Free Your Voice

What do give the Man who has given you the Best of himself and then some?! You give him your time, presence, energy, and gratitude.

Hanging out with my beloved Mentor, David Smukler last summer in Toronto. To express all I’ve received from David, as an artist, a teacher, a coach and as a Man would take a life time and perhaps an entire book.

He’s my template and constant source of inspiration..his work, practice and presence accompanies me in every studio and teaching space I walk into.

The exercises I gleaned from him over the years through his own unique expression of Linklater Voice work never fail..they always deliver results for me, my clients and my students.

He is the embodiment of a Master Teacher. David Smukler touched and changed so many lives in his 30 plus year academic teaching career in numerous countries and several continents that the international community had to hold three separate retirement parties and celebrations for him. Messages, missives and well wishes poured in from all over the globe.

When you speak to David feel you are the only person in the world. When I picked up the phone to call he was and is always attentive, always compassionate, sometimes chiding, playfully irreverent, but always emboldening and nourishing in ways you didn’t even know you needed.

I realized at all those different so called “retirement parties” he was that person for hundreds of people all over the world.

A true Sage. 🎴

My love, respect, admiration and appreciation for him can’t be fully expressed in words. I do my best to honour him by how I live my life; offer my teaching, express my art, and surrender to my callings.

I seek to emulate the spirit of servant leadership he so thoroughly embodied with wisdom and the humility of a beginners mind. To step forward with the strength of conviction with which he stepped into his vocation and courageously carry on.

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When the House music drops I dare you not do dance..💃🏽✨🕺🏾

Was in NYC for an Accent & Dialect Workshop with the brilliant Beth Macquire author of “African Accents” & Professor Emeritus at Yale Drama School alongside the equally brilliant and delightful Jane Guyer Fujita Professor at NYU TISCH School of Drama. Day 2 of the workshop coincided with NYC Marathon..and a Old School House Street Party Gospel Style💃🏽✨🕺🏾

The conversations that took place before these photos were epic..what took place after this moment was epic..the love itself Epic…and so for 22 years now we journey on until as they say the proverbial “wheels fall off” or we sprout wings and do it all again next life time..🌌

Happy Anniversary Beloved🌅

Rounding Out week 3…I’m Missing these bright lights in the building..✨

Make no mistake these young people came into the program as fully formed artists by that I mean they had the desire and capacity, to bare and share the truth of the human experience and the courage to pay the price…that you can’t teach.

I have such vivid memories of each one of them…we entered the program together in 2019 and my first experience of them as Freshmen was their “theatrical handshake monologue…”

Barbara Mackenzie-Wood and Don Wadsworth led their warm up that year…and I recall the moment they got on their feet the room exploded with focus and attention..they were so present it was electric..and they hadn’t even started to move…wow I thought to myself so this Carnegie Mellon School of Drama!!

What I got to witness over the next 4 years was a honing of that which they already possessed.

As Barbara was away on leave that year I taught them text Analysis for actors…
For that class the Actors and MT’s were in separate classes I often marveled at and commented on how different each room was…and relished the opportunity to play.

None of us could predict what would happen next as they began their sophomore year on line…{Zoom School} with my brilliant colleague Lisa Velten Smith and I both teaching Sophomore Voice Practicum II

By junior year we were back in person and we spent a lot of time together with me teaching Voice for the Stage III and the newly introduced Actor as Artist course.

I also had the honour and privilege of Directing a number of them in Dominique Morisseau’s
“Blood at the Root”

Coming out the Pandemic we were not only sharing space together for the first time in months we were afforded the opportunity to co-create together and what followed was an experience I’ll always treasure.

For those who weren’t studying abroad we had one more studio class together in their Senior year and later I witnessed them take all they had learned; brought to bear in some beautiful productions with some stunning performances.

They Are ALL Out in the world now The Class of 2023!! and I/ We couldn’t be prouder of all they have weathered and accomplished.

I have every confidence

Photo credit..:

Hard to believe I’m Heading into my 5th Year of Teaching
Carnegie Mellon’s School of Drama..🎭

It’s true what Kristin Linklater said our students are our best teachers.
This year I have the privilege of..:

Teaching..:

Sophomores: Voice Practicum
Juniors: Voice for the Stage
Juniors: Actor as Artist
Seniors: Advanced Voice

Directing..:

Graduating Senior Acting Class of 2024 In PASSAGE by Christopher Chen!

Working with gifted early career dramaturge, media, set, costume, lighting and sound designers, with a Cracker Jack Stage Management team! 💫

Rehearsals: January 16-February 19
Tech: February 20-February 28
Performances: February 29-March 16

Anyone in Canada fancy a road trip to Pittsburgh to see PASSAGE let me know?

I’m Just Next Door, Next State, across the border or across the sea…let’s see…what we can get up to and Create Something!! 🌐



Photo credit..:

♦️..And We’re Open..♦️
The Amen Corner is about many things but Ultimately it’s about Love..Black Love in all it’s broken, bitter beautiful, tragic, desperate, jubilant, triumphant, transcendent , and Divine forms..
a Love when shared On & Off the stage is Ultimately Universal.

Amen and Amen!!
☝🏾✨🤲🏾✨🙏🏿

With Stunning and Achingly Beautiful Performances by an international cast of Actors it’s an experience not to be missed.

Serving as the Voice & Dialect coach on this extraordinary production was a true Gift.

The Amen Corner by James Baldwin

Directed by Kimberely Rampersad
Musical Direction by Jeremiah Sparks
Set Design by Anahita Debonehie
Costume Design by Nadine Grant
Lighting Design by Michael Kangas

Stage management by Leigh McClymont
Assistant stage management by Sang-Sang Lee and Jane Vanstone Osborn
Assistant set design by Yiming Liu
Assistant costume design by Emily Dotson
Assistant lighting design by Emilie Trimbee

https://www.shawfest.com/playbill/the-amen-corner/

♦️..And We’re Open..♦️
The Amen Corner is about many things but Ultimately it’s about Love..Black Love in all it’s broken, bitter beautiful, tragic, desperate, jubilant, triumphant, transcendent , and Divine forms..
a Love when shared On & Off the stage is Ultimately Universal.

Amen and Amen!!
☝🏾✨🤲🏾✨🙏🏿

With Stunning and Achingly Beautiful Performances by an international cast of Actors it’s an experience not to be missed.

Serving as the Voice & Dialect coach on this extraordinary production was a true Gift.

The Amen Corner by James Baldwin

Directed by Kimberely Rampersad
Musical Direction by Jeremiah Sparks
Set Design by Anahita Debonehie
Costume Design by Nadine Grant
Lighting Design by Michael Kangas

Stage management by Leigh McClymont
Assistant stage management by Sang-Sang Lee and Jane Vanstone Osborn
Assistant set design by Yiming Liu
Assistant costume design by Emily Dotson
Assistant lighting design by Emilie Trimbee

https://www.shawfest.com/playbill/the-amen-corner/

I read “Go Tell it On the Mountain” and “The Fire Next Time” while working overnight security guard shifts bundled up in my little white Chevette…in Ottawa Ontario..it was the dead of winter so it was cold cold but inside I was warmed by the veracity of a kind of truth telling I’d never encountered before…what was contained in those pages gave rise to next phase of my mental, emotional, political and spiritual awakening…Malcom had unleashed my rage but it was James Baldwin who now peeled back the layers and gave it pointed focus.

Who is James Baldwin…? only one the foremost literary voices of our times championing social justice and the evolution of consciousness with a mind and a pen honed to surgically Precision..if you don’t know yu betta “Aks Sumbody”!!

A poet, Essayist and novelist of immense power and persuasion..so when he tried his hand a Playwriting one had to take notice…” The Amen Corner” is Baldwin’s first published Foray into the form…typical of Baldwin it doesn’t pander or ask for approval…what it does do is grant you admission to a world you may think you know…

“The Amen Corner” is now making its Canadian debut at the Shaw Festival in Niagara on the Lake Ontario…it will be the first time an All Black Cast has graced the main Festival Theatre Stage.

Brilliantly helmed by Associate Artistic Director Kimberly Rampersad leading a world class design & management team & featuring a luminous cast of players from Canada and the United States.

I have the honour of serving as the voice and dialect coach on this production and the pleasure of witnessing this History in the Making…

In Previews now it opens on Saturday August 19th If you’re able to make it to Niagara on the Lake you’ll not wanna mis it…Amen!! Amen!! ☝🏾✨🤲🏾✨🙏🏿

https://www.shawfest.com/playbill/the-amen-corner/

The Amen Corner by James Baldwin

Directed by Kimberely Rampersad
Musical Direction by Jeremiah Sparks
Set Design by Anahita Debonehie
Costume Design by Nadine Grant
Lighting Design by Michael Kangas