Voice and Speech Trainers Association, Inc.

Spring/Summer 1998 Volume 12, Number 2

Michael Kahn

President's Letter

ATHEMOO

International VASTA Conference

ATHE Conference

Practice

Team Leadership

Honorary Members

Regional News

The Director and the Vocal Coach: A Conversation with Michael Kahn

by Ralph Zito

Michael Kahn is a director with over thirty years¼ experience in the classical repertory, both at regional theatres and on Broadway. He is currently Director of the Juilliard School Drama Division and Artistic Director of The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC. Under his leadership, The Shakespeare Theatre has gained national and international renown as „the nation¼s foremost Shakespeare company¾ (The Wall Street Journal ), „the best Shakespeare company in America¾ (The Philadelphia Inquirer ), and „one of the great successes of American Shakespeare¾ ( London¼s Times Literary Supplement ).

Ralph Zito currently teaches voice and speech in the Juilliard School Drama Division. He has worked extensively as a voice, text and dialect consultant both on and off Broadway and in regional theatres. He was in residence as Associate Vocal Consultant at The Shakespeare Theatre for four years, and maintains a close association with the company, having since that time worked with Michael Kahn on his productions of HENRY V and a one-evening adaptation of HENRY VI, parts 1, 2, and 3.

What is your history of working with Vocal Coaches?

Ever since I went to Stratford, Connecticut, [to the American Shakespeare Theatre] in the late sixties I¼ve worked ‚ especially on classical plays ‚ with a vocal coach. At that time Elizabeth Smith was the vocal coach and I¼ve been working with her and other people for about thirty years. And so for the most part ‚ unless it¼s a modern play that doesn¼t require any dialects ‚ I always have a vocal coach on almost any production I do. And they are quite valuable for a variety of reasons. I am not a voice and text teacher, and while there¼s a lot I know, and although I know a lot more about text and Shakespeare than when I started thirty years ago, I still rely on text work done outside of the rehearsal room. The rehearsal period is so short, and while I do a lot myself around the table at the beginning, I¼m very pleased that I can then let either Liz [Smith] or you or Sarah [Felder], or other people that I work with, take actors and work in depth on the text while also solving any speech issues that are glaring in relationship to the sound of the whole production. I also count on them

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