Lessons from the rehearsal room
This Speech & Communications workshop is built on a range of tools taken from the world of the professional theatrical rehearsal room. Joshua Roche, professional Communications Coach and Theatre Director, will use these tools to coach confidence, clarity and personal impact when speaking publicly or communicating to teams.
The workshop is participative but does not involve any ‘acting’ or physical performance exercises (you will not need to take your shoes off and roll around on the floor…). The workshop begins with a brief explanation of the tenets underpinning theatrical performance, and how they are directly applicable to communications in the professional world outside of theatre.
Thereafter the workshop progresses in a series of interactive exercises in small break out groups of peers (2-4 depending on group size).
In the late afternoon we discuss practical worries and anxieties in the light of what has been discussed during the morning; what constitutes a useful ‘script’ for a presentation, how to integrate slide decks into presentations, how to adjust when speaking to larger or small groups and so on. This takes the form of a peer-led discussion, with guidance and insight from Josh.
Public speaking is a terrifying thing for lots of people, and their relationship with it is deeply personal given that it can involve embarrassment and nervousness. Therefore the session ends with time for questions and discussion, where participants can share experiences and ask questions.
Learning objectives
By the end of the workshop participants will be able to:
- Deliver messages with passion, clarity and confidence
- Understand what is useful and what is prohibitive when communicating
- Learn some new tools and techniques soothe personal anxieties or fears
- Speak confidently on their given topic
- Understand that all public speaking is about personal voice. You can only speak well by unlocking the voice you have, rather than mimicking others
Audience
This session is appropriate to all managers and staff, at all levels.
Format
This session is designed for a workshop size of between 10-30 people and delivered as an all-day event.
‘Pre-work’
Each participant should come equipped with a presentation, idea or message that they might feasibly need to deliver in the near future. This might be very vague, or well developed.
Expert trainer
Josh is an experienced Speech and Communications Coach, regularly working with C-suite executives in the British tech sector to unlock clarity and confidence. He has also worked for 11 years as a professional theatre director, and brings that expertise to bear in this workshop.
Workshop outline
1 Welcome, aims and introductions
- Thinking about the challenges of public speaking
- Outlining the workshop to come
2 What can we learn from Romeo & Juliet
- Character through action: why people are listening to the way you speak, and not what you’re saying
- How does acting practice and the fundamental principles that underpin it, inform our approach to public speaking? A discussion
3 Tools and approaches
- ‘Say what you f***ing want to say’ – a slightly fruity but essential exercise about realising what you care most about in your message
- ‘Focus on the audience’ – an exercise that coaches the essential relationship with the audience you’re speaking to
- ‘Stakes’ – an exercise that using an imaginative tool to help develop a purpose for the speaker
- ‘The speaking script’ – an exercise unpacking what constitutes a useful script
4 Let’s get practical
- Preparing to communicate – a discussion with tips from Josh on the basic questions of How do I stand? How do I prepare? What do I do with my hands? and the rest…
- The slide deck – a discussion about what makes slides a useful prop, and what makes them a dead weight that’s dragging you down
5 Questions
- Public speaking is a very personal experience, so here is time for questions about anything raised during the day, and anything not yet discussed that is weighing on participants’ minds