Class Descriptions

Ah, comedy. The art of making people laugh. Easy, right? Not so fast. Comedy is not just about fun and games… it’s a serious and lucrative business. Behind every well-timed punchline and perfectly executed bit, there’s machinery at work, and it takes more than a good sense of humor to pull it off. Join Roni, one of our resident redheads (did ’ya see her on the cover laughing her you-know-what off?), to explore what makes something truly funny. She’ll utilize numerous theatre games including improv to assist you in the timing necessary to bring comedic radio ads to life, some that are brilliantly written, aaand perhaps some that aren’t quite, let’s just say, Clio Award winners, and leave it at that. When done right, comedy is an art form. It requires patience and practice, and that’s exactly what you’ll get in this world premiere workshop.

Take flight with Voicetrax Alum, Brian Sommer, in this rapid-fire workshop. Your turn will begin with an unseen character audition sheet. On the ready, set, “GO” from Brian (he has a stopwatch and he’s not afraid to use it), you will have 3 minutes to make your acting choices preparing for your performance, 2 chances to record the copy with Brian and will choose 1 of those takes to submit. Because Brian will be putting a “revolving door” on the class roster, there’s no time for deep philosophical character study. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in finding the character, that we forget the basics (who, what, where, etc.), so this class compels the student to return to those basics. The rapid-fire approach and limited time will force you to focus on the fundamentals and trust your training to create a believable, unique character.

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.

Your bad accents have affected us negatively in the following ways: it makes us sad that your British video game character sounds more like he’s from New York high society and it keeps us up at night thinking about the session where you’ll have to sustain your shaky Chicago accent (that regrettably sounds equal parts Irish, US Southern and just plain bad) for 100+ lines of dialogue. But don’t give up, there is hope! We’ve invited interventionist, award-winning voice actor and dialect dynamo, PJ Ochlan, to rehab your inconsistent dialects. This class is formatted to give you the time you need between classes to absorb the process, so that when you finish you will possess the knowledge necessary to practice and polish an accent you can take to the bank. Throughout this odyssey PJ will introduce you to his tried-and-true approach to building ANY accent in the world, which translates to solid gold for a video game voice actor. The time has come for you to make a decision. Will you seek help today?

The idea of this class has been burning deep in Chopper’s soul for some time now, and for those of you who don’t know Chopper yet, that’s deeeeep. Yes, he has worked in the voice over world for twenty plus years doing animation (Spirit), commercial (Charles Schwab) and promo (NBC, MSNBC), but he has also been on-camera on television shows, as well as acting in micro budgeted films as well as massively budgeted films (Terminator 3). He is an actor through and through, and he is ready to share his hard-earned experience with our students. Chopper will utilize monologues and scenes from film and television, as well as some improv exercises, assisting you to keep going deeper into the motivation and behavior of your characters. Chopper’s knack of bringing out of you a depth of acting you didn’t know your soul was capable of, will certainly keep you riveted all six weeks.

Join one of the first Voicetrax students ever, Dave Fennoy, as he explores approaching video game performances from a true actor’s perspective, as if they were cinematic characters because in video games these days they are! Dave is globally known for his gaming credits (The Walking Dead, anyone?), which means his ability to create a multi-faceted, genuine character is on point! With a million-dollar voice, Dave could have rested on his laurels, but he’s studied hard to develop his acting chops and he’ll absolutely do the same for you. Spend the weekend with Dave as he shares his philosophies examining how authenticity and context always bring a starring and even a bit player video game performance to life.

In this immersive, world premiere workshop with actress, casting professional and brand-new member of the Voicetrax clan, Libby Clearfield, you’ll hone the art of conversational acting, focusing on techniques to make scripted monologues feel natural, spontaneous and most importantly? Authentic. Whether you’re performing in a film, on stage, or in voice-over auditions, this class will equip you with the tools to create believable, relatable characters through organic speech patterns, savvy script analysis and real-life interactions. Through these practical exercises with Libby’s guidance, you’ll explore ways to break down scripted lines and bring your own unique voice to every role. Discover how to shed rigid line readings (ACTOR CAUGHT READING!) while overcoming common habits that make your performances feel “stiff” and enhancing emotional connection and spontaneity in your delivery. Embrace a more fluid, emotionally truthful performance style that resonates with audiences.

You know that saying, “less is more”? Well, this is an entire seminar focusing on that exact premise. With the preponderance of real and conversational requests from producers and casting directors, the phrase “not over the top” is showing up all the time in copy specs. What does that mean? How far is too far? Most importantly, how do you stop from going too far in the opposite direction and delivering a boring, flat performance? Join this revered San Francisco agent whose been at the top of this industry for decades (and continues to be) to get an insider’s view on this very popular current trend and learn the balance between going for it and leaving your audience wanting more.

As you start to really amp up your performances to a working professional, real-world, competitive level, one of the hardest things to do is to take words that you didn’t write and might not ever say, at least not in the way they’ve written it (have you EVER said introducing while sharing an exciting secret with a best friend?!?), and make them feel genuine, alive and real, aka “getting the words off the page”. Professionally performing since childhood both in front of the camera and behind the microphone, Tasia will employ her tricks of the trade, literally born from a lifetime of breaking down scripts of all flavors, to assist you in digging deep to flush out the true meaning of the script while developing the skills necessary to get unnatural voice-over copy to sound off-the-cuff and true. Approach commercial scripts as “mini plays” from a true actor’s perspective to get the most of out the script and your performance.

Over the last several years the demand for characters that sing in feature films, television series and apps has greatly increased, and that will be the focus of this super unique class. Now before you say “Nope. Not me. I can’t sing!”, pleeeease remember that not every nutty, silly animated character sounds like Mariah Carey, Barbra Streisand or The Candlestick from Beauty And The Beast, so you don’t have to either! And if singing is totally comfortable for you, then it’s time to bring that “shower superstar” into the light. Get out of your comfort zone, let loose, remember why you started in voice-over in the first place and have some fun. And we haven’t even mentioned how singing your copy can bring about a freer you – oh wait... we just mentioned it… Whether singing scares you or you’re eager and ready to get your singing groove on, we know you’ll leave this class with an expanded fearlessness to audition singing characters.

We stopped short of calling this Vicki vs. Aaron (who would you bet on?), but it’s true that each week the roster will be divided between two teams who will duke it out for serious bragging rights. And don’t get too cozy on the team you’re on initially because each week the teams will be rearranged based on a very specific genre and style including commercial girl/guy next door, accented video game and cartoon characters, villains and villainesses, wise storytellers and authoritative but approachable narrators. This class hits on self-direction, script analysis, script choice, performing without much time for preparation, and includes a wide variety of genres and roles that are asked for often in auditioning. Super relevant and taught by two working voice actors. And if this jam-packed workshop isn’t enough, at the end of the four weeks, both Aaron and Vicki will each pick an overall “winner” and whomever they pick will win a free private lesson from them. C’mon, we needed to have some kind of contest, it is called Teaming With Talent.

It’s no secret that flexibility and adaptability are major ingredients to achieving success in the San Francisco Bay Area voice-over market, but let’s get real: it’s important everywhere. Do we honestly think there are a bunch of “one-trick pony” actors crushing it in Los Angeles? Not likely… And even more relevant, in the course of one day of home auditioning, an actor can very easily be asked to audition numerous different styles. In the four weeks of this workshop you’ll expand your skill set by covering four different genres of audition exercises. Unearth the secrets of delivering a memorable monologue, compare and contrast new school and old school narration, fine tune the art of acting in a vacuum with wild lining and navigate those pesky, deceptively difficult tags. You’ll traverse the rocky landscape of multiple genres and develop the true “versatility factor”.

Ladies and Gentlemen START… YOUR… ENGINES!! Rev up for a fun and exciting class/competition that will result in the winner receiving a FIVE HUNDRED DOLLAR class credit. Have we got your attention, now?? We’ve brought back our real-world Voicetrax competition due to its immense popularity. With self-direction mandatory for today’s working voice actor, (it’s never too much practice) this class will dive headfirst into the what-do-you-do-with-a-script-when-left-to-your-own-devices quandary. In the preliminary round, each participant will submit three home recordings (just like the real world) that will be judged by The Legen-wait for it-dary Voicetrax Think Tank. Every single preliminary participant will receive feedback on your recordings. The 12 chosen finalists will be advanced to the one-day lab and asked to submit further home recordings. During the Finals lab, you’ll work out with fresh scripts as well as decompress with Vicki, as she reviews your home recordings, gives her valuable feedback and announces who took the checkered flag as the winner of the Voicetrax 500!

A shell game of another flavor, this class will ask you to keep your eye on “The Lady”, namely a feedback-eligible script from an industry veteran. To play, your “dealer”, the delightful Chuck Kourouklis, will offer three scripts each night, one of which is a recent audition script that will be eligible for feedback from a top SF agent that works in the trenches every day listening to hundreds of auditions. The twist? You won’t know which of the three scripts the feedback-eligible audition is. Will it be the scripts you record live in class, or will it be the one you recorded at home? Only the dealer knows for sure. Guess you’ll have to bring your best stuff each night, script after script after script. The engineer will send the recordings of the selected script to the SF Agent who will not only provide straight-forward, get-to-the-point, professional-standard feedback, she’ll also tell you if you performed an audition she would submit to the client. Learn exactly where you stack up compared with working voice actors, or if you are a working voice actor get that precious audition feedback you long for. Get used to handling your nerves while you focus in on a brilliant performance when it’s truly all on the line.

You may be wondering who the “H-E-double hockey sticks” is Veebz? Funny story. Chuck has the habit of giving Vicki a variety of nicknames because she signs everything VB, and one of those nicknames is Veebz! Although perhaps you could have figured that out on your own with her name listed above as Director. Hmmm… ANYHOO, let’s talk self-direction! No matter your skills as an actor or your ability to analyze a script, if you lack the appropriate level of self-direction know-how, booking a voice-over job is made a whole lot more challenging. Join Vicki aka VB aka Veebz as she employs her “Vibe Check” philosophy to strengthen and SIMPLIFY your approach to self-direction. And if you think because you’ve been in a class and/or a private lesson with Vicki where she’s talked about this that you already know what this class is all about, trust us when we say she is taking The Vibe Check thing to a whole new level. Are you picking up what we’re putting down? Groovy.

You’ve dipped your toe in the billion dollar a year pool known as audiobooks by taking the original Once Upon a Time class and it felt nice, safe and warm. You’ve started working on your male/female character separations and begun to hone your ability to talk to yourself as well as developing a consistently engaging narrator. The time has come to turn the page and take it to the next level. In Volume II, you will delve deeper into the treacherous tones of convincingly voicing the opposite sex, a mandatory skill for audiobook success. Additionally, Roni will open a whole new chapter by sharing her expertise, hard won by trial & error and real-world experience, on how to clean your files of all auditory annoyances such as mouth noise, clicks and buzzes which will lead to your “happily ever after”.

Knowledge of present-day trends is always half the battle when putting together a voice-over performance, especially when it comes to commercial copy, and archetypes are an often-underutilized technique to hitting the perfect pitch. Melissa will guide you through the current, major archetypes for commercials including (but certainly not limited to) the bold and confident trustworthiness of the hero-heroine/protagonist for an inspired, new product, the soothing, alluring invitation of the seductress for luxury product ads or maybe even the menacing and condescending vitriol of the villain-villianess/antagonist in… who knows what! By mastering these archetypes, you’ll learn to move seamlessly between the diverse types of commercial scripts with a keen understanding of how to adopt distinct archetypes to suit the needs of different commercial projects. The framework that Melissa will provide will get you one step closer to booking the job by putting you one step AHEAD of your competition!

The specs on a piece of voice-over copy have long stirred epic debates on how much or how little to pay attention to them. Are the specs a barren wasteland that say, “friendly and conversational?” On the other end of the spectrum, are the specs verbose (longer than the actual script even) and conflicting, making it easy to get caught up in them, getting in the way of a truly connected (translation: bookable) performance? So, what do you do? Every time you look at a new script the FIRST THING you should be asking yourself BEFORE you look at the specs is “what are the words in the script telling me?” In this workshop, you’ll get the answer to that all-important question. Samantha and Brian will take you through various spec-centric exercises with commercial and characters scripts respectively including reading the script without benefit of the specs to see if you naturally SEE the specs in the script. Find out what happens if you let the words on the page tell you what to do instead of relying on the specs. Take your script analysis skills to the highest level by making strong acting choices that result in a SPEC-tacular performance. See what we did there?

Dive into the invigorating world of partner work using scene scripts from plays and movies. Explore the true, honest, human connections that allow the craft of acting to truly awaken in your soul and lead you to a riveting or hilarious or poignant performance. Your time with Samantha will strengthen your overall acting skills including being more authentic, “in the moment” and letting the character speak through you. Then on Sunday, The Voicetrax Think Tank will come in to bask in your scene study glow and choose one set of scene study partners who will each receive a free private lesson. Ultimately, this experience will absolutely, positively make you a better voice actor.

This dynamic duo are ready to bring you into their world (with a little role-playing help from Samantha Paris and YOU!) with this world premiere class. It’s your lucky day as you have just been “signed” with Voices by Samantha Paris, a brand-new start up talent agency created just for this class. For your first audition, your animation chops had best be in order because the very busy and successful showrunner, Lee Porter, has a new (faux) project! The bar will be set high, as if you were actually up against professional caliber competition. Will your auditions make the cut? Will you need to be sent back to the drawing board? And how will Mr. Porter feel about your work? Are you going to book the gig? Find out in this fun, super-fast paced weekend where your auditioning and self-directing skills will be pushed and pulled, stretched and tweaked.

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 freakin’ 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 lady will take you on a self-direction odyssey where you will have to explain to her (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 herself, Agent R 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.

So, yeah, ummmm, it has probably not escaped your attention that this class is titled nearly the same as the one listed above. And it has likely further not escaped your deductive reasoning that the class description would be quite similar, if not nearly identical… and you would be right. This is our attempt to thwart that awkward situation by needlessly nattering on about nothing in particular. So, bottom, line? Read the class description above and substitute narration for characters and Vicki for Chuck. That is all.

Directors: Brian Sommer,  Ben Gabaldon

Length: 12-hour four-week workshop

Class Notes: None

Let loose in the playground of educational toys and apps! Aaron & Rhiannon, two very experienced toy voice actors, will visit multiple sectors in the voice-over toy industry where the FUN is baked right in, and review the specific skills toys demand including consistency, diction and, of course, acting! And even if you think you’ll never voice a toy (NEVER say never) in your career, the character work in this class will up your animation and video game skills, too. Besides, the opportunities in the toy genre continue to grow year after year and once a toy producer knows you can handle the session, they call you back time and time again, without auditioning! That’s the dream now, isn’t it?

Jump in to four weeks of sharpening your critical ear by explaining what you would do to make a performance better, the fundamental skill of successful self-direction. Sounds simple, right? Sure… You should know by now that with Vicki there is always a twist meant to propel your comprehension forward. The twist this time around? You won’t be rating yourself and deciding what to do to make your performance better; you’ll be breaking down the performances submitted by all of your fellow students and telling each of them what to do to make their performances better. Learn to achieve that elusive, yet majestically perfect 3.0 score on our Founder Samantha Paris’ infamous performance rating scale, by bringing a colleague’s good performance to a beautiful, bookable masterpiece.

Just when you think you’ve heard about all the different ways a voice actor may ply their trade, we’re bringing you the opportunity to study yet another one: Audio Description. Providing a verbal version of the visual image and using words that are succinct, vivid, and imaginative, properly trained audio describers convey the visual image that otherwise is not fully accessible to nearly 10 million blind or low vision Americans. One of the biggest stars of audio description (seriously, go check out his bio), Roy Samuelson, will open this world to you by exploring the skills necessary to create a concise, yet energized and nuanced description of the scene unfolding in front of the visually impaired audience members. He’ll also discuss how you get in on these opportunities. And whether or not this is an arena you think you’ll pursue, the chance to level up your storytelling skills with one of the best in the business, is a smart bet for any voice actor. Oh yeah, and did we mention that Roy will be bringing into class actual visually impaired consumers to provide feedback on your performances? It truly doesn’t get more real-world that that, people. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but the best audio describers need only a few well-chosen words to conjure vivid and lasting images.