Individual Coaching

Andrea coaches individuals and groups interested in gaining more freedom, dexterity, and variety in vocal expression and speech & accent choices.

Professional History

Andrea is Co- Director and designated Master Teacher of Knight-Thompson Speechwork™. She is Head of Voice & Speech at Cal State University, Long Beach, training mid-career actors in a unique Performance Pedagogy MFA program and serving an exciting and diverse undergraduate BA program.

Caban is also known as a professional accent/dialect coach for film and theatre. Notable coaching credits include several plays at the Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory Theatre (Absurd Person Singular, Chinglish, Death of a Salesman, Madwomen in a Volvo & Peter and the Starcatcher). She is the accent expert on HowCast.com, demonstrating over 30 accents. She is currently collaborating with Francis Ford Coppola on his career opus film Megalopolis.

Andrea has also served on faculty for the MFA programs at UC Irvine and UC San Diego, and in the BA/BFA programs at CSU Fullerton. She has been invited to teach master classes at Royal Academy of Dramatics Arts (teaching staff and BA actors) and the Royal Central School for Speech and Drama in London (MFA pedagogy students) and at the National Institute for Dramatic Arts in Sydney (MFA pedagogy students). She has been an artist-in-residence at University of Cape Town, Penn State University, the MotherTongue Project- South Africa, and SWEAT- South Africa (Sex-workers education and Task Force), among others.

She has performed and presented research at conferences and institutions in London, England, Bogota, Colombia, Cape Town, South Africa, Barcelona, Spain, San Ramon, Costa Rica and Istanbul, Turkey.

Testimonials

Andrea's Story

Hi, thanks for visiting. I’m a coach for film and theatre productions, an educator, and an artist/researcher. I’m interested in helping actors and other professionals gain more vocal freedom, accent choices and public speaking skills. I’m interested in helping people with ALS prolong the ability to speak without the use of assistive technology for as long as possible. I’m interested in making art in collaboration with other risk-takers. And I’m interested in cultivating a sense of ease, joy and play in all those things. That’s how we learn best.

The coolest thing that’s happened to me recently was when Francis Ford Coppola cold called me to work with him on his film. I loved collaborating with him. and the incredibly accomplished actors he hired to work with him on his film.

I’ve won some awards, I’ve traveled around the world coaching, teaching and performing, I run a speechwork organization (Knight-Thompson Speechwork) that values all humans over standardized accent models, and I’m head of Voice and Speech at CSU Long Beach. Through all that, my real skill is in listening and speaking to the person or persons in front of me and figuring out how I might be of service. 

If that’s one person, lovely, let’s figure out together what’s right for you. If that’s a theatre audience on the dark side of the room who has come to see me perform one of my solo plays or see the actors I’ve supported in their character creation, I’m honored to share these stories with you. And if that’s a conference room full of executives interested in a new way of communicating, I’m thrilled to impart the skills of clear, conscious and present public speaking technique.

I live in Southern California and South Florida, and spend a lot of time in London. On days I’m not working, I’m hiking with my husband or eating food he made me (yum).

Upcoming Events

Past Events

Performing & Speaking

Andrea is an award-winning solo performer available for bookings. Her plays speak to her own personal engagement with the world. Often her plays work well with a lecture component accompaniment.