Experience

Since 2008, I have worked professionally as a Voice, Dialect, and Text Coach for dozens of theater projects, as well as some other media projects. I have worked with well-known film actors, as well as with actors just beginning their careers.

Accents Coached (not limited to):

Afrikaans, Alabama, Albanian, American (So-Called General), Arabic (various), Australian, Baltimore, Belarus, Brooklyn, Bronx, Buckinghamshire, Cantonese, Cockney, Czech, Danish, Donegal (Ireland), Dublin, Dutch, Edinburgh, Estuary English, French, Cincinnati, Georgia (U.S.), German, Hampshire, Hebrew, Hindi, Hong Kong, Ipswich (UK), Italian, Jamaican, Japanese, Kentucky, Manchester (UK), Mandarin, Maryland, Mexican, Mid-Atlantic, Minnesota, Mississippi, Multicultural London English, New Orleans (various), North Carolina, Oklahoma, Lancashire, Laramie (WY), Liverpool, Long Island, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Puerto Rico, Received Pronunciation (Standard British), Queens (NYC), Romanian, Russian, Senegalese, Shona, Singlish, Somali, South Boston, South Carolina, Spain, Staten Island, Sudanese, Swahili, Swedish, Tennessee, Texas, Ukraine, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh, Wiltshire, Xhosa, Yiddish, Yorkshire, Zaghawa.

I am a CT & NYC-based voice and dialect coach. I hold an MFA in Voice and Speech from the American Repertory Theater’s Institute for Advanced Theatre Training. With over fifteen years of professional experience, I have coached productions for Marvel, Sony, Tectonic Theater Project, BEDLAM, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre Center, Yale Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Westport Country Playhouse, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Cleveland Play House, NY Stage & Film, Second Stage, A.R.T., The Shakepeare Theatre of New Jersey, American Players Theatre, and others. I have worked with artists such as Moises Kaufman, Jo Bonney, Bill Rauch, Daniel Beaty, Thomas Kail, Terry Kinney, Moritz von Stuelpnagel, Peter DuBois, Bekah Brunstetter, Nico Tortorella, Alexa Junge, and Leslie Bibb. My work with private clients can be heard on Broadway, Hulu, Netflix, Peacock, network TV, and other streaming platforms. I have taught at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, UConn, Penn State, Rutgers, A.R.T., Harvard University, the Moscow Art Theatre School, Webster University, the National Theater Institute, University of the Arts Helsinki, The Shakespeare Theatre of NJ, and the Shakespeare Academy @ Stratford. I also hold a BA in Theater Studies from Duke University and am an Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework® and a Master Teacher of Knight-Thompson Speechwork. I am co-author of Experiencing Speech: A Skills-Based, Panlingual Approach to Actor Training with Andrea Caban and Jeffrey Parker.

Background

I first encountered voice work as an undergraduate theater major at Duke University in North Carolina. I was interested in acting, directing, and playwriting, and work on the voice seemed to me to be a nexus of these different aspects of theater-making. As an actor, I could focus on my breath and how I was using my voice to help keep me present and spontaneous. As a director, I could work with actors on those things, as well. As a playwright, I could focus on how characters were using language to help craft moments. And so I took all of the voice classes my program offered: two Linklater-based classes taught by Christine Morris and a Roy Hart-based class taught by Rafael Lopez-Barrantes.

I first encountered Fitzmaurice Voicework (FV) as a graduate student in Voice Pedagogy at the American Repertory Theater Institute at Harvard University (ART). I was drawn to it because of its foundation in anatomy and in physical action. Even its approach to muscular release was active - an exploration of the shiver reflex in order to literally shake tension out of the muscles. I studied with two Master Teachers of FV at ART - Nancy Houfek and Jeff Morrison. After obtaining my MFA in Voice Pedagogy, I was part of the eighth FV Teacher Certification, studying with Catherine Fitzmaurice, Saul Kotzubei, Cynthia Bassham, Micha Espinosa, Ilse Pfeifer, Andrew Belser, Dudley Knight, and Phil Thompson. I have been certified as an Associate Teacher of FV since 2010.

I first encountered Knight-Thompson Speechwork (KTS) also during my graduate studies at ART. Near the end of my first year of graduate school, Nancy Houfek recommended I take a speech workshop with two other Master Teachers of FV: Dudley Knight and Phil Thompson. I took a workshop called Experiencing Speech with them in NYC, and I was drawn to their approach because of its foundation in anatomy and physical action and because of its descriptive nature. It was a way to craft speech curriculum without teaching a standard pronunciation pattern. When Dudley and Phil offered their first KTS Teacher Certification, I was part of the cohort. I have been a Certified KTS Teacher since 2012, and, in 2021, I was certified as a Master Teacher of KTS. Also in 2021, I co-authored a book titled Experiencing Speech: A Skills-Based, Panlingual Approach to Actor Training with fellow Certified KTS Teachers Andrea Caban and Jeffrey Parker.