Vivian Majkowski

Associate Professor, Voice & Speech

Vivian Majkowski earned her MFA in Voice and Speech at the American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theatre School Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University where she studied with such luminaries as Nancy Houfek, David Hammond, Anatoly Smeliansky, Scott Zigler, Marina Brusnikina, Andre Droznhin, and Roman Kozak.  Vivian has been studying with Catherine Fitzmaurice since 1991 and was a student of Dudley Knight’s for just as long.  She is a certified teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework and was in the first class of the Knight/Thompson Speechwork series.  She has worked as a professional vocal coach in the theatre for such directors as Diane Paulis, Neil Bartlett, Janos Szasz, Robert Woodruff, Brian Crowe, Robert Bella, and James Bohnen. She is also a dialect coach for film and television counting among her many clients such talents as Kristen Stewart, William Hurt, Rupert Grint, Naturi Naughton, Ben Robson, and the late Alan Rickman. Vivian was the Vocal Director for Orlando Shakes, regularly voice, dialect and text coaching 5 shows a season. She often spends her summers at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey as a master teacher and Voice/Dialect Coach, she has been a company member since 1998.   Vivian is a past president of the Voice and Speech committee at the Southeastern Theatre Conference where she instituted a new category of master class for leaders in their fields, the Guest Artist Series, with Patsy Rodenburg, Dudley Knight, and helped usher Kristin Linklater into the Distinguished Career Award.  She is on the editorial board of the Voice and Speech Review, the Voice and Speech Trainers Association’s (VASTA) peer reviewed journal published by Routledge.  Prior to UH Vivian taught at the University of Central Florida and was Graduate Coordinator and the director of the Classical Touring Company for Savannah College of Art and Design adapting Shakespeare plays to one hour of stage time for the tours.  She is the recipient of several directing and voice awards from KCACTF, numerous faculty recognition awards from SCAD, and is the recipient of the Certificate of Distinction in Teaching and a nominee for the prestigious Joseph R. Levenson Teaching Prize at Harvard University.  Her undergraduate was at the University of Colorado, Boulder in Acting and she also holds an Associate of Occupational Studies degree from the Swedish Institute for Health Sciences and is a licensed massage therapist in extensive Western modalities and a Traditional Chinese Medicine Five Element Theory Shiatsu practitioner, melding her careers in acting and bodywork to holistically engage her voice, speech and dialect students, professionals in the theatre/film/tv industries and the business world, members of the clergy, and politicians.