Barbara Houseman’s career as a voice and acting coach and theatre director spans nearly forty years. She trained as a voice teacher at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and as a theatre director at The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. She won an Arts Council director’s bursary and assisted Mike Alfreds before working professionally as a director and voice coach.
Since then she has worked extensively as a voice and text coach in the West End including shows including The Ferryman, Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time and Equus (The Gielgud); Kenneth Branagh Season (The Garrick); the All Female Trilogy, Trelawney of the Wells, Coriolanus, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, St Joan (The Donmar); Dr Faustus (Duke of Yorks); Macbeth and Richard III (Trafalgar Studios); Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Sweet Bird of Youth, Duchess of Malfi, Playboy of the Western World (The Old Vic).
She’s been resident voice and text coach at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park since 2009 and was Season Associate Director since 2012.
Individual clients include Jane Asher, Kenneth Branagh, Jessie Buckley, Omid Djalili, Dynamo, Richard Fairbrass, Jerry Hall, Lenny Henry, Nicholas Hoult, Karl Hyde, Patrick Kielty, Jude Law, Clive Owen, Daniel Radcliffe, Scarlett Strallen, Will Young.
Upcoming Short Courses


Tuesday 13th January 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
Voice and Presence in Teaching, Learning and Performance!

Barbara Houseman
Presence is so often talked about in relation to Performance. This course will build on participants’ current understanding of the importance of Presence in Performance and how to enable clients to access that reliably. It will also explore the Role of Presence in Voice Teaching and Learning and give simple tools for accessing Presence in these situations. These are tools that not only come from Barbara’s years of teaching and directing but also from her training in and practice of Mindfulness and SOLignment (Somatic Alignment) Breath and Embodiment Processes.
Past Short Courses

Tuesday 25th August 2020
10:00 AM - 3:00 PM
(London Time)
Working with Spoken Voice

Barbara Houseman
This workshop will be tailored to the needs & interests of the group. Areas that MAY be covered are: Mindfulness and it’s role in vocal training, Dealing with the inner critic, Working with text & song and Resonance