Voice Over: Audiobooks

Voice Over director Theresa Buchheister has directed and sound-engineered 100s of audiobooks, including How Music Works with Andrew Garman, The Perks of Being a Wallflower with Noah Galvin, Leaving the Sea with Brian Hutchison, Lydia Davis Collected Stories with a variety of actors, Wild Boys with Luis Moreno, and many, many more.  Theresa has narrated (under their name and a pseudonym) over 50 books, including erotica, young adult and educational texts. Voice actor Ryan William Downey has been heard on podcasts, audiobooks, in many plays and, most notably, on Pokémon film and television series playing a variety of characters.

Online Teaching Statement from Theresa Buchheister and Ryan W. Downey: “The voice over landscape is always changing! While we are in a moment of great change, we can adapt, learn, and apply tried and true techniques to performance, professionalism, and pursuit. In our online workshops over Zoom, we will cover cover the essential basics, build on those basics with practices and techniques, work out our muscles on audition material, and delve into home studio set-ups. Voice over performance is unique and expansive. And more vital than ever.”

Over the course of this workshop, Theresa and Ryan will introduce you to the basic skills and valuable practices of audiobook voiceover performance. First, we will start at the very beginning: genre differences, preparation questions, common terms, valuable warm-ups and tricks, differentiation from other areas of voice acting, what your voice is best suited to, focus and clarity, and more. Next, we will put these into practice: subtle shifts in vocal characterization, flow and breath, dialogue pacing, tonal qualities within genres. You will be sent away with homework – selecting books that are a good fit for your voice – and you will have the opportunity to perform an in-class, expanded audition. We will start and stop, make adjustments, and get a clean take of your pieces.

This workshop is open to those with VO experience looking to sharpen and expand their audition and performance skills, as well as to performers who are new to VO looking for an introduction to the craft.