Reflections

Everything I need to know about storytelling I learned from teaching Hamlet. Watch this video for a fun take based in centuries of storytelling secrets from theatre. https://youtu.be/Hf0blitaByI?si=J40WpdlkYO8QzJfw

Most people believe that great public speaking is all about what you say, when the truth is, it’s about how you say it.  Close your eyes for a moment and imagine Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous I have a dream speech.  You know the one …  So even...

Most people think that spending hours on a meditation cushion is the only way to raise consciousness, when the truth is, learning to speak soulfully is an equally important and effective spiritual path. You know that image of the evolution of humans? That’s what’s...

Do you ever feel like you’re running on an old operating system?  Like your brain is stuck on Windows 95 but your consciousness is Windows 11. Or you’re trying to run MAC OS Sonoma on an old Commodore 64 body.   I feel your pain, cuz, you know, been there,...

It all started with 2 words: “You’re different.” 16 years ago I was teaching voice and acting at Foothill Community College. I thought I’d be in theatre full-time and do that forever. But the Universe had something else in store for me … One day after class, a female...

It's 1937. Just as Sir Laurence Olivier is about to step onstage at the Old Vic Theatre for the Royal Shakespeare Company, he excuses himself to go throw up.  Sir Laurence Olivier is widely considered to be one of the greatest actors of all time. Rumor has it, he...

          “Nooooo!” Screamed the voice in my head as I walked past my still silent student. For years, I taught college theater classes on high school campuses in East Palo Alto. I’d tried what felt like a gazillion different things to get...

At just 14 years old, I found myself in charge of a bunch of screaming 10 year old girls. It had all started on the whim of a friend … We were part of a ponytail softball dynasty of sorts: The Ragamuffins. My friend convinced me that we’d make great coaches for the...

10 years ago, at a very well known public speaking conference, a group of people swarmed my table like a bunch of buzzing bees. They surrounded me on the break, each asking different versions of the same question: Why can’t we understand her? One of the speakers,...