Performing Pain: Vocal Health in Emotional Roles!
Thursday 19th February 2026, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM (London Time)
Thursday 26th February 2026, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM (London Time)
What is the link between acted emotion and vocal health in speech and singing?
How connected are acted emotions to our real-life emotions? Are they expressed differently? Do they feel different in the body? The intensity of internalised emotion can be a worry for some performers. In real emotion, sympathetic arousal can increase cardiovascular circulation (the sensation of the heart racing), impact respiration (short, shallow breaths) and increase muscular activity as a preparation to flee, brace, or fight (which can cause pitch to rise, vocal folds to become pressed, and the jaw to become locked). What happens when we experience this while singing or speaking for performance? Are there times when performed emotion can start to present physiologically as real emotion?
This 2-part course looks at the potential impact of acted emotion on vocal health, why we should consider it as voice practitioners, and how to care for our performers needing to work with it.
Who is it for?
This course is for voice practitioners (speech or singing) who work with performers needing to use acted emotion. The focus will primarily surround negative emotion in the acting voice and the musical theatre voice.
Session 1: What happens in the body when we experience real and acted emotion?
We will explore the physiological responses to real life emotion and look at research that has compared this to acted emotion. We will discuss the boundaries between real and acted emotion and discuss how this plays out in our work.
Session 2: How to prepare for it
In the second session we will move to focusing on practical strategies for preparing for emotional work from a vocal health (rather than performative) perspective and how to care for the voice when heightened emotional performance causes difficulties.
🏷️ Price £50 (UK VAT inclusive)
🎥 Recording automatically sent to all who book (even if you cannot attend live)
▶️ Rewatch as many times as you like
📜 Certificate of attendance available
Louisa Morgan
Louisa Morgan is a lecturer, voice teacher and researcher, with a special focus on spoken and sung emotion. Louisa lectures with Voice Study Centre (spoken voice lead) and teaches Musical Theatre students on the MA/MFA course at the Guildford School of Acting (GSA).
Sorry, this is an archived short course...
We have plenty of upcoming short courses coming soon. See details of some of them below or look at the full list of short courses.
Monday 20th April 2026
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Tuesday 21st April 2026
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Wednesday 22nd April 2026
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Thursday 23rd April 2026
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
(London Time)
Certificate in Acting Approaches for Singing Teachers
Louisa Morgan
Are you a singing teacher looking to elevate your students’ performance? This 4-part course is perfect for those who want to help their singers connect deeply with the character and the story behind the song. Many singing teachers have lots of brilliant ideas about coaching vocal performance but often don’t have a background in acting. Learning more about acting techniques can build structure into your performance-focused lessons and add depth to the song. Gain practical tools and techniques that you can apply to your teaching.
Thursday 23rd April 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Friday 24th April 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
(London Time)
Singing and the Brain: A Harmonious Connection!
Dr Patricia Izbicki
Unlock the transformative power of music with our two-part lecture series that delves deep into the fascinating intersection of neuroscience, music education, and music therapy.
Thursday 23rd April 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
The Neuroscience of Speech and Song
Dr Michel Belyk
The Neuroscience of Speech and Song offers an engaging and accessible introduction to the fascinating interface between the brain and some of the things that we use it for. This course is designed to unravel the complex processes underlying how we speak and sing, using simple and accessible language. This course will start from basics and assume very little prior knowledge. We will cover the basic structure of the brain and how it works in general, then narrow in on specific processes that are relevant to speech and song.