Free your voice, rewire your nervous system

We often take our voice for granted and think of it as merely a delivery system for information we want to communicate but for a performer, the voice is one of the most important tools and nothing can be more fatal than losing your voice. This is a problem Mallika Prasad Sinha has faced numerous times which has led her to learn Fitzmaurice Voicework and develop a Vachika Workshop from her own experiences that can help performers unleash and protect their voice.

“Fitzmaurice is an open holistic system created by Catherine Fitzmaurice which helps you understand the relation between your breath, sound-making and your nervous system through which you can feel safer using your voice,” says Sinha who is an actor, founder, and director at Actors Ensemble India Forum and has been a performer for over 35 years. She is in fact the Regional Coordinator for South Asia for the Fitzmaurice Institute.   

Vachika on the other hand has been developed through her own experiences as a performer and teacher. She explains “It is a battery of exercises I offer to actors to protect their voice so that it stays healthy and is used well. It draws inspiration from the reference to voice as ‘cosmic sound’ in the Natyashastra.” With over two decades of experience as a performer/educator/actor trainer, she has developed Vachika which is an ongoing dialogue with existing voice training methods and practices in India and around the world. Vachika’s uniqueness is the use of the Sanskrit alphabet as the phonetic base and Rasa as its theoretical underpinning.

Through the workshop, one will be able to speak with greater vocal freedom, focus, and power, communicate more fully when you are nervous or stressed, reduce unhelpful tension in the whole body, expand your range and connect with others more directly and deepen the connection between mind-body-creativity

The workshop will last for six days between August 2 to 7 and cost Rs 20,000 for the online workshop.

It is something that you can take up even if you are not a performer. “I’ve worked with people from varying backgrounds including podcasters, health care professionals, teachers, voice artists, professionals from the corporate space, actors, singers, writers, and healers. This workshop is for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of their voice and wellbeing,” says Sinha.