NEWS, LINKS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

MFA - Teacher Training Course

There is a new MFA in Linklater Teaching Practice (Voice & Theatre Arts) at Rose Bruford College in London. The concept for the course was created by Kristin Linklater and it is the only MFA course in the world where students graduate with both a Master of Fine Arts degree and Designation as a Linklater Voice Teacher. As well as a full and practical training in Linklater Voice, the other major modules of the course include Applied Theatre, Trish Arnold’s Pure Movement, and Chekhov Acting. Disclaimer: At Ms Linklater’s request, I teach the Accent and Dialect component of the course.

Click here to access the programmes’ website.

“The Voice Coaches Toolkit”

Ben, along with a number of other coaches from across the world, was interviewed by Pamela Prather for her book, “The Voice Coaches Toolkit”, part of the Routledge Toolkit series of books and ebooks for professionals working in the theatre arts. A link to the book can be found here. Ben’s interview is in the online edition.

News/Interviews

Ben coached A Lesson From Aloes at Hartford Stage in April/May 2018, directed by Darko Tresnjak. The production had rave reviews with Terry Teachout in The Wall St Journal calling it "one of the finest revivals of an Athol Fugard play that I’ve had the good luck to see" and praised the "meticulously coached South African accents."

There was an interview with Ben in the production Playbill.  Read it here.

 Book suggestions

To be honest, I personally find it hard to learn voice or accent work from a book. Having said that, I have found the following books helpful both for me and others. They are available from theatre bookshops and online.

Voice for Actors

Freeing the Natural Voice by Kristin Linkater.

The Actor Speaks by Patsy Rodenburg. Ms Rodenburg’s book The Right to Speak is, in my opinion, a good introductory book for those coming to voice for the first time.

Voice and the Actor by Cicely Berry.

If you’re a Musical Theatre actor, I suggest you go for one of the books above. I’ve not found a book I can recommend that specializes in speaking voice for Musical Theatre.

Accent and Dialect

There are a number of accent/dialect learning books out there which, in my opinion, are varied in their efficacy and tend to be either British or American centred in terms of sounds. In the past, I have suggested the following book to actors who want to do accent work for themselves before working with a coach; How To Do Accents by Edda Sharpe and Jan Haydn-Rowles. It is available at theatre bookshops or online.

Accent Dialect sound resources

The only resource I recommend for learning specific accents for actors is the series of CD’s or downloads created by Gillian Lane-Plescia. They are hard to find at the moment but can sometimes be found at theatre bookshops or on ebay.