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Northwestern School of Communication

Linda Hughes Gates

(she/her/one)
Professor of Instruction
I am currently interested in exploring how the demand for American and British dialects required by casting directors for international productions of theatre and film is reflected in the teaching of voice and speech in actor training programs both in England and America.

Department

Theatre

Area(s) of Expertise

Acting, Communication Skills, Dialects and Speech, Directing, Voice
Linda Hughes Gates

Linda Gates is Head of Voice in the Department of Theatre at Northwestern University where she teaches voice, speech, text, dialects. She also workr professionally as a voice/dialects/text coach for professional theatre and film. As a professional voice and dialect coach, she has worked both on and off-Broadway, in Chicago, regional theatre, opera and film. Recent New York credits include the dialect coaching for Paradise Square at the Barrymore Theatre and in Chicago Quamino’s Map at Chicago Opera Theatre.

In 2016, Linda Gates became one of the founding members of the Prague Shakespeare Company's Shakespeare Summer Intensive where she teaches, directs and performs with students and faculty from all over the world. This summer she will be co-directing Pericles with Italian director Kiara Pipino. She has conducted vocal workshops for the Royal Shakespeare Company, BADA (British American Drama Academy), Pan European Voice Conferences in Italy, Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden and she has taught Shakespeare Intensive Workshops for Sedona Shakespeare and the Hochschule fur Theatre in Hamburg, Germany.

Her latest book Speaking in Shakespeare's Voice: A Guide for American Actors is published by Northwestern University Press in 2019, and her book Voice for Performance has just been published in May in a re-edited 3rd edition with Rowman & Littlefield.

Education

  • MA, Theatre Voice and Speech, NYU
  • BA, Acting, San Francisco State University
  • Carnegie Mellon University

Selected Publications

  • Gates, Linda, Speaking in Shakespeare’s Voice: A Guide for American Actors. Northwestern University Press 2019
  • Gates, Linda. Voice for Performance, Applause Books (2000); Reedited paperback edition with 2 CD, Limelight editions 2011
  • The Singer/Actor’s Voice: The Need for a Shared Pedagogy for the Successful Use of the Singing/Speaking Voice in Theatre Voice Training (Scandinavian University Press for Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology, 1997)

Courses

  • Voice for Performance
  • Voice for Shakespeare
  • Dialects for the Stage
  • Advanced Voice Styles
  • Performing the Language of Bernard Shaw