There are many challenges directors face but one that comes to the top of my mind is the issue of time. It takes time to cultivate a vision for the piece, time to guide each actor to compelling and clear storytelling, and time to incorporate the elements of design so that they feel integral and not incidental to the production. Actors, too, face the task of balancing responsibilities as practical as learning lines and memorizing blocking to the deeper creative work of inhabiting their character(s) with a sense of truth. We all know everything feels possible and open at the beginning of a process but as the performances near, it’s typical for everyone to add the task of managing their anxiety about the end product to their already long list of to-do’s.

A voice coach can work in between directors and actors, responding to the needs of both parties through physical and language-based solutions:

• Ex. The director lets the voice coach know that since they’ve moved into the performance space, it’s become difficult for a certain actor to be heard. The voice coach would have the time to work with the actors one-on-one to provide warm-up tools that can get them to place their sound in the space with ease and support. The director has been afforded more time to work with the sound designer who was sick earlier in the month and is playing catch-up on transition music. Bam. Done!

• Ex. The director lets the voice coach know that a scene they’ve been working on with two actors throughout the process just doesn’t fit with the rest of the play yet… it just doesn’t make sense why it’s there. The voice coach would have the time to get with the actors and ask them questions about the clarity of the piece, helping them identify what lines and words they can lift to help the audience understand the events of the scene more clearly. The director is able to go to a production meeting where they cozy up to the producers and convince them to add more money to the props budget so they can buy that landline phone that’s more true to the time of the piece… oh, the things directors and producers do for their actors.

• Ex. An actor requests early on in the process extra time to work through the long aria-like story monologue they have at the end of the play where their character has lost everything. They want to make sure they’re going to turn out a performance that’s believable and not pushing for feeling. The director is contending with a large ensemble that has plenty of movement sequences separate from the actor with the monologue. The voice coach would be able to split the room and work with the individual actor to find the images and emotional content of the words so that when the director is ready to rehearse the monologue with the actor, they can focus on making interpretive storytelling choices because the actor has had the opportunity to find the emotional through-line with the voice coach already. Maybe the director just gets some time to drink water and breathe. Wouldn’t that be beautiful?

The experience I offer as a voice coach comes from learning from teachers at the top of their game, acting in spaces ranging from Chicago apartment living rooms to Shakepeare’s Globe Theater in London, and coaching challenging texts like Silverman, Seneca, and Shakespeare.

During a production, I work with groups of actors to develop warm-ups that prepare them for the specific challenges of the play they are working on, create group exercises that help an ensemble to live in the same vocal world, and take specific, actionable notes about how they can dig deeper into the text and use their instruments with greater ease.

In addition, I make myself available for one-on-one coaching where I can help to support an actor’s individual vocal goals. Sometimes that looks like offering a healthy practice to an actor who needs to engage in vocal extremes, diving deep into the form of a monologue they haven’t cracked yet by expanding their awareness of the punctuation through physical exercises, or providing a theoretical perspective such as “you can communicate with sound and no speech, but you cannot communicate with speech and no sound.” (That one’s a Linklater concept and my oh my does it change the way an actor uses their voice!)