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#challengeaccepted - rather than a selfie, here’

#challengeaccepted - rather than a selfie, here’s a fab book I read this week by @franceschawrites. A fab story about women, by a fab woman.

Shouting out to women whose creative work entertains, informs and inspires me 🖤
#womensupportingwomen

Earlier this month the voice community said farewe

Earlier this month the voice community said farewell to a leader in our field: my teacher, mentor and much-admired colleague Kristin Linklater. Kristin passed away at her home in Orkney having left a profound impact on voice teaching and actor training.
I came to know Kristin’s work while I was at uni, but I came to know Kristin when I had the opportunity to observe her work for a couple of semesters at Columbia University in New York. It was a master-and-apprentice style of training: I observed Kristin’s every class with the MFA Acting students, followed her around with notebook and pen, and wrote down everything she said.

Kristin was unimpressed by my youth – at 24, I was younger than most of the MFA Acting students – and she wanted me to defer any teacher-training until I was older. I challenged her with the fact she’d started teaching actors at LAMDA when she was 22, and that I wanted her methodology and practice to be the foundation of my teaching from the start. With a fire in my belly and a few heated discussions later (I remember her exclaiming “Ok you’ve made your point!”), I was accepted into the teacher-training program and was fortunate to spend a formative period of my life learning from her, first in New York and then in Orkney, Scotland.

Training with Kristin was rigorous, intense and utterly brilliant. She was fiercely selective about who she trained and her expectations of us were enormous. Kristin was known for her fiery spirit; she had an incredible way of making you feel overwhelmingly safe and unbelievably scared at the same time.
Over the years our relationship changed. From teacher-student, we became colleagues at work in the field of voice and speech. We talked about the state of the arts and theatre in Australia, what was going on in Australian drama schools, and the future of voice training here. She was incredibly supportive of the VASTA Annual Conference I was Co-Directing that was due to held in Sydney next month.
I’m honoured to have been her student, her colleague and her peer, and I only hope I can do her work justice as one of the community of Designated Linklater Teachers.

Farewell Kristin 🌷

Instagram post 18054994471240089

Instagram post 18054994471240089

What most days look like these days - teaching 80+

What most days look like these days - teaching 80+ students every week from in front of a laptop, instead of jumping between studios and rehearsal rooms. Zoom fatigue is real and so is vocal fatigue from teaching online. A *huge* number of people have been experiencing vocal fatigue and asking why it’s happening and how to prevent it. It’s confusing - you’re sitting at home, there’s no background noise, so why on earth does your voice feel tired and strained at the end of the day?! The @theaustralianvoiceassociation has re-published my article “How to use your voice when teaching online” as part of their Covid-related resources, exploring why vocal fatigue is happening and how to avoid it. Link in bio 🔗 📷 @miaderauch

The best colleagues in the world - our cohort of D

The best colleagues in the world - our cohort of Designated Linklater Teachers from 2014! Catching up and helping each other navigate teaching voice classes online. There’s no way I’d rather spend the Easter long weekend right now than troubleshooting, brainstorming and evolving with this bunch.
Kudos to all the teachers out there rewriting curriculums and modifying course delivery to make online classes work for students across the globe. 🙌🏻🙌🏻 @linklatervoiceorkney @profrobinjo @tomwellsvoice @instamattic212 @justagirl.andherbassethound

I loved working with Laura Carmichael on this shoo

I loved working with Laura Carmichael on this shoot last year and am so thrilled #TheSecretsSheKeeps has now dropped on @channel10au! Add this to your quarantine watch list. Australian made, based on the book by @michaelrobotham.
As you watch, spare a thought for all the cast and crew, production staff and creative teams who have now lost work for the foreseeable future to prioritise public health at this time. It’s thanks to them that we have something to watch while we’re all #athome.