Meet Our Tutors
Meet Our Team of Tutors
Our team of tutors are specialists in voice, performance and communication. They are among the leading experts currently working in Ireland & UK.
Utilising their experience as professional actors, voice experts and corporate communications coaches, their expertise, applied in small group settings, is at the core of The Lir at Work’s success.
CATHAL QUINN is one of the most in demand voices coaches in Ireland today – and is currently the Head of Voice and Speech in The Lir Academy, Trinity College Dublin.
After training at the Royal Scottish Academy in Glasgow, Cathal began working as a professional actor – before completing his Masters in Voice Studies from Central School of Speech and Drama. Since then he has taught at the Oxford School of Drama and was Head of Voice at the Gaiety School of Acting from 1998 – 2012 before leaving to join The Lir Academy as Head of Voice – with a primary focus on Voice and Dialect.
Cathal has worked as a Voice & Dialect Coach on numerous Film & Television productions including Albert Nobbs, Parked, Eden The Escapist, Love/Hate, Kitchen and Omagh. He is the artistic director of both Mouth on Fire Theatre Company and Guthanna Binne Sioraí. His theatre credits include coaching the American Premiere of The Home Place at the Guthrie Theater where he also taught Shaw, Wilde and Beckett.
Cathal has worked for many years as a voice and communications performance coach within the corporate sector working with clients including NTMA, Twitter, Lifestyle Sports, Paddy Power Betfair, Vodafone, Diageo, Aer Lingus, ESB, Abbott Ireland, The Department of Health, Trinity College Dublin and Standard Life.
Maria Tecce is an Award Winning leader in Public Speaking & Voice and Speech Coaching. She holds a QQI Level 6 Special Purpose Award in Training and Development (6S3372).
After making her living as a professional actor, singer, writer, and musician for 20 years, Maria began coaching business professionals, speakers, and performers over a decade ago in the same skills that professional speakers and performers use every day.
C-Suite and Senior Executives, professional speakers, and performers work with her when they want to up their game and show up as powerful, memorable, passionate, joyful communicators in their professional life and for the people around them.
She has coached for Google, Diageo, Ulster Bank, Bank Of Ireland, Ericsson, KPMG, Booking.com, Amazon, Smurfit Business School, Gaiety School of Acting, Rose Bruford College London, Johnson & Johnson, Salesforce, Trinity College, and Virgin Media.
Maria is dedicated to helping speakers take ownership of their authentic voice, confidence, and impact as communicators.
From Maria: “There is a powerful, passionate speaker in every one of us. How you choose to master your speaking, communicating, and presenting is up to you. The work works… but you have to work it. Own your voice, own your story, own the room.”
David Scott is an actor, writer and drama teacher – who is currently Course Director of The Lir Academy’s Foundation Diploma in Acting & Theatre.
He has an uncompromising passion for the professional development of emerging artists and the highest quality of actor training. David has developed his own technical practice, has self-designed and directed actor training programs including The Applied Art of Acting, written three textbooks on acting, theatre, and film practice and has self-published thirteen complete plays.
Alongside his work in theatre, David has worked extensively delivering corporate training and development programmes in communication and performance skills for organisations and businesses in Ireland. Particular areas of focus for David’s corporate work includes customer service, public speaking and presentation skills, interview preparation, speech writing, optics and media management, team management, leadership skills and team building. David’s techniques as a theatre practitioner and acting teacher inform his intricately designed workshops for corporate groups.
David’s corporate training clients to date include The Law Society of Ireland, The Dalata Hotel Group, Accenture and Smurfit Kappa.
Andrew has worked as course director of RADA’s Foundation Course and Drama Centre London’s MA in European Classical Acting, and as an associate tutor on the MA in Playwriting at Goldsmiths, University of London. He has also taught acting for dancers at the English National Ballet, text, voice and scene study at Shakespeare’s Globe and rehearsal processes and techniques for TV and film at Wimbledon Theatre.
Andrew holds a BA (Hons) in English and German and an MA in Text and Performance Studies (with distinction) from King’s College London and RADA.
Andrew’s communications skills training for business includes presentation coaching for Deutsche Bank’s equity derivatives department and AMV BBDO Ltd; leading extended courses in the Middle East; and regularly coaching executives at Ted Baker, preparing them to present new lines of clothing to the rest of the company. He also works with numerous pharmaceutical, energy and media clients.
Andrew is an established director of theatre and short films, winning a Shortcutz London award for The Babysitter. His books include An Attitude for Acting: How to Survive and Thrive as an Actor (written with Dr Tara Swart) and Genre: Guide to Writing for Stage and Screen.