#WECAN Workshop: Finding the voice to speak

Do you get nervous when asked to speak in public or at a meeting? Do you worry about how your voice sounds?

Overview

Anxiety about having to speak up in professional contexts causes small physical changes in our bodies, leading the muscles in the throat, chest and jaw to tighten. These tensions then affect our ability to control our voice when speaking. They can make our voices feel unreliable, creating a negative spiral that can lead us to lose confidence in our ability to find our voices just when we need them most!

Session Objectives

This two-hour workshop offers participants a forum to explore some of the challenges that women can encounter when required to speak professionally. During the session you will be able to share experiences with other participants as you are introduced to some simple exercises actors use in performance adapted to help you to manage the physical effects of nerves on the voice, improving your confidence so you can begin to use your voice to communicate effectively and with self-assurance.

Speaker

Emma Heron is a theatre maker, writer and educator based in Liverpool, England. Originally trained as an actor at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Emma studied Text and Performance at Masters level at RADA and Kings College, joining Edge Hill University as a Senior Lecturer in Drama in 2006. In 2010, she co-founded Theatr Gadair Ddu, a Welsh-English bilingual theatre company based in Liverpool and Rhuthun. Cadair Ddu creates theatre focused on exploring the narratives and experiences of traditionally underrepresented communities in the Welsh diaspora.

Throughout her career, Emma has developed her acting and directing work in parallel with her work as an educator, maintaining a strong commitment to using theatre skills and techniques as tools of empowerment for education and training. A member of the Pankhurst Centre’s Heritage Committee since 2018, until the pandemic Emma was also Artistic Director of Mrs Pankhurst’s Players, Edge Hill University’s feminist theatre collective for female, male and gender non-binary students and recent graduates. In 2019, Emma’s work with Mrs Pankhurst’s Players was presented to Her Royal Highness Princess Ann.

Currently, alongside her work for #WECAN, Emma is researching female histories in the Liverpool Welsh community for the Daughters of Gwenfrewi project, part of Theatr Gadadir Ddu’s Breaking the Stone series, created to explore previously hidden histories of groups often marginalised from the Liverpool Welsh community.