Matthew Collins is a voice coach who works with clients ranging from ex-prisoners and business people to members of the Women’s Institute.
He’s also a speaker, offering light and serious talks.
Recent bookings include a luncheon speech (Budget Travel, Borrowed Grannies, Tax-Free Cash from Yours Kids AND Shopping for Free In Supermarkets) for Cancer Research; a speech to the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham’s Legal Department about Teaching Shakespeare to Prisoners; and a Brilliant Communicators Conference presentation called How Shakespeare Can Improve Your Public Speaking – delivered to speechwriters for figures such as the US Ambassador to London, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and a former Swedish prime minister.
Matthew’s career began on TV as the BBC2 Travel Show’s Special Assignments Man. For ten summers he was given a weekly surprise assignment – anything from spending a week in a French nudist camp to making a six-days-and-nights coach journey to Athens and back.
He also presented on Wogan, Open Air, This Morning, Well Worth A Visit… And (his Alan Partridge moment) an Anglia TV quiz show. He then brought up two sons alone, wrote books and articles about their travails and travels, and ran prison Fathers Workshops.
Once his sons were teenagers, he did an MA in Voice Studies at the Central School of Speech and Drama. There he met the RSC’s voice director, Cicely Berry, who completely changed his life. On learning he worked with prisoners, she invited him to her home for masterclasses and inspired him to do Shakespeare in prison.
His first session was a Wormwood Scrubs Speaking Romeo and Juliet workshop. Prisoners played all roles – including Juliet, the Nurse, and Lady Capulet. And when a man said, ‘Cheers mate – you really got me out of myself’, Matthew knew he wanted to do more prison work.
He ended up teaching for ten years in Scrubs (and occasionally Send – a women’s prison). And his prison Shakespeare sessions led to further voicework – with police officers, business people, and Women’s Institute members.
Today Matthew runs individual and group voicework sessions; and Explore Shakespeare by Speaking Him workshops. He also runs corporate Voice Clubs. And public speaking sessions for local authorities and law firms.
School work has included a presentation about Language and Social Media for the London Oratory; a talk to Dulwich College about Teaching Shakespeare to Prisoners; voice sessions for King’s Worcester; and regular Speaking Shakespeare workshops at Lycée Charles de Gaulle.
But he also runs Shakespeare sessions open to the public. And in November 2024 he’s offering the following London workshops in Highgate, Finsbury Park, and Brompton Cemetery:
Saturday 9th November (10.30am-12.30pm)
BROMPTON CEMETERY: Speaking Shakespeare’s Ghosts Tickets: £29
Saturday 9th November (2.00pm-4.00pm)
BROMPTON CEMETERY: Speaking Shakespeare’s Sonnets Tickets: £29
Saturday 16th November (10.30am-12.30pm)
HIGHGATE: An Introduction to Speaking Shakespeare Tickets: £35
Saturday 23rd November (10.30am-5.00pm)
FINSBURY PARK: Explore Hamlet by Speaking the Speeches Tickets: £62
For more information about these workshops,
post@matthewcollins.co.uk
For more information about Matthew’s talks and individual/group voicework: post@matthewcollins.co.uk
And to find out about Speak Well With Willpower, a social enterprise Matthew founded with two colleagues, that aims to level up public speaking skills, using Shakespeare, in disadvantaged communities, please visit: www.speakwellwithwillpower.co.uk