Free the breath, free the body, free the voice - free the human being!

A voice coach and veteran professional actor, singer, director and yoga teacher, Debora holds a Voice Performance degree (BMus) from the University of Toronto and a Masters in Fine Arts in Directing (MFA) from York University. She studied extensively with master voice teacher David Smukler, and master singing teachers Richard Armstrong, Patricia Kern, and Mary Morrison. She also studied with Kristin Linklater, the ground breaking author of Freeing the Natural Voice. Recently Debora became a certified Kundalini Yoga instructor, and brings aspects of that practice into her studio teaching.

As a voice coach, Debora recently worked on the popular TV series THE HANDMAID’S TALE and STAR TREK: DISCOVERY. She also worked with Pamela Sinha on her award winning play CRASH which played in Soulpepper’s New York repertory in 2017. She coached with Equity Showcase in Toronto for many years, and is currently on the faculty of the Tom Todoroff Studio. She worked with Elevated Grounds, coaching at-risk youth, and with the Workman Arts through the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto. Debora has also coached several iterations of the youth-driven sex education show, SExT, including various Toronto runs and their 2019 tour of the Northwest Territories. She has also adjudicated several Ontario music festivals.

Debora has been teaching voice in the George Brown College Theatre School in Toronto since 1998. Before that, she headed the voice department at the University of Windsor and taught voice for actors at York University and the University of Toronto (Erindale). She has taught singing at York University, University of Toronto, and in the renowned musical theatre department at Sheridan College (where the Tony-Award-winning production of COME FROM AWAY began).

A Tyrone Guthrie Award winner, Debora spent five seasons performing at the Stratford Festival and toured with the company to the Old Vic in London and to Broadway. She also directed and acted in many productions at regional and summer theatre festivals across Canada. Favourite productions include: THE BELLE OF AMHERST (Emily Dickinson), EVITA (Evita), THE AFFECTIONS OF MAY (May), and the Toronto premiere of the contemporary opera THE BOILER ROOM SUITE (Aggie Rose). Her directing credits include OUR COUNTRY'S GOOD, COLOURS IN THE STORM, I DO! I DO! (Theatre Brockville), the premiere of HARD HATS - THE MUSICAL (Lighthouse Festival) and her own adaptation of HENRY V (York University). Her musical direction credits include THREEPENNY OPERA (York University) and VINEGAR TOM (Players' Academy).

Debora lives and works in the Beaches neighbourhood of Toronto.

“Free the breath – free the body – free the voice – free the actor - free the human being.”