Theresa McElwee

Headshot of Theresa McElwee

TEACHING STATEMENT:

“I strive to inspire in my Voice and Speech students, a deep curiosity about the human condition. We reveal ourselves through our voices, and Speech is Identity. Now, more than ever, the world needs your voice and your willingness to speak your truth, with humanity and vulnerability, as well as clarity.

I am committed first and foremost to play. As a certified Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework® and as a student of other methodologies, I believe play is the ultimate goal of ‘the work.’ After all, when we go to the theater, we don’t speak of going to see a ‘work’ but rather, a ‘play.’

I strive to recalibrate and reassess my beliefs and approaches, daily, in order to teach who is in front of me. I am endlessly inspired and invigorated by the lessons I receive from my students.

My deepest desire is to offer you practical tools to empower you, and enable you to better serve your text. To speak with clarity and conviction, and to learn, in the words of Dudley Knight and Phil Thompson, ‘to listen with your mouth.’ I seek to foster a laboratory environment that is warm, inclusive, deeply curious and full of play.”

BIO:

Theresa currently teaches voice and speech at NYU Tisch School of the Arts and at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. At HB Studio, Theresa has taught Speech 1, Speech 2, Speech 3, Speaking Voice in the Hagen Summer Intensive and Hagen Teacher’s Lab, as well as special workshops for the HB community. In private practice, she works with actors, broadcasters, news anchors, and corporate clients. Theresa has taught introductory voice and speech at the New York Conservatory of Dramatic Art, as well as to high school students at the School for Film and Television Summer Program, and South of Broadway Summer Conservatory. Coaching credits include productions at The Signature Theatre, The Abingdon Theatre, NYU’s New Studio on Broadway, Boomerang Theatre Company and New Light Theatre Project. As a performer, Theresa appeared on Broadway in THE HEIDI CHRONICLES and I’M NOT RAPPAPORT, and in productions Off-Broadway, at Lincoln Center, and on PBS American Playhouse as well as many regional theatre productions across the country. A proud member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA, VASTA and The Voice Foundation, Theresa holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama and is a certified Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework®

Current and Upcoming