Office Phone

313-577-5758

Office Hours

By appointment

Office Location

3226 Old Main
4841 Cass Ave. 

Primary E-mail

michaeljbarnes@wayne.edu

Biography

Michael J. Barnes, Interim Chair & Associate Professor, and teaches voice & speech, directing, and acting in the graduate and undergraduate acting programs. He previously served as the department's Artistic Director of the department and the university's Chief Privacy Officer. He has also been on the faculty of the Broadway Theatre Project--with Artistic Director, Ben Vereen; the University of Miami; and Temple University, and taught at UC-Irvine, the University of Delaware, and the University of Central Oklahoma.

He has served as a voice, speech, dialect, & text coach for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Utah Shakespearean Festival, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Arena Stage, Wilma Theatre, Denver Center Theatre Company, Studio Theatre (DC), Rep Stage Company, the Pearl Theatre (NYC), People's Light and Theatre, Venture Theatre, Everyman Theatre, and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.

He has dialect coached the films The Witch (Sundance Film Festival Award Winner; Anya Taylor Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie), Master Class (Faye Dunaway), Convicted (Aidan Quinn, Kelly Preston, Connie Nielson, Tim Daly; directed by Academy Award winner Bille August) and Broken Bridges (Kelly Preston, Toby Keith, Burt Reynolds, Tess Harper; directed by Steven Goldman).

He recently decided to start performing again and has acted at the Richmond Shakespeare Festival and Hope Summer Repertory Theatre. He was formerly President of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA) and is the Director of Technology of the Fitzmaurice Institute. 

Area of Expertise

Accents for Stage and Film

Speech improvement

Vocal Training for the Speaking Voice - Fitzmaurice Voicework

Degrees and Certifications

Certified Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework

MFA - Theatre Voice Coaching and Training, The National Theatre Conservatory

BFA - Theatre Performance, University of Oklahoma

Advanced Certificate - Cambridge University, UK

Recent Publications

Voice and Gender, Topical Editor - The Voice & Speech Review

"Standard Speech: Results of a Survey," World of Voice, The Voice & Speech Review, 2011

Current Research

Ancient Greek Pronunciation Dictionary

← Return to listing