Blog

Our names are so familiar to us that often, we rush through them so fast they can’t be understood. Senior coach Neela Muñoz tells us all about it in this short video–  

Have you ever been giving a speech or presentation, and when you look out at the audience, your gaze falls on a person who seems completely irritated by what you’re saying?   It’s the job of the speaker to engage the audience. But it helps when the audience gives the speaker something to work with. … Read more

I am a huge fan of The Great British Baking Show, a TV show that delivers on everything in its title. Amateur British bakers convene each week and try their skills at baking various challenging confections under time constraints. Two professional and renowned bakers, Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, judge their efforts. Each week, someone … Read more

The power and the polish of an event is demonstrated in the moments the audience doesn’t notice. These are the moments in between things, the time when elements are moving and the next thing is about to happen, but hasn’t yet.   How do we plan for those moments? How do we practice them?   … Read more

William Shakespeare wrote quickly, and he wrote to make money. He had to—his job was to create something that was appealing to an audience. He knew that he needed to write plays that made different kinds of people happy, from the illiterate groundlings to the Queen of England.   Here’s how he did it:   … Read more

I read pages and pages of listener reviews of different podcasts yesterday. Here is what they boiled down to:   That quirky thing [the host’s voice, the style of the podcast, the huge amount/scanty amount of research, the political slant, the banter, the fact there were/were not interviews] is what I love about this podcast. I’ve listened to … Read more

Quitting, in and of itself, is value-neutral. There are great reasons to quit just about anything. When does the urge to quit well up in you?   Are you doing something you’ve never done before? Are you doing something you’ve done often? Are you frightened? Are you bored? Are you exhausted? Do you feel alone? … Read more

Despite a lifetime spent in theatre, until last week I had never heard the Italian term for wishing a performer a good show. Now I’m fascinated by it.   The phrase is in bocca al lupo, or “in the mouth of the wolf.” A little internet research reveals that the origin of this phrase is … Read more

“This isn’t going to work. Let’s move on.”   Last weekend, I was helping out at a friend’s party. There were dozens of candles that needed to be lit, in a short period of time, so four of us were working our way down the line with lighters and long tapers.   The candles were … Read more