To give voice actors and prospective voice actors healthful, effective techniques and understanding of how the voice works to produce sounds that meet industry trends and standards, providing real-world tools to successfully work within the voice acting sphere, anywhere from dubbing to commercials, animation or video games. This workshop provides tools that can be applied across multiple mediums, but is not limited to any one in particular.

Learning objectives

• Identify the structures of the vocal mechanism that facilitate character creation.
• Employ exercises that will provide new vocal options for archetypal characters in the animation, video game and voice over industries.
• The student gains a comprehensive toolkit for exploring character creation in order to apply these tools in a real world setting.
• The student gains new tools to manage and monitor vocal health for a long term career in the voice acting industry.
• The student gains and understanding of industry expectations for creating demo reels, commonly requested characters, working in the recording environment.

Key dates

• Friday, November 20th 2026: 17:00 to 19:00 (Zoom)
• Saturday, November 21st 2026: Group 1: 09:00 to 12:15, Group 2: 13:30 to 16:45 (In person)
• Sunday, November 22nd 2026: Group 1: 09:00 to 12:15, Group 2: 13:30 to 16:45 (In person)
• Deadline to submit an application: Thursday, October 29th 2026 at 10:00am

Application Process

• Submission of your most recent resume.
• Submission of a headshot.
• Submission of a short audio blurb in English, explaining your interest, your voice work knowledge/experience and whether you have had any vocal training before. Please send it in an MP3 format.

Duration: 8 hours

Cost: $75

Number of participants: 20 participants (2 groups of 10)

Admission criteria: Age range: 16+, proficiency in English, must be an active member of ACTRA.

All in person sessions will be held at ACTRA Montreal’s Boardroom: 1450 City Councillors #530, H3A 2E6, QC, Montreal.

Workshop structure: 45-minute sections with 5-10 min brain/bathroom breaks

Instructors

Holly Gauthier-Frankel

With over 35 years of experience in studio, film and stage performance, Holly has lent her voice to hundreds of dubbed tv shows, albums, films and video games. Her specialties are generally youthful characters best suited to animation and children’s programming, but she can also pull out a battle cry that’ll make you run for the hills. Holly also voice-directs projects for companies such as Ubisoft and Difuze, an international distributor of Netflix film and television content. Holly is also a vocal coach specializing in diction, accents, accent-reduction, breath work, demo-creation and direction.

Simone Pitot

Simone is an Australian Certified Master Trainer in Estill Voice Training and has coached professional and amateur actors, singers and songwriters across the world for over 15 years. Simone is a ‘voice nerd’, training clients from an evidence-based physiological approach, so students are able to feel, see and hear their voices. Simone is also a professional working singer, taking the techniques from the practice room onto the stage. She is a music producer and composer, releasing music commercially in the contemporary, folk and metal genres as well as composing for film and television.