Corinna May
Corinna May is a Designated Linklater Voice Method Teacher and a Feldenkrais Method practitioner, one of a dozen or so people in the world holding both certifications.
She is a longtime member of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA, where she first met Kristin Linklater, Professor Emerita of Columbia University, one of the most recognized names in the field of voice & text training for actors. After a several-years-long training—including observing Kristin teaching the 1st & 2nd year Columbia actors in Riverside Church’s iconic top floor studio ( 9 hours per cohort per week)—Ms. May was Designated by Kristin as a Linklater Method teacher in 2003.
A professional actress for 30+ years, Ms. May starred in the award-winning indie feature Split Ends, directed by Dorothy Lyman, and spent two years on the Broadway tour of The Graduate. Recent work: playing Nancy Green & Stephen Douglas in Abe Lincoln In Illinois, directed by Adjunct Associate Professor David Auburn at the Berkshire Theatre Group, Sheila in the regional premier of Flight of the Monarch at Shakespeare & Company. Marty in Circle/Mirror/Transformation at the Chester Theatre Company, and Margrethe Bohr in Copenhagen at the Berkshire Theatre Group. She won two 2021-22 Berkshire Theatre Critics Awards (“Berkies”) for Shirley Valentine (BTG), and Things I Know To Be True (Great Barrington Public Theatre). Shakespeare & Company: 24 seasons/40 + shows including A Winter’s Tale, Twelfth Night, The Memory of Water, Enchanted April, Betrayal, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Roman Fever, Hamlet (& many more). Lots of regional theatre! TV: House of Cards; Unforgettable; Law & Order. PBS: Evening at the Pops. Playwright: Dancing With The Czar produced by Ventfort Hall, a Gilded Age mansion in Lenox, MA. Voice Actor/Audio Narrator: numerous titles and projects.
Recent workshops taught include Voice into Text for Theatre Du Pif in Hong Kong. Other teaching includes the Actors Studio Drama School/MFA Program at Pace University/Sands School; National Theatre Institute (NTI); Circle-in-the-Square Theatre School; Syracuse University; MIT; Smith College; SUNY (Albany and New Paltz); University of Pittsburgh; Shakespeare & Company’s Center for Actor Training. She collaborated with Feldenkrais trainer Arlyn Zones on a live-recorded workshop entitled "Voice, Breath & Posture,” published by Feldenkrais Resources. The two continue to teach public workshops in the USA and Europe, synergizing the Feldenkrais & Linklater methods.
As a lead trainer/USA with Cornell Voice Advisory/Australia, Ms. May coaches barristers in the Australian Advocacy Training program, business and technology leaders in the USA, and private clients in the arts, academia, and many other fields.
In 2019, Ms. May began training in Theatrical Intimacy. She has trained with IDC (formerly IDI), and in 2022 was selected to be in the inaugural cohort of Theatrical Intimacy Education’s (TIE) Educator Advocate Program. Recent intimacy direction includes The Wild Party, Othello, and Shakespeare & Company’s The Taming of The Shrew.
Current research interest: studying “Unboundaried Voice: from Laughter to Lament”, with renowned Roy Hart teacher Marya Lowry. Other current projects include, in collaboration with Edith Wharton Restoration in Lenox, MA, editor of a collection of Wharton-themed plays written by the late Dennis Krausnick & produced at Shakespeare & Co. from 1988 – 2017. The collection includes full-length and one-act plays adapted from the works of Edith Wharton and Henry James, and others (“bio-pics”) based on Edith Wharton’s writings, letters & memoirs.
Ms. May is a Phi Beta Kappa/Magna Cum Laude graduate of Barnard College, and a graduate of the professional actor training program at Circle-in-the-Square Theatre School. She is proud to be a Union member: AEA, SAG/AFTRA, and The Dramatists Guild.