Daron Oram’s practice-based research and teaching focuses on the development of new approaches to speech, accent and dialect training for the actor.

In this seminar Daron will talk through the context of his research at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, identifying some of the ways in which traditional approaches to training can dysconsciously discriminate against students in terms of race, class, regionality, and internationality.

Daron’s innovative practice works towards an anti-oppressive training for actors that allows for equitable learning.

This emerging pedagogy mitigates the tension between the needs of diverse cohorts of acting students and industry expectations.

At the heart of this work is an approach to training listening that draws on verbatim/documentary theatre techniques and asks both the teacher and student to listen differently.

The end result is an approach to pedagogy that shifts the power dynamics of the acting studio and aligns with anti-racist and anti-discriminatory principles by decentring and/or decolonising traditional value systems.

Daron is a principal lecturer in voice and teaches on the BA Acting Collaborative and Devised Theatre Course and the MA/MFA Voice Studies: Teaching and Coaching course. Daron is in the process of developing innovative practice in teaching voice, whilst training and mentoring voice teachers, within Central, wider across the UK, and internationally.

Daron’s scholarship work focuses on the development of anti-oppressive approaches to actor training. He has developed a model of systematic review that places the student voice at the centre, using this model to investigate the experiences of acting students with specific learning differences, dyslexia, and dyspraxia. This work has led to a successful revision of teaching and learning strategies and the development of good practice principles.

Daron has also developed work to decentre listening in relation to race and class within speech, accents, and dialects training, as well as developing an innovative integrative practice of Linklater Voicework and Michael Chekhov Acting Technique.

Daron was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2019 and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He sits on the board of directors for the Voice and Speech Trainer’s Association, where he has oversight for mentoring and the Junior Board.