Senior Voice and Text Associate with the Royal Shakespeare Company based in Walmer, Kent, UK
COMMUNITY THEATRE TESTIMONIALS
‘This was an opportunity to experience a visceral connection to text. A chance to let the sounds and words live in space un-hindered by previous expectations. A chance to get the text out of our heads and into the body. A world of gorgeous sounds discovered!’
‘We just let a tool box open of tried and tested exercises that slowly built freeing sounds and words without looking for sense or emotional logic. These exercises built and remained a fantastic way into text before we approached in a more academic way perfect for my own speech making.’
‘The environment is safe, unthreatening and great fun!’
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‘There was no pressure to have prior knowledge or experience with Shakespeare’
Thank you for making Shakespeare so accessible to me. Â
You allowed me to feel like his words were my own thoughts and made me realize anyone, with any accent, can make his words sound just as beautiful.
Every time I open my mouth to do one of my speeches, I feel alive like I never have while acting before in my life. It's a real pumping feeling, and as opposed to being an actor saying the speech,
I AM the character. It's a really beautiful feeling.
"Starting with no Shakespeare background, Michael’s wonderfully enriching zoom coaching changed my whole view. It brought my audition speech to a level I never could have dreamed of reaching. His witty, energetic teaching style kept me on my toes and his endless tools and tips challenged me to reach outside of my comfort zone to ultimately discover how I can continue to be fresh, spontaneous, and courageous in my work. He tailors his teaching to the individual and how you can best understand and thrive. He has helped me grow leaps and bounds in my confidence with working with Shakespeare text and I feel so lucky to have had him as a mentor."
Rose Bruford student
"Michael Corbidge’s online-one-to-one is like no other. Firstly, he is honest. He helps you find your authenticity and works hard with you to get to a place you need to be and gets you to the best that you can be. I found the communication to be easy and his advice didn’t just help me for one lesson, but will help me in my future. Studies. With countless years of knowledge and experience under his belt, Michael can help you shine. Whatever upcoming projects or deadlines you may have he will get you there. He works with great compassion and empathy along the way.
I very highly recommend him! 10/10!"
Rose Bruford student
"Michael is so caring about you and your work. His empathy and compassion are immense. But he lets you get away with nothing! He's forensic in his detail and the why? and how?- to put it right. It's bespoke to you- totally tailored. With all your complexities and myriad of habits, faults and eccentricities in mind but also working with strengths as well. He has taken me from a complete novice to someone who feels confident, empowered and in control of the language. I would have never thought it was possible in such a short amount of time it's really a miracle. But I feel I can do anything now and I'm auditioning in my next phase with such excitement and passion for the work." "Rose Bruford student
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SHAKESPEARE BY THE SEA TESTIMONIALS
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"I've always known acting was reacting and listening was key, but I'm not sure I ever listened to myself. The work on the cliff and beach was invaluable, I learned so much about my voice where it lives and how and why it does what it does. I felt I was beginning to work with all my pistons mind, body and soul ."
"Thank you for making Shakespeare so accessible to me.
You allowed me to feel like his words were my own thoughts and made me realize anyone, with any accent, can make his words sound just as beautiful."
"Every time I open my mouth to do one of my speeches, I feel alive like I never have while acting before in my life. It's a real pumping feeling, and as opposed to being an actor saying the speech,
I AM the character. It's a really beautiful feeling."
ZOOM ROOM WORKSHOP TESTIMONIALS
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Twelfth Night on Zoom - The incomparable Cicely Berry looms large over voice work in relation to Shakespeare, but Michael is following her legacy with his own approach to the plays. Given the physicality and muscularity of the sounds Shakespeare created and Michael’s elemental sensibility, which has famously taken the Bard into the great outdoors, how would the text translate to Zoom?
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The answer is well. Here, unlike in other iterations of Michael’s classes on Zoom, the workshop was faced with 40 participants. The need to swipe between screens is a game-changer when it comes to workshops which do not use breakout rooms. Certainly, it was different from the more intimate Zoom rooms of fewer than 20 participants, where participants were put on the spot with a scene partner to great effect for everybody involved.
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What remained, however, was Michael’s ability to energise all participants, who are encouraged to turn off their mics, make space around them, and physically launch the words off of the page. Most impressive, perhaps, is the way in which everybody involved is asked to share their understanding of, and revelations from, the exercises.
Pedagogically, the workshop builds on what the group already know, scaffolding them, with play-based learning.
The workshop encouraged us to see Shakespeare’s words as sound art or the syncopation of a musical score. In allowing the sounds of the words, the sense stress, and the meter stress to physically interact with the length of the vowels, or the interruption of the consonants, each physical space becomes its own rehearsal room. Zoom is not, and will never be, a replacement for being in a space together, but it can get us out of our head and into our body.
Gavin
Director of 60 Hours Shakespeare UK
As a freelance actor whose biggest interest is Shakespearean theatre and a host of Shakespeare Play Reading Club myself, I have attended a great number of online workshops and classes since the beginning of the lockdown in spring 2020 and hosted numerous zoom meetings myself. I must say that Michael Corbidge's classes are among the best of what I have seen so far, being truly interactive and very inspiring.
It is absolutely amazing how Michael manages his online workshops encouraging people to participate actively but putting no pressure on them and giving freedom to just listen and even be off camera to those who are shy to be observed.
Still, thanks to Michael's enthusiasm, the energy is so high that most students are eager to join in actively and try every exercise that is offered. I particularly appreciate the idea to let every participant work full volume and be involved physically in his own space with mic off, before some of the students do it on mic - somehow it stimulates energy exchange and helps to engage everyone even in the big group. I was honestly surprised to see how brilliantly can online theatre workshops work and would certainly recommend all actors to take part in Michael Corbidge's class!”
Olga Russia
“Since lockdown began in March, I’ve tried several different Zoom workshops and courses with many different practitioners, and Michael’s sessions are easily my favourite.
I believe that people learn and do their best work when they’re having fun, and Michael clearly feels this too – he cleverly and effortlessly creates a space of mutual respect and grounded discipline without the sessions ever becoming slow or dull.
Michael has a seemingly-endless supply of exercises he encourages us to try, and each session he introduces at least one new exercise, fully explaining how it works and recapping from previous sessions if needed.
The exercises allow us new routes into the text by focussing on the emotional and literary clues left by Shakespeare, and grounding these in our physical world to help us connect with the text on a deeper, more personal level.
He keeps us at ease with a jokey, friendly, equal-footed teaching style that makes us feel that we can branch out and experiment with new techniques and approaches. T
The main word I would use to describe Michael’s sessions is ‘empowering’.
Something he says that always sticks with me is, ‘it’s all there’. We are so lucky and grateful to have this time with him – he’s exceptionally generous with his time, patience and knowledge. He encourages us to believe that we have everything we already need to discover and excavate a text, we just have to listen to our natural creative impulses. He’s taught us how to lay a solid foundation of trust – in the work, the process, the text, and ourselves.”