The Abbey Theatre have been supporting and developing the very best in Irish acting talent for over a century. Their artistic team offers in-house training, workshops and one to one coaching for a range of groups including: professional actors, teachers, writers, etc, helping them realize their creative potential.  

The Abbey in partnership with IAPI have created a training day around the power of the spoken word.

The approach of this training is both technical and creative. It combines work on physical awareness and presence with practical exercises to extend the range, power and clarity of the voice. We will be using some of the great speeches and soliloquies from Shakespeare to Seamus Heaney to stretch you physically, vocally and imaginatively. You will be given the tools to lift the words off the page and breathe life into them, to connect to your audience with confidence and ease.

This course is aimed at agency staff who want to extend the potential of their speaking voice and improve the quality of their presentations to  clients. 

Areas of work and learning outcomes

Improving the quality of your speaking voice
Finding more colour and clarity in your voice
Confidence building
Personal Impact
Understanding how to connect to your audience
Active listening and using silence
Exploring the score of a speech
Using language and imagery
Storytelling
Testimonials from IAPI members who did the course last year 
Great – useful, mellow and inspiring. Andrea was a super mentor. The practical techniques she explained in the morning session – especially around breathing and vocal colour – were so well explained, and were transformative yet easy to grasp.

Very enjoyable. The practical exercises at the beginning were good to know and I'll use them again. It made me more cognisant of my words, breathing and finishing words while presenting.

Really useful, fun training with practical outtakes. Although its really useful for more senior staff members it would also be great for inexperienced presenters who would suffer more from nerves.

Andrea was brilliant, a real expert in her field. She had obviously taken the time to really understand our industry. The problem with a lot of training is that it is too generic and often useless as the trainers don't understand the unique challenges faced in advertising. The fact that Andrea understood and referenced our business put everything in context and made it more relevant as a result.

Trainer

Andrea Ainsworth is one of the foremost voice specialists in Ireland. She has been the Voice Director of the Abbey Theatre since 1995, working closely with both Irish and International directors on all Abbey and Peacock theatre productions including premieres of plays by: Seamus Heaney, Tom Murphy, Frank McGuiness, Marina Carr, Conor McPherson and Tom Kilroy. She taught voice, text, accent and scene study in drama schools in London and at the School of Drama, Trinity College Dublin from 1995 until 2008.

She has worked with most of the independent theatre companies in Ireland and also coach’s presenters, lecturers and business clients. At the Abbey she offers classes and bespoke voice workshops for a variety of groups including: actors, teachers, writers, lecturers, members of the public, local drama groups and large corporate organisations. She has designed and delivered ‘Shakespeare for Teachers’ workshops both locally and nationally.