A projected voice is not the same as a loud one. On stage, the goal is to project words so that they reach across the stage without discomfort to the throat or loss of meaning. Too much volume in fact can lead to a tense neck, a loss of articulation, and the same sense of urgency for each line. To project effectively requires good breath support, an open tone, good diction, and a specific focus.
Before you begin working on a monologue or scene, take a moment to free your body of unnecessary tension. Stand with your feet hip-distance apart, with relaxed, loose knees, and release the shoulders. Put one hand under your lower ribs and take in a breath with no lifting of the shoulders, and while you exhale, make a sustained “sss” sound. Let it go as far as possible, but not as a goal. Pay attention to how the breath leaves; does it leave evenly or does it leave in a burst? An even release of breath gives your line a secure foundation for speech.
Once the body is relaxed, take a short sentence that you feel comfortable with and speak it with a specific point in focus. You might say, “I left the letter on the table” as you look out in the room, and let the words flow through your voice and breath toward your focus point. Do not throw the words up in the air, or try to force them out from the throat. Begin the line with the breath, keep your jaw relaxed, and finish the line properly by articulating the last consonants well. Say the line several times until you feel the voice coming out easily, and move further and further away from your focus point. The words will be more audible to the listener without having to be louder because you will be giving the audience a chance to hear the entire word. This can work more effectively than raising the volume.
Because speech that is not clear cannot be made understandable by shouting, practice slowing the sentence down until you hear the words. Be careful to give the consonant its full sound, while keeping it natural, not over-enunciated. Then bring it back to a natural speed, and keep the words as clear as they were in slow motion. If the sound of your words grows murky as the speed increases, slow down again. Remember that stage speech needs to be intelligible, but also should not sound like the actor is reciting the dictionary; the text still has rhythm and pace and stress and change in thought that must all be communicated.
Also, your eye line affects how the voice is projected, since looking down tends to pull the whole body and voice down. Choose a focus that is level with where your scene partner’s face would be. Keep the chest open and available, but don’t lift your chin. If you need to turn at some point, turn first and establish a focus before you speak your next important line of the play; otherwise, words get lost when you cross the stage or come in out of the wings.
Another good way to tell if you are projecting or just getting louder is to use the phone. Have the phone placed several steps away from you. Read the same short speech or two lines out loud three times: once as you would normally say it, once as if you were trying to get as loud as possible, and once using even breath, clear focus, good consonants, and emphasis. Listen to the results. Are the words clear? Is your voice in any danger of hurting? Is the meaning still being communicated? Often the result that you hear on the phone is not the result that you would describe as the “loudest.”
In a scene, the level of projection will change as the scene partner changes, and so you should not be thinking in terms of “I am going to project my line.” Your line may be a command, a confession, a question, or an invitation, and the words will not all have the same rhythm, pace, or volume. Determine the line’s action, what you want from the scene partner, and breathe before it, letting the emphasis fall where you are stressing the words you want to emphasize. When people can hear you at a distance while the neck, jaw, and shoulders are still free of tension, it means that you have improved your projection. As the voice goes all the way through the room but you have not lost the scene, you are in good projection.