Workshops

Bravery to Sing Workshop

Ever been told you can’t sing or shouldn’t sing? Yet you love to sing! This short workshop is for you.

This is a workshop for those who have

• Never sung before; tone deaf to people with a lot of experience, but have possibly lost their nerve over the years or through life circumstances, such as having children, change of career, etc. (for 18 yrs and up)
• No pressure to sing or do anything they do not want to do
• Very holistic approach to finding the voice mixed with traditional experience
• Plan is to leave the workshop wanting to get out and sing more and have fun!

What will happen on the day

• We will start off with relaxation exercises, move to body awareness and breathing exercises, learn excerpt of song
• We will learn an excerpt of one song on the day
• Sing with backing track

To find out the date of the next workshop or to book, click here!

Recommendations from students:

‘Say thanks for a great workshop and fun performance….fantastic fun and would never had the courage before, …absolutely brilliant and great audience reaction; … I can see how you can get hooked!  I am now really keen to continue singing…’ – Jane Schaverien

‘Great fun, great people in the class and great teacher; better than I thought – class participation was excellent!’ – Reena Bhandar

‘I’ve not sung much for years – though always used to enjoy it. I’ve sometimes thought my voice was going with age – this was great!’ – Women’s Institute

‘I will join a local choir now.’ – Women’s Institute

Singing with Confidence and Truth Classes (Meisner Ball)

Come and explore Repetition and your voice. This class is for actors/singers who want to express themselves with song, for those who want to work on releasing their spoken/singing voice, for those who perhaps feel restricted or self-conscious when singing and for more experienced singer/actors who want to find greater freedom and expression.

In a supportive and constructive environment we will explore doing Repetition into song and song into Repetition; how do they work together, help to open each other up? Let’s explore with Repetition into song to encourage more spontaneity, impulse and range of expression and vice versa. Feel free to bring a song with you (will be singing acapella) but this is not a requirement.

All abilities and experiences are welcome but participants must have done at least a Meisner Introductory class.

To find out the date of the next workshop or to book, click here!

Recommendations from students:

“ It’s a great class where I was able to explore human emotions and behavior. Debbie is really talented and she is really effective at transmitting her knowledge and experience to the group, keeping at the same time a nice and friendly atmosphere. I really recommend this class for people new into the acting world and professionals as well. ” – Zuco

Meisner Ball

This is a workshop which will help to build your confidence in the Meisner acting technique, face your fears and help you do it anyway!

Debbie works in a very friendly and supportive way – the work is very positive and confidence building in its approach.  All are welcome!

These weekly classes are for beginners to advanced performers or wannabe performers who wish to try a new approach to acting or gain more confidence speaking in front of others.

To find out the date of the next workshop or to book, click here!

Recommendations from students:

“Yes, highly recommended. Becoming comfortable with Meisner.”

‘Relaxed, welcoming, inclusive, experienced teacher.’

‘It is a class to help spontaneity.’

Monday Monologues

This is where you can practice those pesky monologues in a friendly, supportive and fun environment. Just bring along a monologue.

This is set up so you try to do it monthy.

It’s run like a mock audition, feedback is given, unless you don’t want it.

It’s an opportunity to get up and practice with others.

Please arrive 15 minutes before the start time to sort out order of participants.

To find out the date of the next workshop or to book, click here!

Here’s some recommendations from students:

“I attended the first MM last month. The chance to memorize a piece monthly is a wonderful opportunity to get your creative juices flowing.” – Julie Mason

‘It was fun! And useful practice.’

‘Great for audition technique and confidence’

‘It is useful for me as practice make perfect.‘

Yoga for Everyday Living (new workshop)

Yoga has been around for a very long time and is constantly evolving.

Having completed my 200hrs of yoga teacher training, I’m now teaching vinyasa style yoga with my Yogalucious studio. click here to find out when.

One of the biggest things about yoga I’ve learned is that it’s not just the asanas (yoga postures) there is so much more to this ancient and healthy approach to life as a whole.

This is a gentle workshop which talks about yoga with a gentle chair introduction to the practice. It includes breathe work, postures (in a chair), meditation and explaining why yoga is good for you at any age.

This is a great way to get to know what to do if you are new to yoga practice and help you feel more comfortable when going. Just contact me if you would like me to give this workshop to your group or oganisation or to find out when my next one is.

This is a workshop to help take the fear out of going to a yoga class.

Duration: 1 or 2 hrs

To find out the date of the next workshop or to book, click here!

Talks

American Round Up 1 & 2

1st series (includes S. Barber, G. Chadwick, S. Barber, L. Bernstein, P. Glass and more)

2nd series (includes E. MacDowell, A. Beach, W. Piston, P. Schickele, G. Gershwin and more)

This is a fun talk to introduce you to American composers with quirky stories of their lives.

It was created to help people understand, not only the music better, but also the people behind this amazing music.

It’s not just movie music!

It’s covering from the 19^th century carrying into the middle of the 20^th Century.

To find out the date of the next workshop or to book, click here!

Recommendations

“I enjoyed (American Round-Up) very much; right amount of talking and listening to music” – Claire Rhodes – Portslade Music Society

“(Liked) the humour and the ‘infectious’ delivery – very informative.” – Sheila Baines – FRMS National Conference

Northern Lights

As, Debbie hails from Canada it only stands to reason that she would want to talk about composers from her country of origin. The music is based around the last 20th Century writers and would introduce you to some of the classical composers from the last 100 years.

To find out the date of the next workshop or to book, click here!

Recommendations

“Thank-you so much for a really entertaining evening – we all enjoyed it so much” – Sheila Southwell – Burgess Hill Music Society

“Thank you so much for gracing our stage and giving us such an interesting presentation about one of my favourite musical themes…it was very successful.” – Graham Kiteley – Organizer, FRMS National Conference

Agatha Christie (new talk)

A surfer, world traveller, collector, archaeologist, and singer – these aren’t the 1^st descriptions which come to mind when we think of Agatha Christie. She was all these things and so much more!

This talk is about the whole person of Agatha Christie and not just the writer.

My desire is to help inspire and inform others about this remarkable woman.

I hope you leave the talk knowing more than you did before and inspired to go and be more Agatha in your own lives!

To find out the date of the next workshop or to book, click here!

Grand Tour (new talk)

Travel, who doesn’t love it! I literally was flying before I was even born. Having mixed heritage of being Austrian and Canadian, travel was the only way we could see any of our family. My Mom is Austrian and my Dad came from eastern Canada, but I was born in the west of Canada – Vancouver.

I’ve been very fortunate to have travelled all over the world, but this talk focus’ on the year I took out to have a ‘gap’ year in my 40s!

In fact, I created a whole website about it, click here to see more.

Why I took this trip, what I learned from it and why I think others need to follow their dreams too.

To find out the date of the next workshop or to book, click here!

What is Cabaret?

I started to do Cabaret myself because it’s a genre which affords so many styles and entertainment. It’s so versitile in it’s approach and has a very strong past which is still impacting the world today.

In this talk I take you around the world and through some of the history of how and why Cabaret started and why it’s still very much alive today in these tough times.

It’s a great way to see and hear about this often misunderstood form of performance. It’s not just striptease! Oh, I might just sing a song or 2.

To find out the date of the next workshop or to book, click here!

Recommendations

‘What an amazing voice and I loved the jokes. Thank you.’ – Women’s Institute

‘Relaxed and entertaining.’ – Women’s Institute

‘The songs were genius! Exceeded expectations.’ – Women’s Institute

Shows

To find out more about 2 shows on offer, please click on either more detailed pages below:

Shirley Knot the Siren or Songs from the Heart