The Responsive Voice: A dialogic approach to actor voice training
Tuesday 1st October 2024, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM (London Time)
This course will apply key insights from research on natural conversation to voice and dialect coaching for actors. Current actor voice training approaches the voice as the product of an individual speaker. The voice is seen as expressing inner truths and emotions, and there is a strong focus on learning lines and soliloquies. However, some voice coaches have called for ‘a genuine, dynamic, and spontaneous responsiveness as opposed to learning how to say lines without really listening or reacting to others’ (Gutekunst & Gillett 2014:4). This aligns with findings from research on natural talk. Here, it has been shown that the voice is a tool for dialogue rather than only for monologue.
The course will start by introducing the dialogic functions of the voice as it is used in real-life conversation. In natural talk, speakers vocally align with each other, for example, by mirroring each other’s pitch or speech tempo. Here, the voice - or ‘prosody’ - manages interaction with other people rather than revealing an emotional state. Aligning with others frequently leads to prosody that is different from prosody produced in isolation. These insights have not yet been applied to actor voice training, where they have the potential to transform dialogue coaching.
The course will give an overview of how recent voice training approaches teach voice/ prosody and will outline areas where the prosody of acting may differ from that of natural conversation. We will propose ways in which the prosody of natural talk can be meaningfully applied to the work of actors, acting students, and voice coaches, with many examples and exercises that students can take part in if they would like to.
🏷️ Price £30 (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
Beatrice Szczepek Reed
Beatrice Szczepek Reed is Professor of Linguistics at King’s College London, where she is the Co-Director of the Centre for Language, Discourse and Communication. Beatrice studies spoken language, particularly the phonetics and phonology of natural conversation.
Anne Whitaker
Anne Whitaker is a California transplant now based in London. Her work as a voice coach spans professional coaching and conservatoire training programs including The Royal Central School for Speech and Drama, Mountview, and The Globe.
Attend this course for as little as £22 as part of the Voice Professional Training CPD Award Scheme.
Learn MoreSorry, 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 12th January 2026
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Tuesday 13th January 2026
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Wednesday 14th January 2026
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Thursday 15th January 2026
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Tuesday 20th January 2026
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Wednesday 21st January 2026
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
(London Time)
Level One Certificate in Accents and Phonetics
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Are you a voice, acting, or singing coach looking to expand your expertise and add accents and phonetics to your teaching repertoire? This 6-session course covers essential topics such as articulatory, acoustic, and auditory phonetics, the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), and ethical approaches to accent and dialect coaching. By the end of this course, you'll be equipped with the knowledge and practical skills to start to bring phonetics and accent coaching into your coaching and provide more comprehensive support to your clients.
Monday 12th January 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
(London Time)
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How does the singing voice influence the speaking voice? How does the speaking voice influence the singing voice? When is there a disparate relationship between the two? Can they help each other? Can one harm the other? How can we use them positively in the voice studio. During this short course we will consider the voice as we sing and as we speak. The acquisition of language is a very interesting journey from birth through old age. We will broach the topics of “lexical” which refers to learning words, and “semantic” which is how we use words in the context of language.
Monday 12th January 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
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What exactly is meant when we label ourselves or someone we know a perfectionist? It is a good to be this way? Or are you setting yourself up for failure? Can a performance psychologist or a other performance-related practitioner help you if you’re a perfectionist? In this short course, you will learn how perfectionism is defined according to popular models in clinical psychology, and whether it is maladaptive or adaptive. You will also learn how perfectionism impacts on music performance anxiety, in addition to other areas of importance for performing musicians, like work-related stress and burnout, and procrastination with one’s practice.