Brian
has a Ph.D. in Speech from Southern Illinois University as well as both
B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees from the Goodman Theatre and School of Drama in
Chicago. He has had further training in voice, speech, and accent
reduction in Hollywood with Dr. Morton Cooper (Change Your Voice,
Change Your Life) and Dr. David Alan Stern of Dialect Accent
Specialists as well as with Lorna Sikorski of LDS Associates and Dr.
Paulette Dale (English Pronunciation for Spanish Speakers).
Brian
has also been trained in the Arthur Lessac system of voice and speech for
the actor (The Use and Training of the Human Voice), although he
draws upon many methods in forming his original, systematic approach to
all voice, speech, accent, and communication problems.
Prior
to establishing The Speech Studio in 1984, Brian was the head of the
Speech and Theatre program on the White Plains Campus of Pace University
and, before that, a full-time associate professor of Speech and Theatre at
the University of Connecticut and the University of Maine.
Brian has also taught speech and accent reduction at Bergen Community
College in New Jersey. As a director and teacher Brian has
coached hundreds of people in voice and speech, acting, public speaking,
and the oral interpretation of literature. He has taught courses and
workshops in voice and speech and has also performed his own programs of
dramatic readings from world literature for a variety of audiences and on
Public Radio.
Brian
has acted on stage, radio and television since the age of eleven. He
has directed many plays, including productions of A Streetcar Named
Desire, Summer and Smoke, The Crucible, The Diary of
Ann Frank, The Fantasticks, Come Blow Your Horn, Spoon
RIver Anthology, In White America, America Hurrah!, and Scenes
from American Life. For twelve years Brian coached actors in voice and
speech (in English) for the Puerto Rican Traveling Company, the oldest
professional Latino theatre in New York City.
In
addition to coaching actors, Brian has helped many business and
professional people, including doctors, lawyers, and executives, speak
better, reduce their accents, deliver presentations, and resolve many
kinds of communication problems. Brian studied management at NYU and
served as Assistant to the President of Steele Industries in New Jersey,
where he was in charge of re-organization, hiring, training, sales,
collecting outstanding receivables, and developing new business.
Dr.
Loxley has written "The Speaking and Listening Handbook," as a
part of the Scribner Literature Series for grades 7 through 12.
He is a member of the Voice Foundation and the American Society for
Training and Development. Currently,
he is working on a CD-ROM, Spoken Word Power, 1,001 Words and How to
Pronounce Them, which is based on the Speech Studio's Word of the Day,
which is found on this web site.
Brian
enjoys working with his clients very much. He is organized,
disciplined, and efficient, yet, at the same time, understanding,
sympathetic, and patient. He is very systematic in his approach to
any problem but is also flexible and creative. If a method is not
working, he readily will try another one, or invent one, to solve the
individual's particular problem.
