The Alchemy of Trans Voice: Gender Affirmation and Expansion Through the Linklater Voice Method, 2024

"The speaking voice is a common and intense source of gender dysphoria for many transgender and gender non-conforming individuals, especially for those in public-facing and self-expressive fields such as acting. This project explores the challenges and benefits of using the Linklater Voice Method, one of the foremost voice training pedagogies for actors and public speakers, in combination with gender-affirming speech-language pathology practices, gender theory, and critical pedagogy to create a series of five private 90-minute lessons, encouraging the cultivation of a more embodied, empowered, intentional, mobile, and "free" voice both onstage and offstage. Teaching this series of lessons to six trans-identifying undergraduate theatre students yielded notable changes in participants' body-mind connection, depth of breath, access to desired resonance, self-perception of their voices, and socialized notions of voice and gender. Though some facets of the Linklater Voice Method were challenging or triggering for trans students due to their gender dysphoria, neurodivergence, race, internalized fatphobia, trauma, or negative previous experiences of voice work, this project's approaches and modifications to the Linklater Voice Method illuminated how the practice can evolve to become more effective, safe, accessible, and even euphoric for trans acting students." -- Abstract