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OUR CLASSES
VOICE 4
The actor's voice must be capable of meeting every demand language places upon it.
By the time students arrive in Voice IV, they have developed a freer, more responsive, and more expressive vocal instrument through the Linklater and Fitzmaurice progressions. Breath, resonance, vocal freedom, and emotional availability have all been cultivated. The final step is learning how to bring that instrument fully to life through language.
Voice IV explores the extraordinary demands of classical text, using the work of William Shakespeare to develop greater vocal dexterity, clarity of thought, emotional precision, and imaginative expression.
The goal is not simply to speak Shakespeare well. It is to become an actor who can bring any language vividly to life.
Language as Action
Great acting is not simply saying words. It is making language active.
Every sentence carries thought, intention, imagery, rhythm, and emotional life. The actor's responsibility is to transform those words into truthful human behavior.
Shakespeare provides the ideal training ground for this work.
His writing demands extraordinary precision, imagination, and emotional commitment while challenging actors to move beyond the habitual speech patterns that often limit expressive range.
The language stretches the instrument. The instrument expands the actor.
Beyond Everyday Speech
Even after the voice has been physically released, many actors remain trapped by habitual patterns of speaking. Common habits such as monotone delivery, rushing thoughts, dropping energy at the ends of sentences, or flattening language limit both vocal expression and character development.
Voice IV helps actors recognize and move beyond these patterns by cultivating greater flexibility, specificity, and responsiveness in every word they speak.
The result is not simply better speech. It is richer storytelling.
Mastering Classical Text
Throughout the semester, students learn how to approach heightened language with confidence, curiosity, and technical precision.
Working with Shakespeare's verse, actors investigate:
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Rhetorical structure
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Metaphor
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Simile
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Alliteration
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Antithesis
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Imagery
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Rhythm
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Shifts in thought
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Linguistic nuance
Students discover how these elements illuminate character psychology while providing extraordinary opportunities for truthful, emotionally alive acting.
Rather than treating verse as something formal or intimidating, actors learn to experience it as living human language.
Preparing for Every Script
Many actors mistakenly believe that studying Shakespeare is only valuable for those pursuing classical theatre.
In reality, mastering elevated language strengthens every aspect of an actor's craft.
The ability to identify thought shifts, communicate complex ideas clearly, and bring specificity to every word directly enhances work in contemporary theatre, film, television, and auditions. Actors who develop a sophisticated relationship with language possess greater range, greater imagination, and greater confidence regardless of the material they perform.
Completing the Vocal Journey
Voice IV represents the culmination of Maggie Flanigan Studio's four-semester voice curriculum.
Together, Linklater, Fitzmaurice, and classical text training develop a voice that is free, expressive, emotionally available, and capable of serving the full complexity of dramatic literature.
When the body is free, the breath is connected, the voice is alive, and language becomes behavior, the actor possesses an instrument capable of meeting the highest demands of the profession.
That is the purpose of Voice IV.
Voice IV is a twelve-week course consisting of twenty-four classes.
Prerequisites: Successful completion of Voice I, Voice II, and Voice III.
STUDENT TESTIMONIALS
“I left every class brimming with new discoveries. The opportunity to work with Greek text in Level IV was the perfect culmination of our training – incorporating heightened material, huge emotional range and complete physical embodiment of a character.”
Jill Durso
“I think everyone needs voice training. Voice 4 solidifies your breathe and vocal work. This program wouldn’t be complete without this class.”
Cesa Pledger
CONTACT
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VOICE 4
The actor's voice must be capable of meeting every demand language places upon it.
MIDORI NAKAMURA
As an actor, Midori has worked in film, TV, on Broadway and Off-Broadway. Midori was made a Designated Linklater Teacher in 2019. In addition to the Maggie Flanigan Studio, she teaches voice for the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University, The Linklater Center in New York, and NYU Tisch at The Lee Strasberg Theater & Film Institute.
Midori also coaches private clients in both acting and voice.
ACTING STUDIO NEW YORK NY
The Maggie Flanigan Studio is the leading acting studio in New York City where professional actors train for long careers. The acting programs at the drama school are based on the Meisner Technique and the work of Sanford Meisner. The two year acting program includes acting classes, movement classes, voice and speech for actors, commercial acting classes, on camera classes, cold reading, monologue, playwriting, script analysis and the Meisner Summer Intensive.
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