Val Sturgess

I have a neutral voice without any obvious accents. I'm native in RP and Cornish. I'm confident in upperclass London, London's youthfull slang, West country, Devon, Somerset, Oxford, Welsh (Valley), Mancunian, American (General) and Scottish (General). I have a couple of Cartoon voices, both in American accents.

My first professional job was with the BBC doing a radio play. They wanted native actors and at the time, apparently, I was the only young Cornish actress in Spotlight. So I got the chance to slip back into a very comfortable accent. This was such a success that two years later the BBC called me back and asked me to do another radio play with them. Since then I've also been involved in corporate voice overs. This includes switchboard messages and two training programmes for a company called SWAT uk ltd. I trained at Rose Bruford College and graduated in 2006 with a degree in European Theatre Arts. Part of this course included breathing & vocal techniques, performance preparation and of course theatre. I've studied the work of many practitions, to name but a few: Stanislavski, Lorca, Peter Brook, Dario Fo, Brecht, Grotovski. I am part of a theatre company called Crescent Theatre Workshop. We meet to train every week, this includes acting, physical and vocal training. I spent 3 months studying at the Estonian Academt of Music and Drama in 2005. Studying acting technique, singing and acrobatics. I participated in workshops with Gavin McAlinden on acting techniques. For my A levels I attended Susi Earnshaw Theatre School. Here we focused on acting, dance and singing. I know how to take care of my voice. It is my tool. I have had additional jobs alongside acting and voiceovers where this has been essential. I am also a London tourguide, so need to be able to project, talk clearly and most importantly- be interesting! I am a very strong storyteller. I am able to work from a script, am able to memorise text quickly and accurately and am also able to improvise or work without a script within a subject.