Michael McCallion, STAT Memorial Lecture ,AGM Bristol 2001

“The Adventures of Leg and his Companion, Voice, and how they were led into Debauchery and Deprivation and their Redemption, thence into Proper Function”.

Michael McCallion dedicated his life to understanding and teaching others how to maximise the use of their voice. From nuns to lawyers, auctioneers and budding actors, a steady stream of professionals knocked at his door during the 45 years that spanned his career. For Michael, there was no case of stage fright so severe that it could not be overcome, no voice too quiet to reach the back of an auditorium. Michael’s passionate interest in text, acting and voice was enhanced by his wife’s teaching of the Alexander technique, as they worked together developing the holistic system of voice use. With its insistence on the correct functioning of the head-neck-spine relationship, together with its use of mental direction and inhibition of habitual responses to stimuli, this way of working provides the means whereby the real choice in behaviour may be restored to the performer.