Kristin Linklater (22 April 1936 – 5 June 2020) was a Scottish vocal coach, acting teacher, actor, theatre director, and author. She retired from the Theatre Arts Division of

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

where she was professor emerita. She taught residential courses in Orkney.

Biography

Born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

and brought up in the

Orkney Isles Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, Linklater trained with Michael MacOwan and Iris Warren at

LAMDA The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) is a drama school located in Hammersmith, London. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest specialist drama school in the British Isles and a founding member of the Federation of Drama Schools. In ...

. After graduating from LAMDA, she taught voice there for six years. During the 1960s, she relocated to the United States and worked with the

Guthrie Theater The Guthrie Theater, founded in 1963, is a center for theater performance, production, education, and professional training in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The concept of the theater was born in 1959 in a series of discussions among Sir Tyrone Gut ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

, Minnesota and the

Stratford Shakespeare Festival The Stratford Festival is a Repertory theatre, repertory theatre organization that operates from April to October in the city of Stratford, Ontario, Canada. Founded by local journalist Tom Patterson (theatre producer), Tom Patterson in 1952, th ...

in Ontario, Canada."KristinLinklater.com–Backstory"
/ref> Between 1964 and 1978, she worked as a vocal coach for acting companies led by Robert Whitehead,

Harold Clurman Harold Edgar Clurman (September 18, 1901 – September 9, 1980) was an American theatre director and drama critic. In 2003, he was named one of the most influential figures in U.S. theater by PBS.

Elia Kazan Elias Kazantzoglou (, ; September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003), known as Elia Kazan ( ), was a Greek-American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by ''The New York Times'' as "one of the most honored and inf ...

, and

Joseph Chaikin Joseph Chaikin (September 16, 1935 – June 22, 2003) was an American theatre director, actor, playwright, and pedagogue. Early life and education The youngest of five children, Chaikin was born to a poor Jewish family living in the Borough Pa ...

, among others. Linklater also taught voice in New York University's graduate theater program from 1965 to 1978. Educated at

St Leonards School St Leonards School is a co-educational private boarding and day school for pupils aged 4–19 in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. Founded in 1877 as St Andrews School for Girls Company, it adopted the St Leonards name upon moving to its current pre ...

and

Downe House School Downe House School is a private girls' boarding and day school in Cold Ash near Newbury, Berkshire, for girls aged 11–18. Entrance is selective, and the school has an enrollment of 559. The '' Good Schools Guide'' described Downe House ...

, she was a founding member in 1973 of Shakespeare & Company which was for many years in residence on the former estate of

Edith Wharton Edith Newbold Wharton (; ; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American writer and designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray, realistically, the lives and morals of the Gil ...

Lenox, Massachusetts Lenox is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is in Western Massachusetts and part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Pittsfield Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,095 at the 2020 United States census ...

. Linklater and several British-trained American actors founded the acting troupe of the same name, Shakespeare & Company. She served as co-director, with

Tina Packer Christina Packer (born 28 September 1938) is a British stage director and actress based in the United States. Educated at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, she originally worked as an actress, starring in the BBC television serial ''David Cop ...

. She left in the mid-1990s to develop her own approach to voice for actors, influenced by her teachers at

as well as the

Alexander Technique The Alexander technique, named after its developer Frederick Matthias Alexander (1869–1955), is an alternative therapy based on the idea that poor posture causes a range of health problems. The American National Center for Complementary a ...

. Her work was designed to liberate the natural function of the vocal mechanism as opposed to developing a vocal technique. Her writings on voice included ''Freeing the Natural Voice'' (1976) () and ''Freeing Shakespeare's Voice''. (1992); () She was of partial Swedish descent, through her father, Scottish novelist

Eric Linklater Eric Robert Russell Linklater CBE (8 March 1899 – 7 November 1974) was a Welsh-born Scottish poet, fiction writer, military historian, and travel writer. For '' The Wind on the Moon'', a children's fantasy novel, he won the 1944 Carnegie Med ...

.Keay, J. & Keay, J. (1994) ''

Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland ''Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland'' is a reference work published by HarperCollins, edited by the husband and wife team, John and Julia Keay. History Scots had provided the impetus for a number of well-known references works, ''Chambers Dic ...

''. London. HarperCollins. Linklater trained many well-known actors, including Sir

Patrick Stewart Sir Patrick Stewart (born 13 July 1940) is an English actor. With a career spanning over seven decades of Patrick Stewart on stage and screen, stage and screen, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Patrick Stewart, variou ...

Donald Sutherland Donald McNichol Sutherland (17 July 1935 – 20 June 2024) was a Canadian actor. With a career spanning six decades, he received List of awards and nominations received by Donald Sutherland, numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award ...

Alfre Woodard Alfre Woodard ( ; born November 8, 1952) is an American actress. Known for portraying strong-willed and dignified roles on stage and screen, she has received various accolades, including four Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and three Scree ...

Mary Tyler Moore Mary Tyler Moore (December 29, 1936 – January 25, 2017) was an American actress, producer, and social advocate. She is best known for her roles on '' The Dick Van Dyke Show'' (1961–1966) and ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' (1970–1977), whic ...

Bill Murray William James Murray (born September 21, 1950) is an American actor and comedian, known for his deadpan delivery in roles ranging from studio comedies to independent dramas. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Bill Murra ...

Angela Bassett Angela Evelyn Bassett (born August 16, 1958) is an American actress. Known for her work in film and television since the 1980s, she has received List of awards and nominations received by Angela Bassett, various accolades, including a Primetime ...

Courtney Vance Courtney Bernard Vance (born March 12, 1960) is an American actor. He started his career on stage before moving to film and television. Vance has received various accolades, including a Tony Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards, as well as nomin ...

Sigourney Weaver Susan Alexandra ( ; born October 8, 1949), better known by her stage name Sigourney Weaver, is an American actress. Prolific in film since the late 1970s, she is known for her pioneering portrayals of action heroines in Blockbuster (entertainme ...

Sam Rockwell Sam Rockwell (born November 5, 1968) is an American actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for playing troubled police officer Jason Dixon in ''Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri'' (2017). He was nominated i ...

and

Bernadette Peters Bernadette Peters ( ''née'' Lazzara; born February 28, 1948) is an American actress and singer. Over a career spanning more than six decades, she has starred in musical theatre, television and film, performed in solo concerts and released reco ...

. Linklater was a teacher and head of the Acting program at

Emerson College Emerson College is a private college in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It also maintains campuses in Los Angeles and Well, Limburg, Netherlands (Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a "school of Public Speaking, o ...

from 1990 to 1996. While at Emerson, Linklater and

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

psychologist

Carol Gilligan Carol Gilligan (; born November 28, 1936) is an American feminist, ethicist, and psychologist best known for her work on ethical community and ethical relationships. Gilligan is a professor of Humanities and Applied Psychology at New York Uni ...

led a group called the Company of Women, which explored Shakespeare from a woman's point of view. In 2013, Linklater established the Linklater Voice Centre in Quoyloo, Orkney, Scotland, to train and coach students in voice technique. That year she was made an honorary fellow of the

University of the Highlands and Islands The University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) () is an integrated, tertiary institution encompassing both further and higher education. It is composed of 10 colleges and research institutions spread around Inverness, the Highlands and Isl ...

. Her son by James Lincoln Cormeny is actor

Hamish Linklater Hamish Linklater (born July 7, 1976) is an American actor and playwright. He is known for playing Matthew Kimble in '' The New Adventures of Old Christine'' (2006–2010), Andrew Keanelly in '' The Crazy Ones'' (2013–2014), and Clark Debussy i ...

, who starred in the hit Netflix miniseries ''

Midnight Mass In many Western Christian traditions, Midnight Mass is the first liturgy of Christmastide that is celebrated on the night of Christmas Eve, traditionally beginning at midnight when Christmas Eve gives way to Christmas Day. This popular Christm ...

''. Her father was novelist

, and her mother was social activist, Marjorie MacIntyre.Eric Linklater profile
undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usbiography; accessed 13 May 2014. Her brothers

Magnus Magnus, meaning "Great" in Latin, was used as cognomen of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus in the first century BC. The best-known use of the name during the Roman Empire is for the fourth-century Western Roman Emperor Magnus Maximus. The name gained wid ...

and

Andro Linklater Andro Ian Robert Linklater (10 December 1944 – 3 November 2013) was a Scottish non-fiction writer, historian and economic historian. Life He was the youngest son of Eric Linklater, a poet and Marjorie MacIntyre, an arts campaigner. His brothe ...

are writers. On 5 June 2020, Linklater died of a heart attack at the age of 84.

Bibliography

* * * *

References

External links

Kristin Linklater.com
– official website

''Columbia Magazine'', Fall 2003

{{DEFAULTSORT:Linklater, Kristin Alumni of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art Columbia University faculty People educated at St Leonards School Scottish people of Swedish descent Scottish expatriate actresses in the United States Scottish stage actresses Scottish theatre directors Scottish voice actresses British voice coaches Place of birth missing 1936 births 2020 deaths British women theatre directors Scottish women theatre directors Linklater family

Biography

Bibliography

References

Further reading

External links