COACH
I’m passionate about leading people to communicate with exuberance, clarity and purpose. It’s thrilling to bear witness as someone discovers their power and realizes that they can command a room.
Coaching for Actors
Drawing on my classical voice and speech training and decades of practical experience, I help actors with audition prep, monologues, self-tape, dialects, and heightened language. I encourage them to deploy their one-of-a-kind-ness so that they can serve the story in a bold, but authentic way.
Communication Coaching
I can help clients craft a story from inception to delivery, whether it’s giving a speech at a family celebration, honing a work presentation or prepping for an interview. This work is also transformative for folks who experience anxiety around everyday interactions, who seek empowerment and general guidance as they find their voice.
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A central tenet of the program is rigor. Her talent at teaching them to use the language to be better actors is extraordinary; their diction, vocal support and interpretation is always exceptional.
She is also a stellar voice, speech and dialect coach for our professional work. Most recently, she worked with a young rock band on an original musical they were commissioned to write for Cape Rep. Her work with the lead singer was life-changing for him. This group wrote a show with clever and challenging lyrics, and she was able to unlock his diction in away that will alter his professional life. I repeat: extraordinary, unparalleled, remarkable. She is the most gifted voice and speech coach I have ever worked with.And as an artist? There is none better; a joy to act with, a privilege to direct. She approaches all of her work with openness, intelligence, humor and surprise. Alison is a gem.”
MAURA HANLON
Associate Artistic Director
Cape Rep Theatre
EDUCATOR
I currently teach Text Analysis to graduate students in the Performing Arts Management and Design programs at Brooklyn College, and taught a required, full-year course in Documentary Theater to juniors at The New School from 2018-2022. I continue to teach workshops with The Civilians.
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It was delightful to learn about the medium from someone with both impressive experience and deep passion for it. Her expertise and ability to work as a multi-hyphenate artist encouraged me to do the same and begin calling myself a comic/writer/actor instead of feeling a need to choose. Because of her Documentary Theatre course, I got to spend two semesters reading and watching pieces from The Civilians, Anna Deveare Smith, and Sanko & Hein, among others, while working on three investigative projects of my own. I learned the skills to conduct excellent interviews, what the writing and editing process looks like from verbatim transcripts, and how to complete these projects collaboratively with co-writers. Alison was always focused, encouraging, and going above and beyond to meet the needs of all of her students. The class was an incredibly valuable and fun learning experience that I've taken with me into my work even after the class finished.”
ANAROSE HUNT
CRS Documentary Theatre
The New School, 2021-22
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Alison’s care for each student, and willingness to foster their particular interests helped me to create a personal connection to the material and set this class apart from so many other over-intellectualized theory based classes who’s lessons fled my mind after receiving a course grade.”
BRANDON DARCEL
CRS Documentary Theatre
The New School, 2020-21
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The material she chose was relevant, challenging, and wide-ranging, while also universal enough in its nature to connect with a variety of audiences. Alison was clear with her expectations, set assignments that drove at learning objectives without feeling superfluous or overwrought, and made it a point to ensure her students connected with each other beyond their schoolwork, even through the difficult medium of Zoom. Coming from a background in dance, I began the semester nervous about my ability to keep up with my peers who (all coming from theatre backgrounds) had taken at least one text analysis course, if not more, already in their undergraduate work. I completed the class feeling condent in my ability to take the text of any play and root its core meaning and broad possibilities for creative production out with ease.”
ALEXANDRA COOK
Text Analysis
Brooklyn College, 2022
