Through engaging discussion, panelists will share how their love for performance and vocal artistry informs their clinical decisions, therapy approaches, and teaching philosophies. Topics will include the intersection of voice science and performance, navigating cultural attitudes toward “good” versus “authentic” voices, and how personal artistic experiences can create a more empathetic and innovative approach to voice therapy. This discussion will highlight the fluidity of voice across artistic and clinical spaces by questioning traditional definitions of a “good voice”, celebrating diverse vocal journeys, and how we can blend our profession and our passions to truly embrace the spirit of “Laissez Les Bons Voix Rouler”. This session fosters conversations about resilience, identity, and the evolving landscape of the professional voice and therapy.

Attend a multi discipline 60-minute presentation involving a mini paper presentation, followed by exercises I have been using, modifying and creating in order to ensure authentic sounds can absolutely be used in theatres. There will be time to explore the exercises, perform, as well as discuss and any Q and As.

I am a Designated Linklater Voice teacher and voice/dialect coach, and my collaborator Lindsay Torrey is a dancer, movement teacher and director. Along with other colleagues we have formed an informal teacher incubator of sorts over the years, upon finding ourselves at times teaching one-semester courses titled “voice and movement”. In terms of Lindsay and myself in direct partnership, we have also collaborated on two shows where we have respectively served as vocal coach and movement director, and we are currently working on a third show together.

In workshopping many ideas in our group, then bringing them into classrooms and adapting them, we have developed a cross-pollination that we have found to be especially interesting: The Linklater Voice exercises of “Voice Drawings” and “Voice Sculptures” combined with a movement-based exercise called the “Portrait Project”. Both the Linklater exercises and the Portrait Project exercises explore images of past, present, and ideal selves. The self in question could be that of the actor or that of a character. The Linklater exercises are working from the inside out, while the Portrait Project works from outside in. We have found that combining these two exercises in a one-semester undergraduate course can serve as a practical application of the voice and movement techniques with which students have been engaging, whereby they can bridge the principles they have learned into building a character and the world of the play.

In this one-hour experiential workshop, we will lead participants through truncated versions of the Voice Drawings/Sculptures exercises and the Portrait Project exercises, and then allow participants to apply the exercises to text.

This session will explore the relationship between acting and voice pedagogy, exploring the linguistic and acoustic result of approaches to text for performance and addressing the historically siloed approaches with actor training programs. The presenters will introduce an ongoing research project done in collaboration with linguists Dr. Sam Tilsen from Cornell University and Dr. Molly Babel from University of Alberta.

The first part of the workshop will outline the research project and its relevance to voice, speech, and acting training, including impetus, design, practical techniques, and preliminary findings. The second component will be a demonstration of the techniques used in the experiment, with participants having the opportunity to experience the methodology from both the audience and performance perspectives.

The workshop will conclude with a discussion of the presenter’s further research on the topic as well as time for a Q & A.

What if your voice coaching practice could live beyond institutional walls—without compromising your artistry, your integrity, or your joy? Many voice professionals in academia dream of doing more: growing a private practice, building an online offering, or working with clients in new industries. But the leap can feel daunting. How do we begin? And is it even allowed?

This 60-minute interactive workshop is designed to inspire voice coaches to explore the business side of their craft—through a lens of authenticity and storytelling. Drawing from my book The Voice Coach’s Toolkit (2023), I’ll share how I built a thriving coaching business serving actors, executives, and organizations—starting from a one-person word-of-mouth “speakeasy.” Together, we’ll explore practical frameworks to help each participant clarify their niche, own their unique voiceprint, and begin designing offers that resonate.

Participants will receive:
-“Business Voice Warm-Up” to activate confidence when talking about your work
– “Signature Offering Map” to help define what you uniquely provide
– “Coaching Brand Clarity” worksheet to guide next steps

Through discussion, storytelling, and guided reflection, attendees will walk away with a new sense of possibility and purpose. Whether you’re ready to launch something tomorrow or simply plant the seed, this session invites you to take one small, brave step toward building the coaching practice you’ve imagined. Let this be your personal permission slip—to expand, to evolve, and to shine.

“Hey Looky Looky!: A Workshop in Integrating Knight-Thompson Speechwork and Clown” will serve as an exploration into the ways in which the complementary pedagogies of red-nose clowning and Knight-Thompson Speechwork’s panlingual approach to language can be realized in an educational environment. This would be offered as an experiential workshop in which participants can choose to engage or observe the exercises. The work would begin with an introduction to the learning outcomes of both clowning and Knight-Thompson Speechwork, with some brief context for the ways in which I have found it useful in my work as an educator working with collegiate actors. I have been marrying these two techniques in some capacity for the last seven years of my teaching career. The more I do so, the more I continue to find ways in which actor resistances are lessened and expressive territories expanded. There is no requirement that workshop participants or student learners have experience in clown nor KTS; in many ways, a lack of expectations can yield the most exciting, vulnerable, and honest approach.

After an initial introduction and communication of the consensual boundaries of the work, participants will have the opportunity to engage in 2-3 exercises that integrate the work of KTS with clown. These exercises are adapted from traditional KTS and clown exercises but adjusted to meet additional learning outcomes. The work is applicable to a variety of contexts, including university classes, rehearsals, and coaching. Each exercise will be followed by a de-brief to discuss implementation in a classroom space, intended learning objectives, and obstacles/challenges of the work. Following the experiential learning portion of the workshop, there will be 10-15 minutes devoted to questions, comments, and suggestions. It is important to me that there is room for those with varied expertise and perspectives to offer their points of view on how to continue to grow the work.

As former Mormons, we would like to host a discussion about the influence of religion on vocal development. Maddie and I met at VASTA in Sonoma and quickly bonded as recovering Mormons. Our upbringing has a lot to say about using your voice for good and the consequences of lending your voice to ‘the bad’ in the world. We thought it might be interesting to see what influence — positive and negative — our deeply conservative religious background had on the development of our vocal instruments and our artistic voices. We then thought our conversation could extend to various religious backgrounds — we would make an effort to include global perspectives on religion and voice where possible. We’d like to share personal experiences related to voice — some traumatic and some highly positive — from our upbringing and our (former) global missionary work. We would present some anecdotal evidence based on interactions with former and current Mormon artists. We would discuss inspirations and limitations placed on us by our faith and discuss vocal/artistic development as it relates to leaving our faith behind. We will likely draw from Patsy Rodenberg’s ‘The Right to Speak’ as it addresses vocal influences in-depth.

In the context of the conference theme of ‘good voice’, the idea of the ‘free voice’ will be discussed in terms of voice work. The effect of different voice qualities will be explored, and the way that words themselves can affect reader, speaker or listener. The talk will include research and references from psychology, neuroscience, literature and poetry, and will suggest how as voice practitioners, we harness the benevolent power of voice and words in different ways. A workshop, linked to these themes, offers the opportunity for participants to explore some of the ideas in practice.

This presentation will encompass three main components. First, a personal recap of one coach’s recent production experience working in musical theatre; spanning three distinct production level types. Second, a critical reflection on discoveries of “what worked well” in each production that can be applied toward general best practices for coaches in similar situations. Third, a hypothetical exploration of “what if…” for future (idyllic) production applications and possible models of continued research on this topic using Practice as Research (PAR) methodology.

Within the coaching experiences to be reviewed, the shows in question will also be subdivided into three distinct production “levels” to allow for further scrutiny and reflection that may be beneficial for future applications. The shows and their respective production levels are as follows:
– OLIVER (Community Theatre)
– BEAUTIFUL…KING (Small “Professional” Regional Theatre)
– SWEENEY TODD (High School)

Within each specific production level, the presentation will share specific working examples from the show and repeatedly question (and attempt to answer) what may be considered “good enough” (i.e. believable, authentic, successful, etc.). This question will be addressed from the view of the coach and from a larger, overall production view.

The workshop will explore the deepening of self-awareness and how we can each rediscover our own authentic natural voice through the integration and comparison of sensory wake-up and grounding exercises from the Linklater progression, the Lessac body energizers – potency, buoyancy and radiancy, and a pranayama (breath exercise), kriya (series of themed movements) and mantra (meditative chant) from kundalini yoga. The work is driven by the belief that the mind, breath, body, spirit, and voice are inextricably linked. Thoughts and feelings, or in other words, the mind and spirit, inspire communicative exchange. The breath ignites the body. The body releases, supports and expands the voice. If you breathe, if you are present, and if you stay true, your voice will serve you well.

Moving your body to music can aide with the release of the voice. The music acts as a scene partner that works on your breathing center and wakes up your imagination and you become present and in the room. It allows for a more vibrant connection to text. In this workshop you will move to music from all over the world with other participants. You will ask the question, “Is moving to music different than dancing to music?” “Does your voice feel liberated after you are done moving?” “How do the diverse sounds, rhythms, instruments and voices effect your body, mind, and therefore voice? The theme asks are good voices beautiful? Joyful? Loud? Quiet? Deep? High? What does it mean to have a good voice? Ragged? Broken? Seasoned? Sweet? Full? Soft? Who gets to have a good voice? The music that will be used in this workshop will have all of these varieties of voices in the room. Participants will move to the voices and the rhythms and beats that go along with them. There will be a discussion after moving about the visceral and immediate reaction to particular music pieces that stop the body, makes the breath stop, or start and why? What are our personal biases when we hear music in another language and from a different culture or country? How can we use many voices and musical styles to help unpack our physical and vocal reactions and liberate the mind? How can this work helps us use our voices and tolerate other voices and celebrate all voices in performance? The kind of music we move to can effect the stories we tell and wake up the breath, body, mind and voice in a very powerful and engaging way. The proposal incorporates music that will capture the many ideas that we may think are good (or bad voices). Participants will be moving to performed music arranged by many identities from around the world -some marginalized, privileged, other languages and cultures will be a topic of discussion after we are done with the initial moving/breathing in community portion. We certainly will discuss cultural attitudes and how our mind, body, breath react when we are in a room of eclectic sound. Do we move to it, or move away from it? etc.

How can we create voice training spaces that celebrate all voices and adapt to diverse needs? This collaborative session invites voice and speech professionals to share case studies, experiences, and challenges in working with disabled and neurodivergent students, performers, and clients. Rather than focusing on ‘fixing’ voices, we will collectively explore practical strategies for adaptation, accessibility, and inclusive pedagogy.

This session will function as an interactive think tank where participants bring real-world scenarios and, through guided discussion, brainstorm solutions together. Attendees will:
• Share experiences where they adapted—or struggled to adapt—voice exercises for disabled and neurodivergent students, performers, and clients.
• Engage in collaborative problem-solving to generate creative, practical solutions.
• Identify common challenges and work towards developing adaptable teaching and coaching frameworks.
• Contribute to the early stages of creating VASTA disability guidelines and resources.
This session is a space for mutual learning and innovation, where no single approach is considered ‘ideal,’ but rather a diversity of solutions are explored. Our goal is to harness the collective expertise of the VASTA community to ensure all voices are heard, valued, and empowered.

Mexico and Latin America have always been characterized by a continuous improvement in dubbing for the Latin American audience. This evolution has occurred both through the development of acting skills in audiovisual media and through an understanding of the needs of the target audience. The aim is to achieve a more realistic performance and much more precise synchronization, so that the language change does not become a distraction. This will allow the viewer to enjoy the audiovisual content with an enhanced experience of the work in question, aspiring to a total comprehension of it. Within this evolution, we focus on improving the quality of performance and the expression of emotions, seeking the profile of an appropriate voice rather than merely its beauty; resulting in a more faithful interpretation of the project. This will be a presentation where I will address these contradictions inherent to the very evolution of voice dubbing and how new actors are prepared in classrooms as they embark on their artistic journey in this specialty.

Playing with punctuation for breath and inflection/intonation is something we learn but never actually are taught. What are these contracts that we have with our listeners? Let’s play with some, investigate some, and share some of our oral/aural experiences to have more tools for good storytelling.

Goal: to support student learning in the performance of rhetorically heightened material.
I am interested in creating a pilot structure to explore how this technology might be used to assist, motivate, and complement the work of student actors. Specifically, I have anecdotally observed that the ability of the AI voice cloning and synthesis tools to reveal rhetorically dense and/or long text is superior to 60% of my students, based on their first efforts. The machine has been fed and taught to analyze the waveforms of hundreds of hours of this spoken material. Many of our students have never been tasked with reading so much as the Gettysburg address out loud. I can’t compensate for the deficit of their secondary education. Nor can I stop the advancement of AI voice products in the marketplace. But perhaps I can use the machine to stay ahead of The Machine. If the technology can be used to speed up their perception of prosody in dense language and help them make more informed execution of the syntax spoken aloud, then they can spend more time on all the other acting exercises that need to be done.

Courtney Ferguson is one of the first voice coaching Interns at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival . Ursula Meyer has been hired as a primary coach. Ursula and Courtney will be working together on “The Merry Wives of Windsor” one of the outdoor productions in the 2025 season . How will this fadge? What can we learn from each other ? We are reporting from the field as to our process working with the actors, the space , the company . Courtney will be observing , assisting, and eventually leading warm-ups , accent sessions , note sessions, and having conversations with the other voice coaches about what it means to coach a Shakespeare production at OSF. Ursula will be mentoring her throughout. The presentation will be a short paper where we both present our perspectives on the journey – what worked and what we would change going forward. We will also reflect on ways to encourage more coaches to take on apprentices/ interns/ assistants so that knowledge, understanding , tips and tricks can be passed on and evolve with the next fabulous generation of voice coaches.

Hollywood is nuts – Casting directors expect actors to create fully rounded characters with perfectly authentic accents in a turnaround time of 48hours or less. Actors on the other hand, have a tendency to oversell their accent skills on resumes (because of course – you want all the jobs you can get!) and 90% of the time the people making casting decisions do not have an intimate knowledge of the accent required. Because of this the descriptions in character breakdowns can vary from “unplaceable European accent” to “1800s cockney accent”.

As a dialect coach I have to navigate between what the breakdown actually says and what makes sense for the character, the actor and the availble timeframe to come up with a solution that serves all parties.

60 minute version – I will bring 4 real character breakdowns from the ambiguous to the hyper precise. I will talk through the process on how to decide what sort of accent to focus on and then begin the search to find the perfect model. Breakdown 1 will use YouTube to find a model, Breakdown 2 will use a podcast, and Breakdown 3 will use TikTok. I will then give the participants scenario 4 and let them try to find the perfect model using any of the mediums and techniques shown, before coming back together and sharing what everyone found.

15 minute version – I use the same 4 character breakdowns but give a different one to each little group.

I am an an Albanian-American artist and educator. I will be analyzing the Gheg v. Tosk dialects in the Albanian language. I will be analyzing the dialects through several viewpoints 1) My personal experience with code switching between proper/standard Albanian and colloquial language 2) The frustrations of code switching and how it can impede authenticity 3) Studying the speech patterns of native Albanian Tosk speakers/residents between the ages of 50-85 years old (from the footage of a documentary I filmed in Albania), and 4) Honoring my late father’s efforts to preserve the formal Albanian while being surrounded by cultures who speak in “slang”. Through this research, I hope to compile ideas on how to connect to one’s native dialect and how to speak with the least amount of artifice and effort.

Is belting “bad” for your voice? What about yelling? Can the actor playing Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire yell for Stella in a “good” way? Could you belt out “When the Saints go Marching In” to be heard over the Bourbon Street partiers with the least amount of effort possible?

This interactive workshop will investigate these questions by exploring the embodied voice science of the high-intensity vocalism of belting. Those scientific principles will then be applied to the spoken expression of heightened moments of text. By combining the Calling within the Linklater Voice Progression with the Belt Quality from Estill Voice Training, you will have a step-by-step process for unleashing the power of your larynx in the healthiest way possible. “Laisse les voix saines rouler!” Let the healthy voices roll!

The workshop begins with solo exploration, focusing on humming and moving sound through the body. As we delve deeper, we explore the possibility of expanding resonance and, more specifically, directing the vibration. Can we choose to vibrate a specific part of our body? If I can send sound out through my back, can I direct it to my shins? Is it possible to focus the vibration into one shoulder blade?

This exploration leads into partner work. In this phase, we engage in hands-on connection to feel the vibrations of our partners. We listen closely to identify sound emanating from different areas of the body and experiment with simultaneous and alternating sounding. This allows us to experience the complexity of sound bubbles and harmonics that emerge during overlapping vibrations, as well as the physical sensations of our partner’s vibrations without interference from our own.

The final segment of the workshop invites participants to use familiar open sounds to create harmonics and shared resonance. This becomes the foundation for the group to craft a unique soundscape. The experience can last for an extended period and is always deeply satisfying, as each group’s creation is unique and ephemeral—there is no recording, only the shared memory of the moment.

This workshop seeks to give participants experiential understanding of how shifting speech actions within one’s own idiolect can influence other elements of acting. It offers ways in which work with speech can be part of the developmental process of crafting character and discovering intention and action – something that is more than a technical “fix” that may come late in the process for the sake of intelligibility. Participants will be asked to have a memorized monologue for this workshop, and Knight-Thompson Speechwork (KTS) Master Teachers Andrea Caban and Julie Foh will guide participants through a series of technical prompts for speaking that text. Participants will be given space and opportunity to notice how shifting the physical actions of their articulators—without necessarily shifting outside of their own accent—may shift their experience of character, given circumstances, tactic, relationship, and other elements of acting. Focus will be on the individual experience, rather than expected outcome. This workshop will also address ways in which a speech curriculum can exist without culminating in teaching a “standard” pronunciation pattern of the participant’s Acting Language. Instead, it reinforces the value of developing speech skills that contribute to the actor’s ability to make choices good for the character and the circumstances. Participant’s text can be in any language they feel comfortable acting in. No experience with Knight-Thompson Speechwork necessary. There will be time for discussion.

My presentation is an auto-ethnographical account of my circuitous educational journey from MFA professional actor to a Doctoral scholar in Theatre Arts Higher Education. The throughline of this message is to encourage more MFA practitioners to bring their professional expertise back to the formal university setting, to merge artistry with practical scholarship. My goal is to motivate future theatre academicians to broaden their research beyond the Ivory Tower of the traditional academe by blending stagecraft with scholastic accessibility. This workshop, followed by an open Q&A is designed to find the most effective methods to eviscerate academic gatekeeping and to actively replace antiquated social constructs with authentic inclusivity.

The performance and talk will explore ways we can further invest in the interdependent humanity of our world. The world needs what we do. It is non-negotiable; more than we may ever understand.

In my edited volume (Building Embodiment: Integrating Acting, Voice, and Movement to Illuminate Poetic Text), Peter Balkwill and I documented Robyn Hunt’s Soaring exercise for the first time: “Set to music, Soaring is a powerful exercise that aligns body and mind and increases the collective sensibility and strength of the ensemble. The activity also is meditative – it calms the mind/body and encourages a present-moment awareness of breath, ease, and stability. It strives for a collective alignment in the choreography and asks the artist to navigate their own imbalances and distractions, offering an opportunity to value process over product and accept imperfections.”

Over the last fifteen years, I have taught this exercise to a wide range of students and artists, and its power and impact have been notable. Participants respond to how the slow tempo invokes feelings of ease and connection, and are surprised by how quickly the work yields such positive benefits. Regular practice of it can be comforting, and former students and actors often request it when we work together again.

The workshop will begin with a quick experiment in shifting our attention to our ki, or life-force energy, centering our focus and breath inside the pelvic girdle. We will also work on moving with ease and allowing the weight of the undersides of the body release downward, creating stability. We will take a moment to connect with the group through breath. After this, I will teach the series of 7 movements, explaining how they relate to the music we will use. During the exercise, each participant will focus first on themselves, then on their there will be time to share responses, clarify details, and try the exercise again.

If there is an opportunity, I would love to be able to lead this workshop on the first day of the conference and then have one 15-minute block each day to repeat it, so that participants can feel the cumulative effect of the work over several days.

Given these contradictory realities, what must we do to act as responsible stewards of the cultural and linguistic traditions we are teaching while simultaneously serving the needs of actors, productions, and audiences?

Ultimately, whether Australian English is really just “drunk Cockney” or not, actors and coaches know that great accent work must forge connections between specific accent features and the body, between the accent and the character. Are these connections “true,” or are they a convenience for the performer? This talk will address these questions with insights drawn from recent (“Third Wave”) sociolinguistics—touching on creaky voice, “gay voice,” and the California Vowel Shift—as well as from my experience designing and coaching accents for movies

Community colleges and similar institutions offer accessible training in a great number of fields, but can be challenging environments in which to help students explore free creative expression. How do we teach voice in these spaces without being prescriptive or succumbing to the product-focused goals of our institutions? How can we encourage students who have little time and few resources to value, cultivate and USE their authentic voices in a climate that tells them their worth is tied solely to their earning potential? And how do we better advocate for our classes being given the time, respect and breathing space they deserve?

Many professionals come to voice and speech training with deeply ingrained notions of what makes a good voice – clear, neutral, authoritative—and what makes a bad one—accented, too high, too soft, too….. ‘something’. These judgments, often shaped by cultural bias and industry expectations, create barriers to authentic, confident communication.

In my practice, I work with professionals to explore, embody, use, and celebrate what having a good voice truly means; not as rigid standards, but as tools for effective and dynamic communication. This session explores how shifting from a mindset of good vs. bad to one of open and effective transforms not only how professionals speak but also how they perceive their own voices.

My approach integrates linguistic research, active learning pedagogy, and my training as a Knight-Thompson Certified Teacher with my experience coaching speakers in professional and creative pursuits. These diverse perspectives allow me to provide both technical tools for enhanced speech clarity and deeper strategies for reshaping the relationship individuals have with their voices. Whether through accent exploration, speech pattern flexibility, or public speaking techniques, my work empowers professionals to communicate with confidence and adaptability.

Through case studies, interactive discussion, and applied exercises, I will examine how embracing flexibility in speech leads to stronger, more resonant communication. As we let the good voices roll, we redefine what good truly means: not an arbitrary standard of correctness, but the ability to connect, lead, and be heard in an authentic and powerful way.

Transformational Karaoke is an interactive, high-energy workshop designed to break through barriers that cause us to silence suppress, or second-guess the power of our own voices. This workshop invites participants into a space of vocal liberation, self-expression, and confidence—using the joy of karaoke.

I will begin by sharing my personal story of voice silencing—how fear, self-doubt, and societal conditioning once kept me from fully owning my sound. Karaoke became an unexpected yet powerful tool in my journey back to vocal freedom. To set the tone, I will perform the first song, modeling the power of stepping into one’s voice without hesitation.

Participants will then receive a guided prompt to help them choose a song that speaks to their personal journey. When they take the stage, they will first share their chosen prompt response, then step into their moment of vocal empowerment. The audience will be encouraged to actively witness, support, and reflect on each performance—transforming this from a simple karaoke session into a communal act of storytelling, healing, and celebration.

Following each performance, the room will engage in a brief reflection, allowing participants to share what they discovered or received from the moment. We will close with a collective group song—uniting all voices in a final, powerful release.

This workshop is not about vocal perfection—it’s about stepping into your full expression with courage, joy, and authenticity. Whether someone has years of training or has never sung in front of an audience, every voice is welcome here.

In this session, we ask, how can voice and speech pedagogy create spaces in our bodies and voices to (re)encounter our ancestors?

Historically, colonial power intentionally sought to use education to sever ties with elders, cultural communities, and family. This is often enforced through creating standards of the body and the voice that folks are rewarded for complying with or punished for resisting. We will explore and critique the notion of ‘the good’ as a colonial expectation: one that is hyper-individual and conforms to Audre Lorde’s idea of the Mythic Norm or Pierre Bourdieu’s idea of Nomos. When students from historically oppressed backgrounds aim for ‘good’ they are often distancing themselves further from their ancestral rituals, embodiments, and sounds to succeed in hegemonic spaces.
We will argue that there is something more insidious than these standards: a colonial epistemology that centers the individual as a completely separate entity from others and invalidates any understanding that honors the living connections between us and our ancestors; in other words, they speak and move through our bodies. We posit that a holistically decolonial imagining of the body destabilizes the idea of individual separatism, blurring the line between self and our communities, both living and ancestral.

We will reflect on the ways our training and performance experiences have either further severed our ancestral connections within our bodies and voices or have encouraged these connections to flourish. Ginther will focus on her work with Roy Hart practitioners, Rena Cook’s Voice House exercise, and Acting and Singing with Archetypes with Janet B. Rodgers and Frankie Armstrong. Trujillo will look at her work adapting and expanding Kristin’s Linklater vowel tree exercise, and the ways she applies Gloria Anzaldúa’s concept of Nepantla (a Nahuatl word meaning in-between) to transform training and performance practices and processes. We will guide participants through a series of exercises that reflect our praxis, inviting them to rethink, reflect, and re-embody their ancestral voices.