Author, vocal coach, gifted teacher and theatre artist Kristin Linklater, one of the original creators of Joan: Voices in the Fire, joins the cast for a post-show discussion at the Rarig Center Friday, November 15th as part of her University of Minnesota residency. The public is invited to this free post -performance event in the Stoll Thrust Theatre. Linklater's visit to the University of Minnesota and this post-performance dialogue is made possible by a generous gift from Professor Andreas and Elisabeth Rosenberg.
Joan: Voices in the Fire reinvigorates the Joan of Arc story, seamlessly weaving together movement, rap, and hip-hop with excerpts from works by Shakespeare, Shaw, Anouilh, Voltaire, Twain, plus contemporary material. Exploring the narrative from a 21st century point of view, Joan: Voices in the Fire was originally devised by MFA students at Columbia University, together with renowned theatre artist Kristin Linklater, Rebecca Wright, and Stacy Davidowitz. This unique tale with music is directed and choreographed by Austene Van will be performed November 14-24, 2013 by the BFA/Guthrie Theater Actor Training program senior class on the Stoll Thrust Stage in the Rarig Center. For Joan: Voices in the Fire tickets and information visit: theatre.umn.edu or call 612 624-2345.
Trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Kristin Linklater developed her own innovative vocal methods to become major influence within the theatre over the past five decades. She has coached voice at the Stratford Festival, the Guthrie Theater, the first Lincoln Center Repertory Company, the Open Theater, the Negro Ensemble Company , the Manhattan Project, and NYU's Graduate Theatre Program (now Tisch School of the Arts). Kristin Linklater currently teaches in the graduate program at Columbia University. (see http://www.kristinlinklater.com/linklater.htm)
She has authored two ground-breaking books Freeing the Natural Voice ( published 1976 Drama Publishers) now revised and expanded in a new format, and Freeing Shakespeare's Voice (published 1992 Theatre Communications Group). She has written articles and presented workshops in the U.S., the U.K., Europe and Russia. Moreover, she has trained teachers in her methods who now teach in the majority of actor-training programs in the US, and in Australia, England, Germany, Italy, Belgium , Finland, Spain and Russia.
In 1978 Linklater co-founded, with Tina Packer, Shakespeare & Company, in Lennox, Massachusetts, and later in the 1990s she created and co-directed with Carol Gillgan the Company of Women, an all-female Shakespeare company.
