“Thanks to everyone who attended my November ’24 public Speaking Shakespeare workshops in Fulham, Highgate and Finsbury Park.
I will be running more in the New Year.
Please watch this space.
And please get in touch for info about talks, voice work, and Speaking Shakespeare workshops – for you, your company or social organisation.”
INFO ABOUT MATTHEW COLLINS:
Matthew Collins is a voice coach who works with clients ranging from ex-prisoners and business people to members of the Women’s Institute.
He’s also a speaker, offering light and serious talks.
Recent bookings include a luncheon speech (Budget Travel, Borrowed Grannies, Tax-Free Cash from Yours Kids AND Shopping for Free In Supermarkets) for Cancer Research; a speech to the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham’s Legal Department about Teaching Shakespeare to Prisoners; and a Brilliant Communicators Conference presentation called How Shakespeare Can Improve Your Public Speaking – delivered to speechwriters for figures such as the US Ambassador to London, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and a former Swedish prime minister.
Matthew’s career began on TV as the BBC2 Travel Show’s Special Assignments Man. For ten summers he was given a weekly surprise assignment – anything from spending a week in a French nudist camp to making a six-days-and-nights coach journey to Athens and back.
He also presented on Wogan, Open Air, This Morning, Well Worth A Visit… And (his Alan Partridge moment) an Anglia TV quiz show – for sixth formers.
He then brought up two sons alone, wrote books and articles about their travails and travels, and ran prison Fathers Workshops.
Once his sons were teenagers, he did an MA in Voice Studies at the Central School of Speech and Drama. There he met the RSC’s voice director, Cicely Berry, who completely changed his life. On learning he worked with prisoners, she invited him to her home for masterclasses and inspired him to do Shakespeare in prison.
His first session was a Wormwood Scrubs Speaking Romeo and Juliet workshop. Prisoners played all roles – including Juliet, the Nurse, and Lady Capulet. And when a man said, ‘Cheers mate – you really got me out of myself’, Matthew knew he wanted to do more prison work.
He ended up teaching for ten years in Scrubs (and occasionally Send – a women’s prison). And his prison Shakespeare sessions led to further voicework – with police officers, business people, and Women’s Institute members.
Today Matthew runs individual and group voicework sessions; and Explore Shakespeare by Speaking Him workshops. He also runs corporate Voice Clubs. And public speaking sessions for local authorities and law firms.
Schools work has included a presentation on Language and Social Media for the London Oratory; a talk to Dulwich College on Teaching Shakespeare to Prisoners; voice sessions for King’s Worcester; and regular Speaking Shakespeare workshops (in French and English) at Lycée Charles de Gaulle, South Kensington.
For tickets & info about Matthew’s Speaking Shakespeare workshops (and to enquire about talks and individual/group voicework):
post@matthewcollins.co.uk
And to find out about Speak Well With Willpower, a social enterprise Matthew founded with two colleagues that aims to level up public speaking skills, using Shakespeare, in disadvantaged communities:
www.speakwellwithwillpower.co.uk