Artists in Depth

Alan Powell, Nicole Powell

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A podcast about wellbeing in the artistic process. Join us and reflect on your journey & artist within. Subscribe where you listen to your podcasts. An Actor Care® project Sponsored by Equity Showcase

2d ago

S5 EP2 with Pat O'Toole & Alan Powell

Our guests today are AWFC members Pat O’Toole and Alan Powell, founders of the Association of Acting Coaches & Educators (AACE UK) www.aaceuk.org Pat is a wellbeing Practitioner, Coach, Mediator, and theatre director. She started integrating her practice as a counsellor and coach over 25 years ago. Pat has an MSc in Social sciences and recently completed nervous system and embodied coaching training with Nervous System Mastery. She runs workshops on building mental fitness, Resilience, and Nervous System Regulation for students and staff in Further and higher education and embedding wellbeing into actor training. Pat recently launched the Artist Development roadmap and is a contributing author to the Routledge book Stanislavsky and Wellbeing. Alan worked as a director for nearly 20 years before training in various therapeutic modalities and developing Actor Care® - an internationally recognized model that supports actor resilience and embodied character work. He has presented at global conferences, and is a contributing author to several books on actor wellbeing in the creative process. Aside from co-founding the Association of Acting Coaches & Educators in the UK, Alan also co-founded the Actor Wellbeing Facilitators Collective and, of course, is the driving force and co-host of this podcast —he’s also my dad. Our discussion centred on the work of AACE UK and its mandate to create community, education and support freelancers with the goal to empower them with the tools to empower their students. But we started with the link between the AWFC and AACE UK.
Oct 2

S5 EP1 with Saman Kesh

Our guest today is Saman Kesh https://www.samankesh.com/ Saman is an award-winning Iranian-American filmmaker celebrated for blending raw human emotion with controlled chaos, and for earning 17 Vimeo Staff Picks. He directs for some of the world’s top brands and artists. His music videos for Ed Sheeran, Kygo, Hot Chip, and Calvin Harris have earned a YDA Silver at Cannes and two Best Video awards at SXSW. His latest Ed Sheeran video, Azizam, was nominated for Best Music Video at SXSW in 2026. His Taco Bell Super Bowl spot, along with campaigns for Nintendo, Google, and Toyota, have won multiple Clio awards. Kesh’s narrative work also channels his signature chaos. His acclaimed short films CONTROLLER and HIT TV (both Vimeo Staff Picks) are currently in development for long-form adaptations. Our conversation with Saman was informed by his professional relationship with my co-host and daughter, Nicole. She is Saman’s producer of choice. They’ve worked together many times over the past several years. So it was easy to drop into the topics of darkness in the creative process and the brain as fact-checker and not being the leader of our emotional and somatic experiences - but we started off light, so we thought, with a simple question…
Jun 28

S4 EP10 In Discussion with Simon Ward

My guest today is AWFC member Simon Ward www.simonward.info Simon is a psychologist, musician, actor and educator based in Sydney, Australia. He trained at the Royal Academy of Music in the UK in musical theatre & voice, and with the Actors Centre Australia. He is an accredited Estill Master Trainer with Estill Voice International. Simon has performed in and directed musicals in London’s West End, on the BBC, and in cabaret in London & New York City. He has toured throughout Australia in musicals, plays, opera and extensively in cabaret. In addition to a busy performing and directing schedule, Simon gained four psychology degrees and works as a Clinical Psychologist with young people and creative arts professionals, and is a founding Wellbeing Committee member for Media Entertainment and Arts Association (MEAA). Simon is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, a member of the Australian Psychological Society, and is Vice President of International Representatives for the Music Theatre Educator’s Alliance. Simon lectures in singing & voice at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts; and in musical theatre, singing, and psychology for performers on a range of acting, music theatre and dance courses around Australia. He regularly presents and consults on psychosocial wellbeing in the creative arts industries and higher education, in voice science and psychology, mental health for teachers and health workers for various performer health organisations internationally. In conversing with Simon, I felt I only scraped the surface of his wealth of knowledge and expertise hearing him talk about the art of cabaret, the craft of using self as a foundation for character, and the psychology behind audience interaction and containment.
Jun 7

S4 EP9 In Discussion with Andrea Rankin

My guest today is AWFC member Andrea Rankin (she/her)https://www.andrearankin.ca/ Andrea is an artist, educator, facilitator, and coach whose work bridges the performing arts, trauma-informed pedagogy, and relational learning. As an actor, singer, and songwriter, Andrea has performed leading roles across Canada, including four seasons at the Stratford Festival in both new works and classical productions. A graduate of the Stratford Festival’s Birmingham Conservatory, Andrea holds a BFA in Acting from the University of Alberta and a Master of Teaching degree from the University of Toronto, where her SSHRC-funded research focused on trauma-informed drama education. In 2025, Andrea co-founded the Trauma-Informed Arts Institute, a professional learning space for artists, educators, and arts leaders, where she facilitates workshops on applying trauma-informed frameworks within artistic and educational settings. Additionally, she currently serves as Professional Learning and Development Leader at the Ontario Physical and Health Education Association. We discussed the future of actor and director education, emphasizing the need for self-advocacy tools, communication skills, and proactive well-being strategies. And one question that begged asking was why actors are willing to subject themselves to unhealthy behaviour in pursuit of their craft?
May 23

S4 EP8 In Discussion with Corey Tazmania

My Guest today is AWFC member Corey Tazmania https://coreytazmania.weebly.com/ Corey is a New York based artist whose work intersects movement, performance, pedagogy, and artist Rx strategies. As an educator, Corey has taught intimacy, text, movement, and clown at various Universities throughout the Greater Toronto Area, and the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. As an actor, she has worked off-broadway, regionally, Toronto, and her work for conceptual artists has been exhibited internationally. As an intimacy and movement artist, Corey has collaborated with creatives in academic and professional theatre in Alberta, Ontario, and New York. Her choreography received an Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award nomination. Corey is passionate about creating performance work that focuses on emotional community building which fosters a creative culture of mutual support, including her ongoing project, The Clown Grievances which connects ritual catharsis with the art of complaint using clown play, laughter yoga and somatic tools for adults and families. We mainly discussed her passion for her clown grievances project and the themes of play and agency for both young people and elders. And our inherent uniqueness that was once a burden in our younger years but is now a blessing.
Mar 22

S4 EP7 In Discussion with Graham D'Souza

Our guest today is Graham D’Souza. https://www.linkedin.com/in/graham-d-souza-958739145/ With a lifetime devoted to the study and performance of the human voice, Graham has over 14 years of professional experience in Voice, Speech, and Literature Studies. Born and bred in Mumbai, India, Graham’s vocation began with a stammer in childhood. Eventually gaining fluency along the way, he went on to work with people across professions including actors across the country. For over 3 years in India, Graham also worked as a speech consultant with NGO’s for the financially underprivileged community in Mumbai. In 2020 Graham suffered three consecutive near fatal brain seizures. After months in hospital he made a full recovery. He then found his way to London, where he completed his master's degree and worked across the UK. Graham went on to teach at 13 institutions in 3 years, teaching Voice, Speech Therapy, Literature, and Rhetoric. After 5 years abroad, he finds himself back in Mumbai, with renewed purpose-he founded GramoVox, a praxis of Voice Studies through Communication and Literature.Graham holds an MFA in Voice Studies from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and a clinical qualification in Vocal Manual Therapy. Our conversation was a special one for me and Nicole and you’ll find out why when you listen. Graham is much wiser than his years with a passion for teaching that is as inspiring as it is effective.
Feb 15

S4 EP.6 In Discussion with Lucy Skilbeck

Our Guest today is AWFC member Lucy Skilbeck https://beingwithhorses.co.uk/ Lucy is the Collaborative Projects Lead at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (formerly she was Director of Actor Training for 10 years), she is also a theatre director, coach and equine-facilitated psychotherapist. With over 30 years experience as a director and acting teacher and coach, working in the UK, US, Australia and Europe, and after 10 years running the acting programme at RADA, she has developed a creative practice of reflective enquiry, active curiosity, and playful rigour. She integrates wellbeing into her creative practice, supporting actors to fully explore their potential safely. Additionally, she offers equine-facilitated actor training, Act Like a Horse, and has an equine therapy and personal coaching practice, Being With Horses. Lucy explained some of her recent research in the field - literally - in the field - with actors and some of her observations. We started with why she felt compelled to train in Equine facilitated therapy and its connection to actor training.
Jan 11

S4 EP5 In Discussion with Tom Stroud

Our Guest today is AWFC member, Tom Stroud https://emotionalfluencyproject.com/home Tom is an award-winning choreographer with over 40 years of experience in the field. He has performed and toured with companies across Canada and his works have been commissioned and presented by companies, festivals, and presenters coast to coast. For 14 years he was Artistic Director of Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers (WCD) where he spearheaded national and international collaborations that resulted in residencies and performances in Canada, the United States and Mexico. In 2005 Tom joined the faculty of the Department of Theatre and Film at the University of Winnipeg. He currently holds the position of Senior Scholar at the Department of Theatre and Film. His research examines emotion science, embodiment, and the actor’s creative process in contemporary performance practice. In 2012 Tom began training in the Emotional Effector Patterns under the guidance of master teacher Laura Bond. He is currently an Emotional Body Lead Instructor and a certified Alba teacher. Tom shared his journey from restless youth to discovering where he belongs, and how teaching the science and practice of Emotional Fluency Training for Actors keeps him in a joyful place he calls home.

A podcast about wellbeing in the artistic process. Join us and reflect on your journey & artist within. Subscribe where you listen to your podcasts. An Actor Care® project Sponsored by Equity Showcase

Creator

Alan Powell, Nicole Powell
Years Active

2021 - 2026
Episodes

49
Rating

Explicit
Copyright

© Alan Powell, Nicole Powell
Show Website

Artists in Depth