Matthew Collins is a voice coach working with clients who range from prisoners and business people to members of the Women’s Institute. He is also a writer and professional speaker.
For ten years he was ‘Special Assignments Man’ on BBC TV’s The Travel Show. (A curious job… Each week a stunned Matthew was given tickets, money and a surprise travel assignment – anything from an overland trip to Spain with his leg in plaster to sample travelling facilities for disabled people; to a six-days-and-nights coach trip to Athens and back with only a half-hour break in Athens; to a week in a French nudist camp where single men and photography were banned – he was alone with three cameras around his neck…)
He also presented on Wogan, Open Air, This Morning, Well Worth A Visit… And (not his finest hour) an Anglia TV quiz show. He brought up two sons alone, wrote books and articles about their travails and travels, and ran prison Fathers Workshops.
Today, the work he most loves is encouraging non-thespians to explore their voices by going beyond their vocal comfort zones. And to encourage everyone to delight in speaking great words. In public or in private – whether by delivering a speech or presentation; exploring the power of Shakespeare’s language; speaking a poem; or reading the words of a great story aloud.
Over these discombobulating, last two years Matthew’s run online and in-person Voice Courses; Community Poetry-Speaking sessions; and Explore Shakespeare by Speaking Him workshops. He’s also done online and in-person work for businesses and schools.
He presently does corporate voicework in The City; runs a Voice Club at We Work, assisting sales teams with pitches; and helps businesses with corporate story-telling.
Recent schools work includes an in-person presentation about Language, Habitual Coarseness and Social Media for the London Oratory School’s Sixth Form Well-Being week; a talk to Dulwich College about Teaching Shakespeare to Prisoners; and a Voice Workshop for King’s Worcester. He will be back at King’s in late May.
His most recent public workshop (spring 2022), Explore Shakespeare by Speaking Him, was at Bell House in Dulwich where a community came together – physically, vocally and socially – to explore Shakespeare’s words and their own voices.
Matthew’s other current projects include a recently-recorded short audio play starring Paul Copley (The Archers; Coronation Street; Last Tango in Halifax) that Matthew wrote and directed (details to follow this summer) and a play about a play in a prison – to be produced later in 2022.