Kristin Linklater
Encyclopedia
Kristin Linklater is a Scottish
vocal coach, dialect coach, acting teacher, actor
, theatre director, and author
. She is currently Head of Acting in the Theatre Arts Division of Columbia University
.
, Linklater trained under Bertram Joseph and Iris Warren at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
(LAMDA). During the 1960s, she relocated to the United States and worked with the Guthrie Theater
in Minneapolis, Minnesota
, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, Canada and the Negro Ensemble.
She was a founding member of Shakespeare & Company
which was for many years in residence on the former estate of novelist, Edith Wharton
in Lenox, Massachusetts
. Linklater left Shakespeare & Company in the mid 1990s. Linklater developed her own approach to voice for actors, influenced by her teachers at LAMDA as well as the Alexander Technique
. Her work is designed to liberate the natural function of the vocal mechanism as opposed to developing a vocal technique. Her writings on voice include Freeing the Natural Voice (1976) (ISBN 0-89676-071-5) and Freeing Shakespeare's Voice (1992) (ISBN 1-55936-031-3). She is of part Swedish descent, through her father the Scottish novelist Eric Linklater
.
Linklater has trained many well-known actors, including Patrick Stewart
, Donald Sutherland
, Alfre Woodard
, Mary Tyler Moore
, Bill Murray
, Angela Bassett
, Courtney Vance, Sigourney Weaver
, Sam Rockwell
and Bernadette Peters
. Linklater was a teacher and head of the Acting program at Emerson College
from 1990-1996.
Her son is actor Hamish Linklater
, who currently appears on the CBS
sitcom The New Adventures of Old Christine
. Her father was novelist Eric Linklater
, and her mother was social activist, Marjorie Linklater (née MacIntyre). Her brothers Magnus Linklater
and Andro Linklater
are writers. She also has a sister, Alison, who is a painter.
More about Shakespeare & Company
:
The Company originated in 1973, when Linklater and several British-trained American actors from the LAMDA and Webber-Douglas
schools, founded the acting troupe of the same name. Kristin was invited to be co-director with Tina Packer. The original company experimented with several of Kristin's voice theories for five months in Great Alne, Warwickshire. Later that year they performed Taming Of The Shrew and Winter's Tale in Waterford, Connecticut, and off-Broadway
at the Performing Garage
in SoHo
. This predated the formation of the permanent training and performance site in Lenox, Massachusetts
.
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
vocal coach, dialect coach, acting teacher, actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, theatre director, and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
. She is currently Head of Acting in the Theatre Arts Division of Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
.
Biography
Brought up in the Orkney Isles, ScotlandScotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, Linklater trained under Bertram Joseph and Iris Warren at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art is a leading British drama school in west London. LAMDA's president is Timothy West and its new principal is Joanna Read, who recently succeeded Peter James...
(LAMDA). During the 1960s, she relocated to the United States and worked with the Guthrie Theater
Guthrie Theater
The Guthrie Theater is a center for theater performance, production, education, and professional training in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the result of the desire of Sir Tyrone Guthrie, Oliver Rea, and Peter Zeisler to create a resident acting company that would produce and perform the classics in...
in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, Canada and the Negro Ensemble.
She was a founding member of Shakespeare & Company
Shakespeare & Company (Massachusetts)
Shakespeare & Company is an American theatre company located in Lenox, Massachusetts in the Berkshire region of western Massachusetts. It was founded in 1978 by Artistic Director Tina Packer, who stepped down in 2009. Tony Simotes is the current Artistic Director. A co-founder was Kristin...
which was for many years in residence on the former estate of novelist, Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton , was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer.- Early life and marriage:...
in Lenox, Massachusetts
Lenox, Massachusetts
Lenox is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. Set in Western Massachusetts, it is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,077 at the 2000 census. Where the town has a border with Stockbridge is the site of Tanglewood, summer...
. Linklater left Shakespeare & Company in the mid 1990s. Linklater developed her own approach to voice for actors, influenced by her teachers at LAMDA as well as the Alexander Technique
Alexander Technique
The Alexander Technique teaches the ability to improve physical postural habits, particularly those that have become ingrained and conditioned responses...
. Her work is designed to liberate the natural function of the vocal mechanism as opposed to developing a vocal technique. Her writings on voice include Freeing the Natural Voice (1976) (ISBN 0-89676-071-5) and Freeing Shakespeare's Voice (1992) (ISBN 1-55936-031-3). She is of part Swedish descent, through her father the Scottish novelist Eric Linklater
Eric Linklater
Eric Robert Russell Linklater was a British writer, known for more than 20 novels, as well as short stories, travel writing and autobiography, and military history.-Life:...
.
Linklater has trained many well-known actors, including Patrick Stewart
Patrick Stewart
Sir Patrick Hewes Stewart, OBE is an English film, television and stage actor, who has had a distinguished career in theatre and television for around half a century...
, Donald Sutherland
Donald Sutherland
Donald McNichol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian actor with a film career spanning nearly 50 years. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, , MASH , and Kelly's Heroes , as well as in such popular films as Klute, Invasion of the...
, Alfre Woodard
Alfre Woodard
Alfre Ette Woodard is an American film, stage, and television actress. She has been nominated once for an Academy Award and Grammy Awards, 17 times for Emmy Awards , and has also won a Golden Globe and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.She is known for her role in films such as Cross Creek, Miss...
, Mary Tyler Moore
Mary Tyler Moore
Mary Tyler Moore is an American actress, primarily known for her roles in television sitcoms. Moore is best known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show , in which she starred as Mary Richards, a 30-something single woman who worked as a local news producer in Minneapolis, and for her earlier role as...
, Bill Murray
Bill Murray
William James "Bill" Murray is an American actor and comedian. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live in which he earned an Emmy Award and later went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films, including Caddyshack , Ghostbusters , and...
, Angela Bassett
Angela Bassett
Angela Evelyn Bassett is an American actress. She has become well known for her biographical film roles portraying real life women in African American culture, including singer Tina Turner in the motion picture What's Love Got to Do with It, as well as Betty Shabazz in the films Malcolm X and...
, Courtney Vance, Sigourney Weaver
Sigourney Weaver
Sigourney Weaver is an American actress. She is best known for her critically acclaimed role of Ellen Ripley in the four Alien films: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, for which she has received worldwide recognition .Other notable roles include Dana...
, Sam Rockwell
Sam Rockwell
Sam Rockwell is an American actor known for his leading roles in Lawn Dogs, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Choke and Moon, as well as for his supporting roles in The Green Mile, Iron Man 2, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Frost/Nixon, Galaxy Quest, Matchstick Men, The Assassination of...
and Bernadette Peters
Bernadette Peters
Bernadette Peters is an American actress, singer and children's book author from Ozone Park, Queens, New York. Over the course of a career that has spanned five decades, she has starred in musical theatre, films and television, as well as performing in solo concerts and recordings...
. Linklater was a teacher and head of the Acting program at Emerson College
Emerson College
Emerson College is a private coeducational university located in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a "school of oratory," Emerson is "the only comprehensive college or university in America dedicated exclusively to communication and the arts in a liberal arts...
from 1990-1996.
Her son is actor Hamish Linklater
Hamish Linklater
Hamish Linklater is an American actor. He is best known as Matthew in the CBS sitcom The New Adventures of Old Christine...
, who currently appears on the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
sitcom The New Adventures of Old Christine
The New Adventures of Old Christine
The New Adventures of Old Christine is an American comedy series starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus which ran for five seasons on CBS from March 13, 2006, to May 12, 2010...
. Her father was novelist Eric Linklater
Eric Linklater
Eric Robert Russell Linklater was a British writer, known for more than 20 novels, as well as short stories, travel writing and autobiography, and military history.-Life:...
, and her mother was social activist, Marjorie Linklater (née MacIntyre). Her brothers Magnus Linklater
Magnus Linklater
Magnus Linklater is a Scottish journalist and former newspaper editor.-Life:Linklater was born in Orkney, and is the son of Scottish writer Eric Linklater. He was brought up in Easter Ross, attending the local school at Nigg before moving to high school in Dunbar, East Lothian, and then on to Eton...
and Andro Linklater
Andro Linklater
Andro Linklater is a non-fiction writer, and historian.-Life:Andro Ian Robert Linklater is the youngest son of Eric Linklater. His brother is journalist, Magnus Linklater and his sisters are the voice expert Kristin Linklater and painter, Sally Linklater...
are writers. She also has a sister, Alison, who is a painter.
More about Shakespeare & Company
Shakespeare & Company (Massachusetts)
Shakespeare & Company is an American theatre company located in Lenox, Massachusetts in the Berkshire region of western Massachusetts. It was founded in 1978 by Artistic Director Tina Packer, who stepped down in 2009. Tony Simotes is the current Artistic Director. A co-founder was Kristin...
:
The Company originated in 1973, when Linklater and several British-trained American actors from the LAMDA and Webber-Douglas
Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art
The Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, formerly the Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art, was a drama school, and originally a singing school, in London. It was one of the leading drama schools in Britain, and offered comprehensive training for those intending to pursue a...
schools, founded the acting troupe of the same name. Kristin was invited to be co-director with Tina Packer. The original company experimented with several of Kristin's voice theories for five months in Great Alne, Warwickshire. Later that year they performed Taming Of The Shrew and Winter's Tale in Waterford, Connecticut, and off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
at the Performing Garage
Performing Garage
The Performing Garage is an off-Broadway theater in SoHo, New York City. Established in 1968, it is the permanent home of the experimental theater company originally named The Performance Group that morphed in 1980 into The Wooster Group , and their primary performance venue.Since 1978, it also...
in SoHo
SoHo
SoHo is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, notable for being the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, and also, more recently, for the wide variety of stores and shops ranging from trendy boutiques to outlets of upscale national and international chain stores...
. This predated the formation of the permanent training and performance site in Lenox, Massachusetts
Lenox, Massachusetts
Lenox is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. Set in Western Massachusetts, it is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,077 at the 2000 census. Where the town has a border with Stockbridge is the site of Tanglewood, summer...
.
Sources
- "Kristin Linklater", on the Internet Broadway DatabaseInternet Broadway DatabaseThe Internet Broadway Database is an online database of Broadway theatre productions and their personnel. It is operated by the Research Department of The Broadway League, a trade association for the North American commercial theatre community....
- "Kristin Linklater: Acting, A Verbal Art", Columbia News Video Brief, February 7, 2000. URL accessed January 4, 2006
External links
- Kristin Linklater.com – official website
- "Erotikes", Columbia Magazine, Fall 2003
- "Balancing Acts: Anne Bogart and Kristin Linklater Debate the Current Trends in American Actor-Training"