The two-day, 15-hour workshop will cover:

- Linklater warm-up embodied experience of phonetics, influenced by Kristin Linklater’s Sound & Movement

- Exploring the “intrinsic pitches” of vowels

- Physical, phonetic pillow explorations of The Resonating Ladder and Kristin Linklater’s “Zoo Woe Shaw”

- Setting up the studio as a Consonant Mouth Full body phonetic “transcription”

- The One-Vowel Monologue as presented at VASTA conference 

- Accessing a remembered voice from a formative time

- Accent acquisition as a character-driven vocal transformation, employing aspects of Verbatim Theatre

The Colaianni Speech Progression combines the teachings and exercises of Kristin Linklater and W.A. Aikin; with the added influences of Eurythmy, Kabbalah and Montessori. Some of the exercises are adapted from Linklater’s voice-freeing exercises (See Freeing the Natural Voice, Drama Publishers second edition, 2006) and W. A. Aikin’s vowel work, which strongly influenced Kristin Linklater (see Aikin’s The Voice, Longmans, Green and Company, 1910). The exercises include whispering vowels, sighing vowels on sound, innovative application of a wide array of vowels to Linklater’s voice exercises, and a kinetic embodiment of vowels and consonants inspired by Linklater’s Sound & Movement progression.

"Louis Colaianni's ... underlying philosophy is the same as that which permeates Freeing The Natural Voice ... so, one need no longer divide voicing from speaking." -Kristin Linklater

The Workshop fee is $400. Venmo is the preferred payment method, pay to: @Louis-Colaianni

Bring a well memorized text in order to check in with yourself between exercises. Wear comfortable clothing that’s easy to move in. Let's make this a workshop of new beginnings, imaginative possibilities and rich collaboration. Hope to see you there. 

All exercises are designed to launch into language, including words in both isolated and connected speech, sound substations for accents and dialects, dramatic literature, improvised language, and poetry. Any questions or concerns? Please call: (816) 419-6915 Or email: LouisColaianni@gmail.com

Louis Colaianni is a Visiting Associate Professor, at the David Geffen School of Drama, Yale University. Has also taught at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Vassar College, Dartmouth College, The Actors Studio at Pace University, Columbia University, The Eugene O’Neill Center, Trinity Repertory Theatre Conservatory, and Syracuse University. Voice, dialects and text coaching clients have included, Bill Murray, Will Ferrell, The Weeknd, Don Cheadle, Anna Gunn, America Ferrera, Maisie Williams, Marsha Mason. He has coached productions for Appletelevision, Netflix, HBO and Amazon Prime; was Voice and Text Director for three seasons at Oregon Shakespeare Festival; has also coached dozens of productions for regional theatres, Broadway, and Off-Broadway; has led workshops across the US and in England, Wales, Scotland, Finland, Germany, and Australia; taught many month-long intensives with Shakespeare & Company and trained one-on-one with Kristin Linklater to teach Sound & Movement and Designated Linklater Voice Teacher, 1987.