Dawn-Elin Fraser, voice, speech, and dialect coach, and NYU faculty member, and Finn Caldwell, Olivier award-winning puppet designer and director of puppetry and movement, will join The Actors Center’s Resident Company this month for a series of artist development workshops focused on self-calibration and puppetry.
Since moving to New York to be the founding Head of Spoken Voice and Speech for the New Studio on Broadway at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Department of Drama, Dawn-Elin has worked professionally as a Speech, Dialect, and Text coach on Broadway (Parade, Once on this Island, What the Constitution Means to Me, Waitress), Off-Broadway (Shakespeare in the Park,The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Signature Theater), regionally (Oregon Shakespeare Festival, RoundHouse Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theater, American Repertory Theater) and on national tours. Additionally, she is the creator/director of the Coaches of Color Initiative, a free program to train more BIPOC dialect coaches. She is the North American dialect coach for all companies of Hamilton and is a member of both Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) and the Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA).
Finn Caldwell is a director, designer, puppeteer, and actor. He won an Olivier Award for Best Set Design and was nominated for Best Theatre Choreographer for his work on Life of Pi, as well as recently receiving a Tony Award nomination.
He is co-artistic director of Gyre & Gimble, a theater company specializing in puppetry, where his co-director/puppet designer credits include The Four Seasons: A Reimagining (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Hartlepool Monkey (UK Tour), and The Elephantom (National Theatre/West End). His puppet co-designer/director credits include Life of Pi (West End/Broadway),The Grinning Man (Bristol Old Vic/West End), The Lorax (Old Vic) and Running Wild (UK Tour). His work as director of puppetry and movement includes The Ocean at the End of the Lane (National Theatre/West End), Angels in America (National Theatre/Broadway), Shrek: The Musical (West End), The Light Princess (National Theatre), and War Horse (National Theatre/West End/International Tour).
Finn trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He has taught at schools, colleges and universities both nationally and internationally, as well as numerous theatre institutions including: National Theatre Learning, RSC, RADA, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
