this vocal ‘piano’, we saw the choreography of their bodies bring life to certain pieces of music, providing another entry way into the music. Rebecca’s version for the production lit up when the performers stepped on a key, integrating light and sound and storytelling in ways that were fun, spectacular, beautiful and always enhanced our understanding of the voice.

The creation/rehearsal process at Tarragon was joyful. So much singing as we finalized and refined arrangements of each song. We figured out how to use Rebecca’s floor piano, which was the central set element of the production. We tested the structure we discovered in the studio sessions. We always sought ways to carry the audience forward in a piece that doesn’t have a conventional narrative nor plot-line. We edited text, finessed details, and honed ways to centre Jane, Taurian and Neema at the heart of this piece, and invite the audience to join them as we all explored the wolf in voices.

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The Wolf in the Voice is part of a long-term commitment Nightswimming has made to exploring singing and the human voice. Our work on this piece has been inspired by and shaped by our discoveries creating Blue Note, Why We Are Here!, These Are The Songs That I Sing When I’m Sad, and Lake Nora Arms and will continue in our work on The Nest.

Collaborators

The Wolf in the Voice has benefited from the contributions of many artists during the creation process, especially Kate Hennig, Nathaniel Hanula-James and Gloria Mok, along with Micah Barnes, Leslie Haller, Emma Mackenzie Hillier, Jeff Ho, Megan Johnson, Leora Morris, Michael O’Hara, Myekah Payne, Imali Perera, Brittany Ryan, Rupal Shah, Rachel Steinberg and Jonathan Tan.

Plus… Mike Payette, Lisa Li, Gerry Egan, Jaxun Maron and the terrific production and marketing teams at Tarragon Theatre.

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