Louis Colaianni

lcolaianni@sbcglobal.net

Louis Colaianni is internationally recognized for his work in Voice, Speech and Phonetics.  His unique approach to phonetics and stage accents is used by dozens of theatre schools.  For fifteen years he has taught Voice and Speech in the nationally ranked Professional Actor Training Program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.  Colaianni has also served on the faculties of Trinity Repertory Theatre/Conservatory, (Ann Bogart, Artistic Director); Hunter College; The New Actors Workshop; American Conservatory Theatre; University of California; Ohio University; Dartmouth College; University of Pittsburgh and University of South Carolina.  For fifteen seasons, Colaianni has been Voice, Speech and Text Coach at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre, formerly, the Missouri Repertory Theatre.  He was also Voice/Speech/Text Coach at Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis and the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre.  Born in Paterson New Jersey in 1959, Colaianni trained as an actor at The Boston Conservatory.  He studied voice with Kristin Linklater and became a Designated Linklater Voice Teacher in 1987.  He is the author of The Joy of Phonetics and Accents (Drama Publishers, 1994), Shakespeare’s Names: A New Pronouncing Dictionary (Drama Publishers, 1999) How to Speak Shakespeare, with Cal Pritner, (Santa Monica Press, 2001), and Bringing Speech to Life with Claudia Anderson (Joy Press, 2002), a companion workbook to The Joy of Phonetics and Accents. 

Colaianni served as Associate Editor of The Voice and Speech Review, a peer-reviewed, scholarly journal (Applause Books), and as Missouri Editor for the International Dialects of English Archive.  As an actor, he toured the U.S. with Shakespeare & Company, and appeared at various regional theatres, the American Shakespeare Theatre, and the New York Shakespeare Festival.  He is a member of Actors’ Equity Association, The Screen Actors Guild, The Association for Theatre in Higher Education, The Voice and Speech Trainers Association and The Educational Theatre Association.  His biography appears in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World.