Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

Diane Robinson talks Chicago Voice Center
by Carrie Maxwell, Windy City Times
2018-11-07

This article shared 1516 times since Wed Nov 7, 2018
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


When Diane Robinson became a certified Fitzmaurice Voicework teacher in 2010, she decided to take that knowledge and start the Chicago Voice Center ( CVC ).

Shortly after getting her certificate, Robinson began teaching at Cal State Long Beach, where actress and activist Alexandra Billings was also a teacher. She also participated in a workshop with United Kingdom transgender actress and voice coach Rebecca Root during that time.

"I became inspired to work with the transgender and gender non-binary community, and as I reached out I found that what I had to offer was valued and needed," said Robinson. "I am working to make CVC a true center for voice in Chicago, offering lessons and workshops in person and online, as well as presenting performances and bringing in master teachers from around the world. I want to offer the best in voice and speech training to anyone who wants to improve their ability to express themselves. It is a crucial time for voices to be heard, and to educate the world to hear all the different ways humanity expresses itself."

Founded in 2013, CVC provides "voice and communication training to transgender and non-binary people, businesses eager to retain talent by providing professional development and film, television and theater productions seeking accent and dialect coaching for actors," according to its website.

Robinson's expertise also includes her work as an actor, director and producer along with her coaching and teaching endeavors. She has a master's of fine arts in acting and studied Knight-Thompson speech training.

"The goal of my work is to help my clients re-establish a connection the voice and their body," said Robinson. "Some recent coaching credits include working on-set on Chicago Fire and with Blue Bird Arts, an English-Russian language theater company here in Chicago. I have taught in training programs around town, including at Second City and DePaul University, and I lead workshops with the Chicago Sinfonietta and Rush Medical Center students. My most recent acting role was this year in the Piven Theater's production of a new play by Chicago playwright M.T. Cozzola."

Robinson completed the Transgender Voice and Communication Training for Voice Clinicians at Roosevelt University in 2015. She said it was such a good experience that she attended again in 2016. Robinson has continued her education at Northwestern's Center for Audiology, Speech, Language and Learning, where she attended their transgender voice training classes this past spring. She said one of the most valuable things the training provides is bringing professional voice clinicians and singing and theater voice trainers together to share information and their best practices.

"In the last year, I have lead voice workshops at the Transgender Voices Festival in St. Paul, the Transgender Singing Conference at Earlham College and at the Creative Bodies Creative Minds festival in Austria," said Robinson. "I am an active member of the Gender Spectrum Voice and Communication Trainer's Facebook group, and recently hosted one of their roundtable presentations on incorporating theater voice training methods into working with transgender clients."

Clients Cynthia ( who requested that only her first name be used ), Alessandra Pereyra and Josie Sanfordino praised their instructor.

"As an older trans woman, I was self-conscious about my voice," said Cynthia. "After working with Diane for only two months, I learned how to make my voice sound feminine, which gave me the confidence to go out freely."

"Working with Diane and CVC quickly became one of the highlights of my week," said Pereyra. "Something that could have easily become a jarring and awkward exercise, was not only far from it, but instead, a fun experience and a safe, trusting environment to share, learn, experiment and grow. After some months, I not only got back the confidence I had partially lost at the beginning; I also get to learn more about myself, what it meant to cherish and discover my own voice, and how to develop the tools that helped me in a daily basis through the continual interactions with other people."

"CVC has been inspirational because Diane sees the human being in all of us," said Sanfordino. "Diane directed me to the Irving Goffman book, 'The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.' The single takeaway I have gotten from the book is that we have different faces we show depending on the context we are in. I see there is a relationship between acting as if and being the person we are inside. This is the proverbial 'fake it till you make it' paradigm.

"I had not thought of that again until I started to read Goffman. I saw how Diane's acting knowledge pushes the envelope to have us experience different contexts and we get to see ourselves in an exploratory mode. Exploring is how we are in a place of possibility. Possibility thinking is essential to generate a full life. What she has taught me is invaluable and intriguing to me and the people I am privileged to work with."

Robinson explained that her classes and workshops are full of great information, including voice exercises, voice practice routines and learning about the latest voice apps and best ways to use them.

"My clients have told me they think I am a great listener who is very funny and nice with one client making me feel great by saying, 'You really care'," said Robinson. "I have lesson times available at various times of day every day of the week, and I can be reached at diane@chicagovoicecenter.com ."

See chicagovoicecenter.com for more information.


This article shared 1516 times since Wed Nov 7, 2018
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

NATIONAL Political candidates, flag controversy, HRC gala, New York Times, Disney
2024-03-29
In California, of the historic 30 LGBTQ+ legislative candidates who ran in the March 5 primary, more than half are moving on to the fall ballot, The Bay Area Reporter noted. Based on the still unofficial ...


Gay News

WORLD Israel court, conversion therapy, death sentences, Georgia bill, fashion items
2024-03-29
Israel's Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the Population Authority must register female couples as mothers on the birth certificates of their children they have together, The Washington Blade reported. The decision was made following a petition ...


Gay News

Lambda Legal Launches "Speak OUT" awareness campaign uplifting trans, nonbinary voices
2024-03-28
--From a press release. VIDEO BELOW - (NEW YORK, NY — March 28, 2024) In advance of Transgender Day of Visibility, Lambda Legal, the nation's oldest and largest legal nonprofit working to achieve full equal rights for LGBTQ people and everyone living with ...


Gay News

Nex Benedict's autopsy report released
2024-03-27
The full autopsy report for Nex Benedict (he/they)—a 16-year-old transgender and Indigenous student from Oklahoma's Owasso High School who died in February a day after a school fight—has been released. The Oklahoma Office of the Chie ...


Gay News

Brown Elephant Returns To Northalsted
2024-03-26
Brown Elephant's Lake View location is moving to Northalsted and already accepting donations. Howard Brown Health, the largest LGBTQ+ health center in the midwest, operates three Brown Elephant resale shops in the Chicagoland area to help ...


Gay News

An interstate trans healthcare crisis: Illinois prepares for influx of people seeking gender-affirming care
2024-03-26
With hard-won rights, such as access to hormone replacement therapy or permission to use one's chosen pronouns in school, breaking down in states across the country, trans residents of all ages are left with a choice: ...


Gay News

Planned Parenthood of Illinois expands Orland Park health center
2024-03-26
--From a press release - ORLAND PARK, Ill. - Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL) announces the expansion of its existing Orland Park Health Center at 14470 S. LaGrange Rd., Suite 106. The 1,800-square-foot expansion is projected to increase sexual and reproductive ...


Gay News

Wyoming is latest state to ban gender-affirming care for minors
2024-03-24
On March 22, Wyoming became the latest state to prohibit gender-affirming care for minors, The Hill noted. In doing so, it joined 23 other states that passed laws restricting or banning the treatment. Legislators in both ...


Gay News

No charges filed in Nex Benedict fight; campaigns call for Walters' removal
2024-03-22
In Oklahoma, Tulsa County District Attorney Stephen Kunzweiler announced that no charges will be filed in connection with the fight that happened the day before transgender, nonbinary high school student Nex Benedict died by suicide, NBC ...


Gay News

JP Karliak morphs into non-binary character for Disney+'s X-Men '97
2024-03-22
series X-Men '97, a revival of the popular X-men: The Animated Series that's both continuing the ongoing mutant storyline and breaking new ground along the way. The character of Morph now looks more like the comic ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Va. marriage bill, AARP, online counseling, Idaho items, late activist
2024-03-21
Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed bills protecting same-sex marriages at a state level, surprising some, WRIC reported. The bills—passed out of both chambers along mostly party lines—will require clerks ...


Gay News

Chicago's LGBTQ+ Advisory Council sets a new course
2024-03-18
Chicago's LGBTQ+ Advisory Council held its first meeting of the calendar year on Feb. 28 at City Hall in the Loop under the leadership of the recently appointed chair Jin-Soo Huh. The LGBTQ+ Advisory Council is ...


Gay News

Almost 8% of U.S. residents identify as LGBTQ+
2024-03-16
The proportion of U.S. adults identifying as LGBTQ+ continues to increase. LGBTQ+ identification in the U.S. continues to grow, with 7.6% of U.S. adults now identifying as LGBTQ+, according to the newest Gallup poll results that ...


Gay News

WORLD Leaked messages, Panama action, author dies at 32, Japan court, out athletes
2024-03-15
Hundreds of messages from an internal chat board for an international group of transgender health professionals were leaked in a report and framed as revealing serious health risks associated with gender-affirming care, including cancer, according to ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Missouri measure, HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, judge, Texas schools
2024-03-15
In Missouri, a newly proposed law could charge teachers and counselors with a felony and require them to register as sex offenders if they're found guilty of supporting transgender students who are socially transitioning, CNN noted. ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.