Jill Player Cotton

Greetings and Welcome. Thank you for taking a look . Here goes:
Trained at the Guildhall School of Music& Drama in London on the Professional Acting Course at the Drama School and with the Head of Singing at the Music School, 1976 - 1979, inclusive.
So, yes, I am a little older, now, and, as the saying goes these days, have quite a bit of "life experience" behind me.
Over time, I have tread the boards in straight theatre as well as musical theatre in London, New York, New Zealand, and Sydney, Australia.
Accents include Standard English (we were thrown out of the Guildhall if we couldn't produce an English accent!) American, "Southern" American, etc., my Irish is pretty good, and I have my own natural blend of "mid-Atlantic/slightly Aussie." For my natural, undistilled voice, think Cate Blanchette. Or Emma Thompson. More Judi Dench than Maggie Smith, lol! Friends also (jokingly) call me "Merryl" (as in Streep)
It doesn't take me long to learn an accent - thanks to having a musical ear and therefore being a pretty good mimic!
I love reading a story aloud - narration - as well as character work.
My personality and voice happily lend themselves to portraying young or old, happy or sad, silly, calm and serene, naive, an air-head, stern, reassuring, persuasive, authoritative, relaxing - being able to pull any of that out of a hat was a big help for keeping the attention of my long-ago kindergarten class when we lived in California.
When my youngest son was in Year Two in Sydney I went twice a week to his class and read them the first two Harry Potter books. Their teacher described them as spellbound. That was fifteen or so years ago? I still have parents, and now the (adult) children themselves stopping me in the shops or the street to thank me for opening up the world of reading and books for them.
I have worked as a voice and singing coach for more than twenty years.
For the last five years, I have also been an authorised marriage and funeral celebrant here in Australia, which absolutely requires a voice that can both reflect a variety of emotions as well as tell a story.