Praxis 2: Write Yourself, Your Voice Must be Heard: Integrating Feminist Practices and Somatic Performer Training for a More Inclusive Acting Studio

Location: PNX140

Abstract:

This praxis workshop examines how feminist theoretical frameworks can meaningfully expand and deepen embodied performer training, particularly within somatic approaches to voice training. Rooted in the work of influential feminist thinkers—Adriana Cavarero, Hélène Cixous, and Julia Kristeva, and aligned with leading somatic voice methodologies developed by Catherine Fitzmaurice, Kristin Linklater, and Patsy Rodenburg, this session will include discussion and experiential explorations that seek to examine how we may reconceive, reimagine and reconsider existing pedagogies in theatre performer training to be more inclusive.

Centring the notion that feminist principles challenge inherited pedagogies grounded in “correction”, hierarchy, and normative assumptions about the “ideal” voice/body, the workshop aims to explore training models rooted in consent, reciprocity, care, and embodied knowledge. Somatic vocal explorations will be filtered through the lens of Cavarero’s notion of the “vocal ontology of uniqueness”, Cixous’ assertion, “censor the body and you censor breath and speech at the same time”, and Kristeva’s suggestion that “significance is inherent in the human body”. By integrating the practical and theoretical insights of vocal methodologies and feminist thought into practice-based exercises, participants will experience how these concepts may translate into practical strategies in the acting studio and how a feminist lens can deepen embodied vocal awareness and inspire creative agency.

Requirements

Participants should come prepared to do some gentle movement (no prior experience is required).

All attendees will be required participate to their own level of comfort (no observers).

Biographies:

Dr. Shannon Holmes is an Associate Professor and current Head of the Department of Theatre at the University of Regina. As a theatre artist, educator and coach, her practice and research centres on voice and the development of cross-disciplinary methods that disrupt the dividing line between singing and speech.