I introduce and connect my students to experiences that can, at times, feel mystical. For  example, how does one give students who hope to be the next big theatre star or pop music  sensation training methods in stardom and star-like qualities? At the same time, not all my  students are interested in continuing their performance lives beyond college. Some students want  to be performers and some want to find ways into deeper, authentic connection. I use my own  performance practice as a laboratory space to experiment with methods that students can  understand and replicate in their own practice toward vocal and performance freedom. What are  the best routines and rituals that can make their communication and storytelling ensorcell an  audience? Teaching approaches that give them physical and tangible results have been integral  to that exploration. These methods give students something they can develop and repeat; it feels  real, useful, and illuminating to them. The somatic approach empowers the students with  outcomes that are consistent and allows them to see how to achieve their performance goals. I  encourage these students to lean into “being curious with child-like wonderment”. I ask them to  embrace what it means to be playful and what it means to “not know”. We investigate our work  through the pleasure of play.  

On the first day of class students bring preconceived notions about acting, performance,  and authentic communication. These existing judgements often work against them, creating  barriers to their finding new ways of seeing and practicing. At the beginning of each semester, I  bring 3 pieces of candy in for all the students to enjoy. They are guided through an experiment of  curiosity and awareness. They are directed to enjoy the first piece of candy, an experience with  which they are familiar. With the second piece, I ask them to enjoy the candy through a  heightened awareness of one of their senses (taste, touch, smell, etc). Some of the guided  questions I pose, “What do you notice, any new things to be aware of in this second piece?”. In  the 3rd round, I say “what if you didn’t know anything about this object, what if you have never  experienced this before, what would it be to not know?” The students then begin to investigate  the candy through a new awareness. They enjoy the playfulness that comes up in the  investigation.  

After this exercise they are asked to reflect on the activity. Without fail, the class reports  “questioning, slowing down, being aware of new sensations within themselves and new info  about the candy”. I ask them to lean into that type of questioning and awareness throughout the  semester. When they are feeling jammed up about an exercise or their voices and acting practice,  I say to them “try to welcome the 3rd piece of candy way of seeing”. This low-stakes and playful  way of asking them to slow down and question brings them back to a state of phenomenological  inquiry, which is useful in performing and exploring vulnerability on stage. I want the students  to be inspired by what they already know and how they can access creativity and audience  engagement through sensorial awareness and interplay.  

In my voice and speech classes we learn about the way breath and body can help students find a free and natural voice for communication. One of the goals of my classes is for all students  to explore and experience a free and resonant voice that can communicate with clarity and depth;  a voice that is connected to the fullness of the person and their thoughts and feelings. After  talking about the science of the voice, the steps of how the voice works, and breathing, I bring in 

a parachute for the students. Diaphragmatic breathing is a hard concept but necessary in free and  connected communication. We all stand in a circle and synchronize our rhythm of breath to the  flow of the parachute; this is the way each of our diaphragms move. Playing with the parachute  allows them to visualize the movement of the diaphragm in their own bodies, and allows them an  access point to start physically feeling how that movement impacts their breath. Students are  often excited, playful, at ease, and demonstrate more flow in their breath and voice after playing  with the parachute and synthesizing those movements with their breath and bodies. From that  space we speak a line of text or prompt. Students in this class often state that this parachute  activity “unlocked a new way of breathing”, they can replicate this physical ease and synthesize  those sensations with their thoughts and feelings as they communicate.  

Free and flowing breath becomes the pillar upon which they engage exercises in physical  ease and readiness, phonation, strengthening resonance, releasing jaw tension, relaxing the  tongue and other muscles of the larynx. Student will need all of this vocal facility and  musculature ease when they act, sing, and communicate; especially if they hope to be authentic  and creatively flexible in their performance craft. I want the students to find joy in being aware and curious. In every class we explore embodied experiences that create pathways to deeper connection to characters, song, text, expression, and communication.  

“We Learn through experiences and by experiencing no one teaches anyone anything. An actor can be present in time, intuition, activate the body to be alert, ready to play. In moments of  spontaneity cultural and psychological conditioning fall away; allowing for the actor to explore  the unknown” (Viola Spolin)