Linklater voice sessions at the Meisner Academie, The Netherlands

In March-April 2026, I was invited to teach Linklater voice sessions at the Meisner Academie in s'Hertogenbosh, The Netherlands, for a full day -six hours- in situ, and three online sessions of two hours each the following Saturdays.

A challenge for me as I wondered what exercises to share in these twelve hours: is it possible to introduce the actors to "enough" or "the right" material, so that they revisit it on their own, and hopefully grow from there? A challenge for the participants who are all working professionals, coaches, actors with different aims, abilities, training, knowledge and time to practice between and after the sessions. 

My framework for each session, whether in the city or online, was identical. We started with a welcome and check in, and then straight into speaking text individually or in pairs. After that, we warmed up using body, breath and voice exercises, and then took a moment to revisit the text spoken at the head of the class. To finish, we always had feedback to express what differences -if any- the actors noticed.

What does this voice work do to the voice? its expressivity, tone, clarity? to the body? Presence, fluidity, alignment? to the thinking/feeling/imaging of the text? Sense of ease, is it the body that speaks, not the head? …Lots of useful reflections were shared, an encouragement for all of us, I hope. The second part of the class was devoted to learning new material from the progression of the Linklater exercises, and I must say, we sped all the way to resonance in the chest, mouth and teeth, and some articulation exercises.

I left them with two sheets of exercises, two recordings of warmups, and I hope some exciting findings about voices, their own, and all the voices present in the room.

I hope to be able to talk to the participants in a few months, I would like to hear some feedback, for my own learning.