Beginner? Working Pro? Click on your category below.
Whichever category you click, those will be the online and hybrid classes you see.
- For Beginners
THE BEGINNING SEMINARDirectors: Roni Gallimore, Aaron Miner & Vicki Baum
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: None
If you are ready to begin your adventure into voice-over training, THIS IS THE PLACE TO START! Launch into a class packed full of information, performance exercises and FUN. You’ll explore basic voice acting fundamentals including detailed acting choices and script interpretation – including playback and feedback of recorded performances, making this class a unique experience in online training choices. As your directors take you through commercial and character scripts, by the end of the day you’ll have a much clearer understanding of the voice acting craft, and an awareness of the particular set of skills and techniques you’ll need to succeed in the current voice-over marketplace. THREE DIRECTORS in one class make this a unique training experience!
Directors: Chuck Kourouklis, Brian Sommer
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: None
Whether or not you think you “do characters”, we’re here to tell you that you DO! Why? Because you’ve been six years old, when playing wasn’t about pretending to be a character, but about being the character, letting go and using your imagination. And with that mindset, you can learn to do anything, even characters. This daring duo will share their insights, tricks and techniques that have led to their remarkable success in the character genre. Gain an enhanced understanding of the character creation process and realize just how freeing and exhilarating it is as an adult to simply let go and play. After this weekend, you will possess an increased confidence in your ability to invent colorful and memorable, yet realistic characters. With Chuck and Brian’s expertise and encouragement, get ready to unleash the characters that live within you that you never knew existed.
INTRODUCTION TO DIRECTING
Director: Samantha Paris
Length: 7-hour one-day seminar
Class Notes: None
There is no time like the present to start your expedition into one of the most important skills for working voice actors: self-direction. And there is literally no one better on the planet than our intrepid Founder, Samantha Paris, to help you take those first steps. Learning the basics of self-direction including figuring out who you are talking to, and really WHY you are saying the words on the paper (and btw it’s not because you are selling a product,) will not only give insight into what is ultimately going to be expected of you in those more advanced classes, but it will add value to any class you take in the meantime, as you will hopefully be silently directing your fellow students along with the instructor. A class within a class. Neat.
INTRODUCTION TO NARRATION
Director: Vicki Baum
Length: 14-hour four-week seminar
Class Notes: None
We live in a world where communication is way beyond the written word. Companies brand their innovative products through videos, employers train their employees through videos, medical professionals learn about new treatments through videos and on and on and on. And what do all those videos around the world need? You guessed it… narrators! The different genres of narration are endless including audio tours, audio books, tutorials, medical narration, television shows and documentary narration amongst many others. During this class, you’ll explore some of those narration styles and techniques as you work with a wide variety of copy including the always growing field of narration for the populous tech companies. Learn not only the technical elements of narration, but also how to engage the listener and weave an engaging story that takes your audience along for the ride, without overpowering the visuals. You’ll acquire a clear perspective on the storytelling skills required to deliver strong, connected, narration performances.
SIMPLY ACTINGDirector: Frank Coppola
Length: 12-hour four-week workshop
Class Notes: None
This class could just as easily be called “Introduction to Script Analysis”. Frank teaches the fundamental acting techniques he’s learned and used successfully for decades on-camera and on the stage, both as an actor and director, including breaking down the script into beats and assigning intentions, developing your character’s back story and asking yourself what happened right before the script starts. These script analysis skills are a critical and mandatory expertise that every actor – from community theatre to Hollywood – whether it be voice-over, on stage or on-camera absolutely needs to book the job. Through participation in theater games and improv exercises you’ll increase your comfort level, gain confidence in your performance ability and learn to make bold choices that will bring your acting to life. Spend time learning how to apply these fundamental acting concepts to performing commercial voice-over copy.
THE WORLD OF VOICE-OVER: AN INTRODUCTION
Directors: Vicki Baum, Chuck Kourouklis
Length: 3-hour overview (with performance participation!)
Class Notes: None
Ever dreamed of what it would be like to voice a commercial, a cartoon or a video game? Is it time you dipped your toe into the pool known as the voice-over industry? There is no better place to start than right here. The morning will start off with a hybrid format (students in-person AND online), where you’ll learn to voice actual commercial and character scripts that are simple in nature but packed with fun! Then Vicki & Chuck will offer a straightforward outlook regarding the financial realities of the business, the commitment and training required to become a successful, working voice actor, the advantages and pitfalls of online casting, and how you’ll know when you’re really ready for a demo and a talent agent. You’ll get to ask all your burning voice-over questions. What a fun way to spend a Saturday morning!
- For Intermediates
Director: Chuck Kourouklis
Length: 9-hour three-week workshop
Class Notes: None
What color is love…Orange? Trust…Blue? Excitement…Red? The Colors method has helped thousands of actors including your instructor, construct a richer, more vibrant voice-over foundation by assigning different emotions to a specific color. As Chuck leads you through an exploration of your full vocal and emotional spectrum and associates it with colors, you’ll uncover a multitude of voices and interpretations that you’ve never before considered or realized you were capable of delivering. Not to mention you’ll now possess a tool that is so relevant and effective, it is used every single day by busy, working voice actors.
CONTACT US FOR MORE INFORMATION!
FOUNDER’S SEMINAR
Director: Samantha Paris,Vicki Baum
Length: 8-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: None
This challenging weekend seminar is script analysis, mic technique and a few surprises all rolled up into one. It’s uncanny how much better your acting gets when you understand the script, so Samantha and Vicki will take an in-depth look at that crucial skill of analyzing the script. You’ll work on dialogues and bring the scene alive while tapping into a creative side you never knew you possessed that sits lurking beneath the surface. And those surprises we spoke of? Well, if we told you what they were, it wouldn’t be a surprise now would it? At the end of the weekend, you’ll be shocked, amazed and most importantly excited at the new level of performance you’re now capable of. And let’s be honest, any time spent with the passionate pairing of Samantha and Vicki will turbo-boost your ability to dive into your imagination to make creative acting choices.
IMPROV FOR VOICE ACTORS
Director: Anna Mathias
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: None
Ever wonder what a bowling butterfly would giggle like? How would a rhino with low self-esteem approach a confrontation with a co-worker? Get ready to find out as you open your mind to all the endless possibilities that live in the universe within you while getting rid of that pesky fear that oppresses your true creative self! In this energetic and fun workout, Anna will jolt you out of your predictable everyday choices, freeing you to take chances and find new and unusual characters, voices and approaches to copy that even you didn’t know you had. Using a variety of tried and true theater games and improv techniques that she’s perfected over decades of experience, you’ll gain confidence as you learn to relax. Not to mention that well-placed improv is an effective way to shake up an audition and get you noticed by casting professionals, a true secret weapon for working voice actors.
INTRODUCTION TO HOME RECORDING
Director: Kevin Cleland
Length: 12-hour four-week workshop
Class Notes: Prerequisite: Students must understand basic computer commands such as Cut, Copy, Paste, Save, Save As, Undo/Redo, etc.
In a voice-over industry full of remote live direction and where auditions are predominantly (and by predominantly we mean, like…99.9%) done at home, the opportunity to break into the business is as ripe as ever. And while being a well-trained, skilled actor will always be paramount, so now is having a professional-grade home studio. Don’t fret, that does not mean spending thousands of dollars or being a genius engineer, but you do need to be educated. Join Voicetrax’s Los Angeles-based, demo production master Kevin Cleland as he takes you through the basic fundamentals of home recording including recording hardware and software, editing conventions, exporting sound files along with suggestions for a basic set-up if you don’t already have one. By the end of this factually jam-packed workshop, you will know how to record, edit and submit an mp3 of sufficient quality so you can start getting in on all those super cool, intermediate and advanced Voicetrax classes that require home recording capabilities and be several steps closer to professional grade recordings.
SETTING THE SCENE
Director: Chuck Kourouklis, Roni Gallimore
Length: 12-hour four-week workshop
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class homework assignment.
Looking over hill and dale, there is no voice-over copy to found in this world premiere class. A wide, rolling expanse filled only with scenes (dialogues) from movies and plays for you to work on over a month’s time with a partner! As you dip your toe into the scene study pool for perhaps the very first time, you’ll discover what we say from the start of your training: voice acting IS acting. Approach the skills of script analysis, self-direction and reacting to a partner as you strengthen your foundational acting skills in a whole new way. Lean into the visualization necessary as you learn to “block” (the physical movements) a scene. And before you start fretting about having to memorize your script, STOP! Memorization is not required, but you will be asked to become quite familiar with your scene which will come naturally as the weeks progress. And just as you think you’ve traversed every nook and cranny of your scene with Chuck, Roni will step in and offer further points of view to add additional layers to your work. And when it’s all said and done you can translate all the advantages of working a script for weeks with the same partner and apply it to your voice-over repertoire because remember: voice acting IS acting.
VOICE-OVER 411
Director: LA Agent
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: None
This intensive workout with one of Los Angeles’ most experienced and enthusiastically supportive talent agents will consist of industry insights, advice and how-to’s. Topics such as professionalism, attitude, goals and industry do’s & don’ts will be explored. Along with the informative industry conversation with someone who knows the lay of the voice-over land, you’ll participate in live in-class performances, getting feedback from Agent B, while getting an exclusive behind the scenes peek at what agents are actually looking for in the auditions they receive. You’ll get to ask an industry veteran all your burning questions. A voice-over gift for sure!
- For Everyone
Director: YOU and your fellow students (and perhaps a Guest Director will pop in!)Length: 3-hour lab, monthly
Class Notes: None
There’s seriously never been something so “for everyone” in the 35-year history of Voicetrax. We really mean it: Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced/Working Professional students, even Alumni! E.V.E.R.Y.O.N.E. is invited. This special lab was born from our desire to give back to our Voicetrax family and provides the virtual “bricks-and-mortar” for a FREE monthly workout group. For one day each month we are opening one of our Zoom channels for you to remotely drop in and work on whatever kind of script you choose including dialogues as we utilize breakout rooms for partners to practice in private. You’ll get the opportunity to receive performance feedback from your fellow students as well as providing constructive critiques of your own, which we all know very specifically helps with the ever-important self-direction skills necessary for success. Learn and have fun in a casual environment. And did we mention there could just maaaybe be a surprise pop-in by an elite Voicetrax Guest Director? Guess you’ll just have to show up to find out!
- For Intermediate/Advanced
AUDIO TOUR NARRATION
Director: Peter Dunne
Length: 14-hour four-week workshop
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class homework assignment.
Remember the first time you were transported to another place in time just by listening to an engaging museum audio tour? Learn the art of storytelling with Peter Dunne who has locally cast, directed and produced audio tours for many of the world’s best-known museums and most prestigious exhibits. To expand your audio tour auditioning skills, you’ll read a wide range of copy from scholarly and intellectually demanding narratives to funny scripts for kids. Peter will coach you on getting through the challenges all voice actors face during long sessions including reading cold, taking direction on the fly, handling difficult words and sustaining energy, characters, dialects, concentration and connection to the copy as you weave an engaging and imaginative story.
BE A BAD MOTHERCHUCKER
Director: Chuck Kourouklis
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class homework assignment. Students must have home recording capabilities.
This barn burner of a seminar is part roller coaster ride, part memory jolt, and ALL an exercise in The Grand Unifying Theory for Voice Actors. Most voice-over pros are actively auditioning these weird, arcane, totally-out-of-context-one-sided character scripts. Now here’s THE question: to fill in all those missing pieces and get that darn character off the page, how many of you are remembering to use the tools you’ve acquired over the years at Voicetrax? Chuck will pry the sarcophagus open and dust off some impactful tools you might have forgotten. Get ready for “anything goes” – spontaneous improv, spontaneous direction, turn-on-a-dime changes. And when the dust settles, you’ll be one bad-ass motherchucker, just like our wonderful Mr. Kourouklis. Consider the resulting swagger a free gift with purchase.
DESTINATION TRUTH
Director: Melissa Gray
Length: 6-hour two-week workshop (limited enrollment)
Class Notes: This course includes homework assignments.
In this workshop, Melissa will challenge you to think, breathe and voice from the standpoint of quintessential theatre acting techniques. Develop a critical ear and increase your ability to absorb what’s being offered as you take direction and make instantaneous adjustments while navigating back and forth between monologues from plays and voice-over copy. Exercises are designed to enhance the believability of your reads and develop a fuller, richer sense of your unique individuality that the microphone cannot help but reflect! If only a significant amount of audition voice-over scripts called for real, natural performances, so you could put all you learned in this class to practical use. Oh wait… thaaat’s riiiight, only 99% of all voice-over audition copy does!
CONTACT US FOR MORE INFORMATION!
DIRECT THYSELF
Director: Samantha Paris, Sirenetta Leoni
Length: 8-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: None
By now you’ve had a touch of the self-direction ideology of voice-over, and you’ve likely (and by likely we mean absolutely, 100%, for sure) heard from multiple teachers and working professional students that self-direction is the name of the game when it comes to auditioning, and they’d be exactly right. These days you are on your own to create an attention-grabbing, competitive audition. This seminar presents your chance to sit in the actual director’s chair, and you’ll soon realize that by having to articulate a clear analysis of a script as a director for one of your classmates, you will gain confidence in your ability to break it down for yourself when you are recording alone in your closet. Spend a weekend in the director’s chair channeling your “inner Samantha”.
FINDING THE BUNNY
Director: Samantha Paris
Length: 5-hour one-day seminar
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class homework assignment. Students must have home recording capabilities.
Ah yes, the infamous bunny, hopping around with his mischievous smile, wreaking havoc and trampling all over your script analysis confidence. How many times have you found yourself in class or auditioning at home, screaming to yourself, “Where is that f#cking bunny?!?” Well here’s an interesting fact for you to ponder: sometimes in scripts there isn’t a bunny at all. Wait… what?!? Auuugh! To help you traverse this panorama is none other than the originator of the whole bunny concept herself, Miss Samantha Paris. C’mon, who else was going to teach a class called Finding The Bunny, for reals? Utilizing scripts from Sam and some you pick yourself, the class will include really digging deep into scripts, staring at them to figure out if there truly is a bunny there or not and then performing or directing them. Basically, it’s a Sam class so be ready for anything. But lest you forget that finding the bunny in a script will put you ahead of 99% of the rest of the actors you’re competing against, giving you an amazing advantage to book the gig!
FINDING TRUTH IN THE BOOTH
Director: LA Agent
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class homework assignment. Students must have home recording capabilities.
Seeking truth in a performance is a never-ending expedition for an actor. The possibility of capturing a genuinely real moment is something that drives our kind forward. It’s the biggest challenge actors face, but when it happens there is nothing like it. Not to mention it’s what a majority of clients want for their projects (whether they write their scripts that way or not. Ugh). Join our experienced Agent S as he makes use of scripts that lend themselves to this pursuit of realism. And those pestiferous scripts that want us to be natural and yet use the words introducing and coming soon, thus providing a much greater challenge, while providing meaningful yet succinct feedback. Strip away all the extraneous noise and information and get to the heart of the matter to bring out the raw emotions of the words on the page.
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Directors: Chuck Kourouklis, Brian Sommer Length: 12-hour 4-week workshop
Class Notes: None
How lucky are we that we have two of the most accomplished & prolific video game actors in the Bay Area in our back pocket: Chuck Kourouklis and Brian Sommer! This powerful pair have put their heads together and created quite the curriculum. Because of Chuck & Brian’s extensive experience, both having appeared in League of Legends, The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us (seeing a pattern perhaps?), they are in a unique position to give you advice, guidance and direction from BOTH sides of the sound booth glass. Not only can they speak expertly on what a producer is looking for since they’ve booked once or twice or, oh that’s right… hundreds of times, but they are also in a position, being actors themselves, to delve deep into the actor’s process and teach you what it takes to create a memorable audition that gets you cast. Needless to say, this class is intensive, involving and relevant – so come ready to play!
CONTACT US FOR MORE INFORMATION!
IMAGINATION REVISITED
Director: Roni Gallimore
Length: 12-hour four-week workshop
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class and weekly homework assignments. Students must have home recording capabilities.
Did you ever wonder how your British princess or slacker boyfriend character would tackle a dog food script? Well, it’s time to unleash your inner six-year-old and explore your imagination the way you did as a child. Before each of the first three weeks, you’ll create a character and then come to class as the character you created. Inhabiting the character from every angle will stretch the boundaries of your imagination and you’ll recognize you are ultimately waaay more creative than you ever thought possible. Spend four weeks digging deep with Roni into each character’s backstory while performing commercial and character scripts. With help from Roni and your peers, figure out which of your three concepts was your strongest character embodiment, and perform as that character in the final week. Commit to the character deep dive and just go for it. Stretching your acting muscles has never been so freeing!
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Director: LA Agent
Length: 9-hour three-week workshop
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class homework assignment. Students must have home recording capabilities.
When asked what is the ONE thing she wishes every voice actor from beginners to seasoned professionals would absorb with a universal wave of her magical, directing wand, our wise and real-world tested Los Angeles agent immediately said: be as specific as possible as to WHO are you talking to! It’s amazing how many actors forget this critical piece of the backstory when analyzing a script, even though it is one of the basic fundamentals taught from the very beginning. And be specific! Not some nebulous, faceless person, but somebody you actually know, so your imagination can visualize them, and grab on to the emotions of the script. Agent B will dig deeper into this part of script analysis to make sure you are precise in who you are talking to which will assuredly lead to an infinitely more natural and less “read-ee” performance.
KNOW YOUR ZERO
Director: Vicki Baum
Length: 12-hour four-week workshop
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class and weekly homework assignments.
Have you ever looked at a long list of specs on the script and been confused as to what to focus on? Naaaahhh… that NEVER happens… Or have you been auditioning online and you’re not sure how to choose amongst the dozens of scripts you receive each day that represents your best odds on booking the job? Truly knowing yourself, what you naturally bring to the table both vocally and personality-wise is a critical piece of the puzzle when it comes to choosing what to add into the recipe to create an outstanding, yet uniquely YOU performance. You’ll work on quintessentially you scripts, as Vicki and the rest of the class will assist each student in ascertaining what makes you, well… YOU. If history tells us anything, we’re betting you just might be surprised at what you learn about yourself, as well as astounded and enlightened by how others perceive you on the very personal and exhilarating journey you’ll take in this workshop.
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ONCE UPON A TIME: ACTING FOR AUDIOBOOKS
Director: Roni Gallimore
Length: 14-hour four-week workshop
Class Notes: This course has a pre-class homework assignment.
It’s official! Audiobooks is a billion-dollar industry that shows absolutely no signs of slowing down. Don’t tell your local librarian, but eventually generations to come won’t know anything other than digital and recorded books. And we all know what that means to voice actors: opportunities, opportunities, opportunities! Join Roni as she shares her extensive knowledge on how she books all her audio book work on her own without an agent! She’ll share with you her techniques on refining a first person and third person narrator, performing a male/female dialogue by yourself and the very tricky task of performing same sex dialogues while creating separation between dozens of characters by utilizing pitch, speed, rhythm, accents and of course… acting! And whether or not you think you’ll ever record an audiobook this course will absolutely help you up your narration and character defining skills.
ONE DAY WONDER: PROMO-TIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
Director: LA Agent
Length: 7-hour one-day lab
Class Notes: None (NEW to Voicetrax)
Never done (or haven’t done many) promos before? Well, consider this class the PERFECT place to start. We are so excited to welcome Agent N to the Voicetrax family. She loves teaching beginning promo students and will introduce you to the intentionality of promo scripts including cadence, dividing of the beats and the purposeful formatting. Not to mention the all-important tag line! Explore the subtle nuances (who knew?) in a promo script and discover which words to really sink your teeth into. Agent N will have a cornucopia of scripts including true crime, drama, sitcoms, kids, game shows and trailers for streaming movies. And then at the end of this one day wonder, after absorbing all that information, you will get an opportunity to listen to working professional auditions and try to guess who booked the job and why. After a whole day with Agent N, you’ll come out the winner! Promotional considerations provided by Voicetrax!
ONE NIGHT WONDER: SOURCE CONNECT
Director: Kevin Cleland
Length: 3-hour one-day lab
Class Notes: Participants need to be prepared to download the FREE version of Source Connect. Kevin will walk you through it at the beginning of class.
Source Connect has become absolutely essential to any serious voice actor, allowing you to send a studio-quality feed from your computer. In fact, the majority of agency auditions now actually require you to have Source Connect; so if you want to maximize your income potential, you will absolutely need the capabilities Source Connect gives you – and the sooner, the better. An industry veteran, Kevin Cleland, will take you through all the finer points of installing and calibrating the software, and he’ll show you just what to expect in a recording session, de-mystifying the whole process! You’ll gather all the knowledge you need to arm yourself with this crucially important tool.
PLACE YOUR ORDER
Director: Ned Lott
Length: 9-hour three-week workshop
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class homework assignment. Students must have home-recording capabilities.
To be honest, we’re really not sure what to write for this class description. What has us so uncharacteristically lost for words? Well, it’s that the students in this seminar are writing their own class description. That’s right, you’re invited to create a customized lesson plan based on your specific needs. In the weeks before class, you’ll choose three categories from a menu of voice-over genres to work on with Ned including sound-a-likes, self-direction techniques using visual aids, video game efforts and war sounds, differentiating multiple characters from the same show and singing in character amongst others. Join this “three-weeks of whatever you want” and remember to tip your waiter.
RETAIL: NOT PRETTY BUT PROFITABLE
Director: Thom Pinto
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: None
How many times have you read direction that says “real and conversational” but all you see are copy points, copy points… and more copy points? The reality is that in our current voice-over world of natural and extemporaneous, many scripts still require being able to deliver a strong dose of hard sell. Thom will share a variety of practical techniques he has developed to handle challenges typically encountered when auditioning for retail copy including over-written scripts, awkward phrasing, disclaimer tags and way too many exclamation points!!!!!
CONTACT US FOR MORE INFORMATION!
Directors: Samantha Paris, Vicki Baum, Chuck Kourouklis, Sirenetta Leoni
Length: 18-hour six-week workshop
Class Notes: This course includes weekly homework assignments.
Simply put… if you don’t get the script, you don’t get the gig! This tantalizing triad of teachers will help you unravel the mysteries of script interpretation as you analyze a variety of TV and radio commercials, animation, video game and narration scripts while discovering how to dissect copy intelligently to give you a leg up on the competition. You’ll learn to look for hidden clues (aka “bunnies”) and not just the ones buried in the body of the copy, but the ones you can glean from the sound effects, visuals, directions, music, length, even the agency name. Strengthen and broaden one of the most important foundational skills necessary for voice-over success.
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TAINTED TALES
Director: Devin Glischinski
Length: 12-hour four-week workshop
Class Notes: This course includes homework assignments. Students must have home recording capabilities.
Remember all those classic nursery rhymes and lullabies from your childhood? Of course you do! But did you know that a significant number of them actually have a macabre story behind them? You’ll explore that juxtaposition in this one-of-a-kind script analysis class with a deviously entertaining twist. Using those iconic rhymes as your copy, you’ll be tasked with the challenge of finding the story behind the story including the tales of Hickory Dickory Dock, Humpty Dumpty and Three Blind Mice amongst others while your fellow classmates will participate in guessing games based on your performance. This incredibly unique class will focus on script analysis, acting choices, character work and fine-tuning your analytical ear. You may never look at your childhood the same again!
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Director: Chuck Kourouklis
Length: 9-hour three-week workshop
Class Notes: This course includes homework assignments. Students must have home recording capabilities.
If you want to be a musician you need to learn to play the instrument, so if you want to be a rock star voice actor you need to be able to do the exact same thing with the microphone. It’s more than the technical things that include minimizing “p”-pops and distortion. It’s about establishing a scene, the script analysis necessary to figure out that scene and then using proximity effect (your closeness to the mic) to leverage your authority, warmth or conversational quality. And then, oh yeah, lo and behold remembering to implement everything you’ve learned. Your mic technique skills should be continually developing right along with your self-direction, script analysis and acting skills.
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THREE IN A ROW
One of the ironies of our business is that frequently, the short copy bears the most income. In this class, Thom divulges his techniques that are right at your fingertips to ensure that your three in a row aren’t just slow, medium and fast takes of the exact same read and are truly unique and commercially viable, whether it’s announcer tags, character one-liners or :15 spots. If producers are listening to hundreds of one-liners, it’s critical that you grab their attention from the get-go, no time to warm into your performance. And no matter what kind of copy you audition (short or long form), when you book a session, you’ll often be asked to perform a particular line three times in a row, and by “often” we mean in every single voice-over session you will EVER be in. So yeah, there’s that.
TOURS, TUTORIALS & TALES: THE STORY WITHIN (SIX weeks for the PRICE of FIVE!)
Director: Vicki Baum
Length: 18-hour six-week workshop
Class Notes: None
This workshop is prepared to take your narration skills up a notch or two or maybe even three (it is six weeks after all) while still telling a great story. And since narration is one of the dominant genres in the voice-over industry with opportunities multiplying year after year, this class is a perfect vehicle to transform you into a narrator to be reckoned with. By further honing your visualization techniques, script analysis, self-direction and acting choices, you’ll learn to deliver the more authentic and conversational reads that are in demand. You’ll span several genres including audio tour, industrial tech, tutorial and medical narration that are so prevalent in today’s narration market.
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VO CEO
Director: Christy Summers
Length: 9-hour three-week workshop
Class Notes: None
As independent contractors, voice actors not only need to be “the talent”, but they also need to be the CEO of their voice-over “company”. Invoices, goal setting and self-promotion, oh my! The idea of all this “paperwork” can be understandably overwhelming if you’ve never had to do it before. Worry no more! And why you ask? A voice actor herself, Christy brings her MBA to the lesson plan as she takes you through Business Planning, Marketing and Website Development (and by development we mean the actual building of a website!) all with the total understanding of what it’s like to be in your exact shoes. You’ll explore the business side of show business, so you can get back to the show part in no time flat.
VOICE-OVER ANGEL
Directors: Chuck Kourouklis, Vicki Baum, Aaron Miner
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: None
Gain wisdom, confidence and the ability to think on your feet from this role-playing seminar as Chuck utilizes his fellow directors to throw numerous different real-world recording situations at you born from his wealth of personal experiences including running a session from your home studio with a director that’s inexperienced and can’t articulate what they want, a producer who doesn’t want to direct you live (cuz he’s just too busy) and you’re supposed to figure it all out, or what about a live session where multiple directional approaches are thrown out at you? Don’t fret, you are not alone! Chuck will serve as your “angel”, determined to earn his wings by helping you learn to deal with adversity, uncertainty, insecurity and a host of other confidence assassins that can undermine an actor’s ability to give their best performance. Feel more in control and better prepared to handle the art of self-direction even under the most challenging and demanding real-world circumstances.
WILD GAME HUNTING
Director: Tasia Valenza
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: None
Do competitive performances elude you like a rare sighting of the white lion in South Africa or the snow leopards of Uzbekistan? Join Tasia as she guides you through this kinder, gentler safari in search of video game performances that stand out and book the job. And just to keep things exciting, Tasia is apt to throw in an animation exercise or two, so be ready for anything. And because of her extensive background in on-camera acting, Tasia can’t help but incorporate the acting muscles used for that genre of acting in her lessons, which can only bring to life the voice acting skills that will make your auditions roar. Disclaimer: No animals were actually hurt in the belaboring of this metaphor, unless you consider yourself an animal and having to read through this description bruised your mental happiness by the constant stringing along of this worked-over metaphor, and now, this over-explained disclaimer. Longest.Disclaimer. Ever!
- For Advanced/Working Professionals
A GATHERING OF ACTORS
Director: Melissa Gray
Length: 12-hour four-week workshop
Class Notes: None
Jump into the fray with Melissa Gray to explore the acting essentials necessary to make an emotional connection to the script. You’ll explore your wants, verbal action choices, selection of beats, variety of rhythms and nuancing, subtext as you work on a scene with a partner. Your monologue work will bring a sense of relationship to the performance that translates to radio dialogue work, video games, character pieces… ok, literally ALL of your voice-over acting endeavors. Continue to expand your listening skills so that you are spontaneously reacting, creating a performance that will come from a true sense of what you need and feel in the moment. Work within a custom packet of monologues pre-selected especially for you by Melissa, no voice-over copy to be found! The emphasis will be on script analysis and the emotional and vocal values that translate to the voice-over medium.
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ANIMATION DOMINATION
Director: Matt Moy
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class homework assignment. Students must have home recording capabilities.
From his time on prime-time television or his character credits, Matt is stoked to guide you through a variety of animation scripts. It’s time for you to work with this very special Voicetrax alum rock star! From home recording performances that will receive feedback in class, to fun and exciting animated characters performed live in class, you’ll get an opportunity to pick his brain and learn how Matt’s experienced, comedic timing applies to dissecting scripts. How does he bring variety to his individual reads? How do you create different reads for the same script? With Matt at the helm, all those questions will be answered, and a wondrous time is sure to be had by all.
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AROUND THE CAMPUS LIVE!
Director: Roni Gallimore
Length: 9-hour three-week workshop
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class homework assignment. Students must have home recording capabilities.
Even though our beloved first born – the printed catalogue – is back (Huzzah!), we would never ignore our baby, the digital version of the catalogue. In fact, we want to kick it up a notch and that’s where YOU come in! By adding an exciting audio component to our online class descriptions, benefitting those who are visually impaired, we are opening a performance opportunity of a different kind. In this brand-new idea from the Voicetrax Think Tank brain trust, the students in this class will help us bring the digital catalogue’s class descriptions to life with an audio performance. These performances will live on our website for the entire semester as you zero in on your interpretation of the brand voice of the school’s catalogue, The Voicetrax Star. And because the point of this class is not website glory (although a little glory wouldn’t be bad, now would it?) and is about bolstering your acting chops, we can’t get away from that “annoying little brother”, yet vitally essential skill of self-direction. You’ll be asked to weigh on your fellow student’s performances in a collaborative environment bringing out the best you have to give.
BE SCENE AND HEARD
Director: SF Agent
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class homework assignment.
In this monologue master scene study class, one of the most successful agents in the country is bringing his razor-sharp wit and finely-tuned ears and eyes to guide you through the emotional nooks and crannies of a pre-selected, fully memorized scene from a play or movie that you might actually be cast in. Work collaboratively with this agent who’s watched thousands of actors perform monologues, with a theatre acting background himself, as you open the hood on your interpretation and dig deeper to create an authentic portrayal that gets to the heart of the matter and transforms the words in the scene into a rich, layered, purposeful and thoughtful performance that transcends.
BRITISH-ISH: A JOURNEY TO MID-ATLANTIC & BEYOND 
Director: PJ Ochlan
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: None
Descend into the amorphous Mid-Atlantic accent without clear lines of distinction and no true right vs. wrong architecture. The ambiguity of this accent limits the “rule book”. Get ready as PJ – Dr. Dialect himself – demystifies the robustly requested (and by robustly we mean all.the.damn.time.) Mid-Atlantic accent. If you want to be competitive and book video games, this accent must be in your arsenal… FULL STOP. And what about the Beyond? We actually mean this literally and geographically this time around as PJ will incorporate aspects of English and other Euro accents to give everyone a bigger Trans-Atlantic toolbox to work with. This ups the challenge and gives you a lot more to play with as you rid yourself of that rudderless Mid-Atlantic boat in the middle of the ocean, sun beating down on your forehead, lips chapping, and focus in on a true Mid-Atlantic accent.
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CHARACTER LAYER CAKE
Director: Roni Gallimore, Vicki Baum, Chuck Kourouklis
Length: 9-hour three-week workshop
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class and weekly homework assignments. Prerequisite: Imagination Revisited or prior approval of Voicetrax.
As we continue deeper into the Imagination Revisited universe, we’ve upped the stakes. In the level one course, Roni, Vicki and Chuck worked with you to maintain consistency in your character. Remember it wasn’t you taking that voice-over class, it was your character taking the class. In this second level, not only will maintaining your character from the moment you login until the moment class is done still be key, but now you will be asked to perform certain tasks in that character. Directing other students? Yep! Spontaneously adding new layers to your character? Uh-huh! Other fun twists? You can count on it. Learn to spin multiple plates as you ground yourself in your self-created character.
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CHARACTERS OFF THE CUFF
Director: Janet Varney
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class homework assignment. This course is in-person only.
The Voicetrax universe is sooooo lucky to to count amongst the family the incredible Janet Varney. With a lengthy list of character voice-over and on-camera credits, Janet is widely known as the co-founder of the iconic comedy festival, SF Sketchfest. She also has a mighty impressive track record of mixing it up with her famous friends in the improv world. Characters and improv… Improv and characters. Hmmmmmm…. We’re sure we’ve heard that somewhere before. With Janet combining character scripts with improv games, this class is going to be such a hoot, with lots of zany antics, laughs, and learning, too, that Zoom just won’t do. Even though we all know how Voicetrax is basically crushing this whole online class thing, if we do say so ourselves. It’s clear this party has to be experienced live, so it will be an in-person class only. After all is said and done and the frivolity has run its course, Janet will have put a jolt in your character performances that will take your interpretation off the page and book the job, all while having one hell of a time.
DIRECT THYSELF: CHARACTERS
Director: Brian Sommer, Kristen Paiva
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class homework assignment. Students must have home recording capabilities.
After hitting the “send” button on a character audition or class assignment you recorded at home, do you find yourself second-guessing, asking, “Did I go too far… or not far enough? Is the character I chose too animated or too flat? Is there enough difference between the three characters I chose to audition? Did I play it too safe?” The answer to all these questions depends on whether or not you were able to separate the actor you and the director you. You need to think like a director and look at the big picture, considering the character in context of the story, the relationship with the other character and what’s actually going on in the scene. Not to mention, are you shaping a dynamic, reactive performance even if it’s just one side of a dialogue? Brian and Kristen will put you in the director hot seat to guide your fellow students into competitive character performances including shading and emotional range, giving him an inside peek at what you’re telling yourself at home.
KNOW YOUR ZERO II
Director: Vicki Baum
Length: 12-hour four-week workshop
Class Notes: Prerequisite: Know Your Zero Level One. This course includes a pre-class homework assignment. Students must have home recording capabilities.
Just when you thought you knew everything you needed to know about your Zero, this level II class is going to get even “zero-ier”. (whoa, did we just make up a new word? call Merriam Webster!) Guided by Vicki Baum, the creator of the Zero vernacular, you’ll revisit your personality and vocal trait lists and add to them and further explore your super fun and freeing Anti-Zero, all while directing your fellow students in class and providing feedback on their at-home recordings. Basically, each student at one point during the four weeks, will be assisting Vicki teach the class. Trait lists, directing and feedback, oh my!
LEAVE NOTHING ON THE TABLE
Director: Janet Varney
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class homework assignment. Students must have home recording capabilities.
A table read (aka read-through) is an organized reading of a script with all the actors present at one… table (see what we did there?) in which the voice-over, stage direction and scene headings are read out loud. Table reads are an essential part of the script development and writing process, as writers use them as an opportunity to fine tune their stories, sharpen their dialogue and hear what works and what doesn’t. Join the table read universe as you pre-record auditions at home for Janet to listen to and cast ahead of class. Then a true-blue table read will commence in-class with all the expectations of exploration, improv and living in the moment as the scene moves you to whatever your imagination can create. Be a part of this collaborative undertaking with one of the founders of the iconic SF SketchFest comedy festival.
MEN ONLY: THE LEGENDS
Directors: Brian Sommer, Dave Fennoy, Erik Braa
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: This course will include a pre-class homework assignment. Students must have home recording capabilities.
Can’t you just hear this class title being performed with a booming voice rattling your bones and your soul? We sure can, every single time. This triumvirate of video game expertise has come together to take you through what it means to be a man in the world of video games. A Viking? Check! A Zombie killer? Check, check! A Barbarian King? Check, check and check… But guess what? It’s not all about big voices. With the explosion of video game opportunities that just keeps getting more and more robust, every kind of voice and man is required by game producers. So along with the requisite big and hairy characters, these gentlemen will take you through a cornucopia of different roles to stretch your range, add to your variety and make you a video game man to be reckoned with.
NO LAUGHING MATTER
Director: Frank Coppola
Length: 12-hour four-week workshop
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class and weekly homework assignments.
You’ve likely heard it said comedy is a serious business. Learning how to get the laugh is the foremost goal in this ridiculously FUN (and funny!) exploration into what makes comedy tick. Its use of language, which ranges from vernacular speech to puns and wordplay, its use of taboo subjects, and its use of incongruence and juxtaposition. Through physicality, comedic timing, distractions and more, Frank will help you to “get over yourself”, and just let the comedy and laughter rip! Working on comedic scripts from plays, television and movies will most definitely help your overall confidence when behind the microphone.
ON-CAMERA SCENE STUDY
Director: Frank Coppola
Length: 12-hour four-week workshop
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class homework assignment.
Lights, Camera, Action! And that’s not just a metaphor for this workshop that will not take place in the sound booth, but in front of the camera. After all the time you’ve spent behind the microphone learning the techniques necessary for voice-over work, it’s easy to fathom that there is a whole other set of techniques for on-camera work. Using monologue and scene scripts, some chosen by Frank, some chosen by you, explore the world of on-camera acting including sizing your performance for the camera and picking audition material that’s right for you. You’ll also have the opportunity to review your recorded performances with video playback. Add more range to your repertoire and expand your potential for acting work by developing your on-camera skills.
ONE DAY WONDER: SECRET AGENT CHARACTER PROTOCOL
Director: LA Agent
Length: 7-hour one-day lab Class
Notes: None
Your mission should you choose to accept it is to infiltrate this one-day lab and retrieve all the critical voice-over knowledge being offered. New intel suggests that one of the most successful animation agents in the country will be homing in in her super cool agent gadget-like way on the Bay Area ready to engage a few select voice actors who are ready to step up to the plate and expand their character skills in a more intimate setting. With only 8 seats available in this special lab, you’ll have to be quick on the draw to register. As always should you or any member of your class be caught phoning in your performances, the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This class description will self-destruct in 5 seconds…
ONE DAY WONDER: THE SHOW MUST GO ON
Director: Lee Porter
Length: 7-hour one-day lab Class
Notes: This course will include a pre-class homework assignment. Students must have home recording capabilities.
Welcome to a FIRST for Guest Directors at Voicetrax (for at least as long as we can remember, which honestly is not saying that much…)! An animation house SHOWRUNNER. That’s right, we said showrunner. And what is that? Exactly what it sounds like. When executive producing an animation series, Lee is responsible for… well… everything under the sun including budgets, casting, writing and directing, which shhhh! don’t tell his bosses, is his favorite part of the job. Not only will you get an incredible look behind the curtain, but Lee will give his straight-forward feedback to pre-class, at-home recordings. He will also bring his very actor-friendly style of directing to the mock-session work you will experience in-class throughout the day. And who better to ask any questions you might have on how the animation sausage is made?
ONE DAY WONDER: VIDEO GAME GRUNT WORK
Join The Viking himself as you breathe life into a video game character until you eventually help them shuffle off this mortal coil. In the morning, with Erik’s expert tutelage, you will develop a character and run through scripts living and feeling as that creation. Then in the afternoon, things will take a turn to the darker side of video games, as Erik will expose you to all the levels of carnage and different ways that a video game character can die, by teaching you how to perform “efforts” and “impacts”: the sounds of dying. How does it sound to expire from the stab of a small dagger versus the swinging force of a spiked battle flail? What’s the difference between falling off a 30-foot cliff versus a 300-foot cliff? And while all this havoc and destruction is super fun, it’s also super lucrative. Actors that have an inventory of death sounds in their repertoire are the ones that get the jobs. Sometimes it all comes down to making an effort.
ONE NIGHT WONDER: AI VOICES
Director: Brian Sommer
Length: 3-hour one-day lab
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class homework assignment.
With the development of voices actually created by computers, where do voice actors fit in the AI cosmos? How do you actually do AI voices? Fear not, the good news is computers can’t act! Brian will help you through the examinations of should your voice be robotic or sound like Siri or just sound like a normal person? And how do you find range in your AI audition? Ironically, how do you bring AI voices to life? All these pressing questions and so much more will be covered in this lab. You’ll dig into the exploration of the subtle nuances necessary to bring the computer, robot, high-tech aliens, whatever they think of next, etc., etc., etc. to life.
ONE NIGHT WONDER: MEDICAL NARRATION
Director: Vicki Baum
Length: 3-hour one-day lab
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class homework assignment.
Do you wonder if medical narration is right for you? News Flash: It is! Once you get past any initial hesitation, you’ll find that long medical words are just… words. And before you think you don’t have the right “voice” for medical narration, we are here to tell you that those doors are opening wider and wider with each passing year. It’s important to remember that this niche of the narration world is very profitable because once medical narration clients, producers and the like know they can trust you with the necessary jargon, they will hire you time and time again, creating a lucrative repeat client. We’re pretty sure that’s the dream, right?
ONE NIGHT WONDER: SOUND AND FURY SATURDAY (ON A THURSDAY!)
Director: Carli Silver
Length: 3-hour one-day lab
Class Notes: None
Join one of the lead ladies from casting juggernaut Sound & Fury, as she tells you everything she knows about what casting professionals are looking for in a winning audition. Carli will focus on character pre-life, speaking from your gut and bringing a unique point of view to your performance. She might even get you to stop making each word so friggin’ special and just give it to them straight. With each script being so unique, this vastly experienced casting expert will help you bring the honesty and truth to tags and commercial scripts while translating the specs into actionable direction. By the end of the jam-packed day you’ll come to realize it’s your inner voice not your outer voice that counts.
ONE-TAKE MASTERS
Directors: Vicki Baum, Chuck Kourouklis
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class homework assignment. Students must have home recording capabilities.
Let’s be crystal clear, we aren’t going to drop you in the deep end of the “one-take pool” straight away, but you best be ready to step up to the plate knowing you have one swing at booking the job. Gone is the wiggle room of letting your first couple takes be a warm-up, lazily leaning on the director to manufacture your performance, eventually hitting on something only to be asked… why wasn’t that your first take? Time is money, people! And if you’re actively auditioning (or even home-recording for class homework), allowing yourself more than two or three takes risks working the copy to death and overthinking everything. Overthinking? We don’t know any actors who do that! We all instinctually know that the 7th, 8th or 9th take is never going to be better than the first few fresh ones. As two of the three members of the Voicetrax Think Tank take you through imaginative exercises and simulated auditions you’ll gain confidence in your choices to be bold from the start. What happens when preparation meets pressure, so that you come “hot out of the gate” on your very first take?
PRECISE & CONCISE
Director: SF Agent
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: This course will include a pre-class homework assignment. Students must have home recording capabilities.
Have you ever found yourself at home, trying to self-direct and gone on so long in your head that you don’t even remember what the actual question you asked yourself was? Have we got the class for you! Half game show, half talent agent wisdom, our industry veteran agent and one hell of a guy will take you on a self-direction odyssey where you will have to explain to him (without nattering on, please) right before you perform just exactly what you are directing yourself to do. What’s the twist? There’ll be a maximum word count allowed for your explanation. Can you do it in 50 words? 20 words? Can you describe exactly what you are going to perform in just one word? Yikes! With the master of short but potent direction himself, Agent T will help you to create the habit of being precise and concise with yourself, so you come out the other end with a specific, authentic and job-winning audition, all by yourself from the comfort of your own home.
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SELF-DIRECTION TRIFECTA
Director: Samantha Paris, Brian Sommer, LA Agent
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class homework assignment. Students must have home recording capabilities.
There’s that pesky term AGAIN… Self-Direction. If only there was a magic pill, and POOF, every script you saw was crystal clear… (ahhh, but not all of can be Samantha!) And by every script, we mean characters, narration and commercial. But wait! This seminar just happens to have that very triad of teachers to help you with your self-direction aptitude across the board. With Brian helping you let loose with characters, Vicki steadying your engaging storyteller with narration and our very special Agent B from the City of Angels taking on the authenticity of commercials, your self-direction skills are sure to soar, making your first take out of the gate count, leading your home auditions to a whole new level.
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SHE SAID/SHE SAID: NARRATION
Directors: Vicki Baum, LA Agent
Length: 12-hour four-week workshop
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class homework assignment. Students must have home recording capabilities.
Another exciting twist to this immensely popular class format. A duo never before paired together will give you their up-front, straight-forward, (whatever hyphenated adjectives you want to come up with) assessments to your narration skills. As the weeks progress, you will continue to get feedback from both instructors on the same narration performance. Did they say the exact same thing? Great! It’s clear what to work on. Did they use different words (because one is an actor and the other is an agent) but still say the same thing, or did their feedback differ and what the heck does that mean? This approach is meant to strengthen the voice-over calculator in your brain, helping you translate all the data into useful information to improve your performance. Not to mention it’s extremely helpful in those booked recording sessions when your director doesn’t speak actor and it’s your job to take what they say and translate it into a client-loving result. Learn to be quick on your feet and swift in your reactions to direction. Be a performer that is ready for anything because that actor gets booked again and again and again.
SOAR TO THE TOP FLOOR
Directors: Samantha Paris, LA Agent
Length: 8-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class homework assignment. Students must have home recording capabilities.
How much better does it get than The Founder herself paired with one of the top animation agents in the entire country? Spend a weekend with these two dynamic women fine-tuning your animation elevator pitch, i.e. how best do you present yourself when you only have the length of an elevator ride to do it. You’ll start off with Samantha working through scripts concentrating on fine-tuning your best animation characters digging into script analysis and bringing the characters off the page. That will set you up to perform for our wonderful Agent R with confidence, clarity and conciseness, the three C’s of the most effective elevator pitch. She’ll give you her expert assessment on your wheelhouse performances to help your skills soar ever higher.
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THE COLOR OF ACTING
Director: Thom Pinto
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: Prerequisite: Colors Of Your Voice or prior approval from Voicetrax.
Okay, so you’ve mastered the primary colors including blue, you’re feeling good about green. And you’re confident when it comes to their close cousin as your performances are being vaulted by violet. But how’s your aqua? Or your beige? Join the creator of the Colors acting system, Thom Pinto, where you’ll continue to examine the subtleties and nuances of using an expanded color palette when you create interesting and unique acting choices, including incorporating this technique to differentiate reads when tasked to do more than one interpretation. Experiment with longer monologues, funny partner reads, and some exercises designed specifically to help you be more visual with your performance.
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THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF PROMOS
Director: Ryan Clark
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class homework assignment. Students must have home recording capabilities.
Enter the Magic Kingdom of promos, a very prolific and profitable slice of the voice-over industry. Join a well-versed and long-experienced Ryan Clark, a writer and producer for Disney promos (yes, people that Disney), as they take you through a cornucopia of exercises meant to open your eyes to the skills necessary to be a competitive promo actor, including giving feedback on home recorded auditions (and perhaps giving you another shot at it live in-class), casting do’s and don’ts as they ask for your feedback on class performances, even letting you peek behind the curtains to hear winning auditions on actual promo projects! This all adds up to an enchanting weekend full of valuable, practical advice in the wonderful world of promos.
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TRIPLE THREAT: NARRATION NATION
Directors: Vicki Baum, Dave Fennoy, Peter Dunne
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: None
The voice-over narration nation has exploded into numerous sub-genres including the three popular types these industry pros will be guiding you through. You’ll work with one of the most prolific audio tour producers around, Peter Dunne, as well as narration dynamo, Vicki Baum, who will work with you on the ever-challenging and yet absolutely lucrative medical narration, along with Dave Fennoy who will put you to the test with a mystery narration style to be announced in class. After class, each director will submit the list of students that gave competitive performances in their category. Whoever shows up on all three lists will be deemed a triple threat narrator and will be awarded a free private lesson. How ‘bout them apples?
UTILITY PLAYER UNIVERSITY
Director: LA Agent
Length: 9-hour three-week workshop
Class Notes: This course includes weekly homework assignments. Students must have home recording capabilities.
Just like any career, the more versatile your skill set is, the more attractive you are to agents, producers, casting agents and ultimately… clients. School is in session and Agent B is locked and loaded and ready to knock your socks off with her “cornucopia of variety” lesson plan. Each night the focus will be on a different genre of voice-over, so not only will you receive feedback and script analysis ideas, techniques and approaches from one of the hardest working agents in the business, you’ll be strengthening your ability to create momentum in your booking rate by being the ultimate utility player.
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WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU (WILL) GET
Director: Vicki Baum
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class assignment. Students must home recording capabilities.
What’s that? Over the hill and beyond the horizon? It’s you, envisioning yourself in a scene, fully engulfing yourself, letting the moment take you over. No phones, no computers, no responsibilities. Just you and your imagination taking you to creative and inspiring places. Once back from that mind-bending projection, Vicki will assist you in applying that freedom of imagination to your acting experiences, bringing realism, authenticity and heart to anything you do in the future whether it’s Pulitzer-prize winning play, a comedic television show or ruminating on celery for 99 cents a pound. You’ll travel through numerous visualization exercises that will no doubt connect you to a deeper, more profound part of yourself. If you are experiencing challenges connecting to authentic emotions from within, this is the class for you! A far-ranging and illuminating seminar to be sure.
YOU TALKIN’ TO ME?
Director: LA Agent
Length: 9-hour three-week workshop
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class assignment. (NEW to Voicetrax!) Students must home recording capabilities.
How many times a week do auditioning voice actors see the words “friendly, natural and conversational” on a script? Ahhhh yes, the over-used, generic Triad of Death. The place where commercial performances go to die. You scream to yourself, doing your best Janet Leigh from Psycho impersonation, asking yourself: “How do I do that? What do they want?” The challenge is the vast majority of commercial opportunities are calling for that type of read. That’s where Agent N comes in! She will guide you through understanding how to hone in on being the best YOU, you can be, instead of trying to emulate what you know it’s supposed to sound like – or as we like to call it “chasing the melody” – of the style of commercial script you are performing. You’ll work on commercial scripts that are in your wheelhouse, as well as ones that make you stretch. At the end of the weekend, you’ll no longer fear the natural, conversational commercial read.
YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN: THE ART OF SELF-DIRECTION
Director: Thom Pinto
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class homework assignment. Students must have home-recording capabilities.
A world-class authority on the intricacies of home auditioning, Thom will guide you through developing a critical ear on playbacks, examining your initial tendencies (good or bad) when left on your own, covering the bases for an audition with no outside direction (minus some likely confusing and unhelpful specs) and finding the best rhythm for auditioning amid demanding day jobs and all the responsibilities that stem from that little thing called life. After class is finished, Thom will provide each student with a customized analysis, a cheat-sheet if you will, based on what he observed in class to keep you on the right path as you record at home and enable you to produce consistently impressive home auditions all on your own. Now that home auditioning is here to stay, this course is more relevant than ever.
SIMPLY ACTING
THE WORLD OF VOICE-OVER: AN INTRODUCTION
Director: YOU and your fellow students (and perhaps a Guest Director will pop in!)
Directors: 
BRITISH-ISH: A JOURNEY TO MID-ATLANTIC & BEYOND