From Page to Podium with Alice Coghlan

Course Summary

Would you like to feel more confident when reading your work aloud? To bring the emotional life, imagery and rhythm of your writing you imagine at your desk, as fully to life for your audience? And to feel more at ease when speaking about your work on stage, on radio, or in recorded formats?

Then this relaxed and supportive theatre-based workshop is designed for writers like you who want to develop confidence, vocal skills and stage presence for public readings, interviews and performance. Whether you experience nerves, stage fright, or simply want to sharpen your delivery, From Page to Podium offers practical tools in a warm, fun and encouraging environment.

Led by theatre maker and emerging radio producer Alice Coghlan, From Page to Podium takes place in the beautiful Georgian rooms of the Irish Writers Centre. Across four Saturdays, writers and artists will explore voice, breath, physical resonance, physical presence, microphone technique and performance skills, culminating in a public showcase of their work for invited friends and family on the last afternoon.

Our work together blends classical actor training, creative play and peer support, empowering writers to step confidently from the page to the podium – and best of all to enjoy being there.

Course Outline

Week 1 – Voice & Vocal Confidence
Discovering the natural power, resonance and musicality of your speaking voice through professional actor voice exercises, techniques and short readings of your original writing.

Week 2 – Presence, Performance & Stage Persona
Finding your stage persona. Vocal warm up. Developing physical presence, expressive delivery and strategies for managing nerves, transforming stage fright into creative energy. Learning how to prepare effectively for performance.

Week 3 – Microphones, Interviews & Public Speaking
Building confidence through rehearsal with microphones, interview formats and live presentation, while preparing material for the final showcase. Each writer will also present a prepared appreciation of a favourite actor reading literature to our group.

Week 4 – Rehearsal & Public Showcase
Directed rehearsal, peer to peer coaching, performance refinement culminating in a final public showcase for invited friends and family.

Participants will perform short extracts of their own writing each week, followed by peer to peer feedback on their performance, gradually developing material towards a 4–7 minute public reading in the final showcase session.

Writers will also be asked to prepare an appreciation of a favourite actor reading a writer’s work on Youtube.

Course Outcomes

By the end of the course, writers will:

• Feel confident and empowered that they can read their work aloud in any public setting.
• Feel confident in their ability to give a presentation or make a speech.
• Understand the importance of a vocal warm up and have developed their own warm up.
• Be equipped with practical tools for voice, breath and performance preparation
• Be able to manage nerves and stage fright creatively
• Feel more comfortable using microphones and technology.
• Feel confident in speaking about themselves and their work in interview settings
• Have workshopped skills not only as an interviewee, but also as an interviewer of writers, which often happens at Book Festivals.
• Develop a strong sense of personal stage presence.
• Gained experience performing in a supportive public showcase

Alice Coghlan is a Mentor at the Irish Writers Centre and Minding Creative Minds and a theatre director, writer and dramaturg. She graduated with a First Class Honours Degree in Drama & English from Trinity College Dublin. She recently qualified in Radio Production at IADT.  Alice was a Literary Reader for the Abbey Theatre for 12 years and has taken this forward with an online weekly Writer’s Room and Wonderland Playwright’s Book Club now in its sixth year. As an Artistic Director Alice has created seventeen theatre and opera productions for her theatre company Wonderland Productions