Two-Day Short Course: Voice: Performing Poetry for an audience

Saturday 21 September and Saturday 28 September 2019, 10am – 4pm.

Birmingham & Midland Institute

This two-day workshop is designed for poets who find it challenging to speak their own texts in front of an audience.

The first aim of the work will be for you to understand better what is at stake physically and emotionally when you are in front of an audience. You will discuss what you find exciting when you hear poets speak and what happens to you when you speak your poems.

You will have a chance to practice speaking in a safe environment. You will learn how your voice works and how to use it in the context of a public reading.

You will learn how to connect to your text using imagery and how to stay connected to the audience while speaking.

You will gain more confidence and leave the workshop with some tools to help you to consolidate what you will have discovered that is helping you.

The workshop is intended for poets published or not, but you need to have some written work prepared. Come with a few of your poems you want to work with.

Biography: 

Françoise Walot is an actor, director and vocal coach. She trained as an actor in Belgium, and in America with Kristin Linklater the author of Freeing the Natural Voice. Françoise moved to the UK in 2010 and currently teaches voice at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She also travels back to her native Belgium and to France to give voice and text workshops. She recently directed Duncan MacMillan’s Toutes Les Choses Géniales (Every Brilliant Thing) for the Festival de Spa (2018), Belgium.

Course dates:

Saturday 21 September and Saturday 28 September 2019, 10am – 4pm.

PLEASE NOTE THERE ARE TWO (2) DAY SESSIONS. Lunch is not included, but a break will be taken and there are many cafes in the surrounding area. You are also able to bring your lunch with you.

Please note: you must sign up for the full course even if you cannot attend all dates. No partial course ticket is available.

Short Courses are for over 18s. If you are a young writer, you can sign up for our Spark Young Writers Programme.

All Writing West Midlands short courses are collaborative, and you will learn as much from your fellow course attendees as from the tutor. You will be expected to play an active role in group tasks, and you will also have time to reflect on your own writing during sessions.

Course handouts are sometimes (but not always) available, and notes may be available in advance upon request. If you have any additional needs, please contact Writing West Midlands in advance of the course starting and we will try to assist you.

Presented in partnership with the Birmingham & Midland Institute.