Meet Hillary's Acting Coach >>> - Democratic Underground

Stephanie

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Sun Feb-24-08 07:41 PM
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Meet Hillary's Acting Coach >>>

Come out and take a bow, Michael Shaheen!

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/02/a_clue_to_how_hillary_clinton.html

A Clue to How Hillary Clinton Found Her Voice

After her big upset in New Hampshire last month, Hillary Rodham Clinton famously declared, "I found my own voice." What she also found was her own voice coach.

According to Clinton campaign's latest federal campaign disclosure report, the Democratic presidential candidate paid $7,500 to voice and drama coach extraordinaire Michael Sheehan in October.

Sheehan, a graduate of the Yale School of Drama who once was the associated producer of the Folger Theater Group, also helped shaped the voice and image of Bill Clinton, who Sheehan features prominently on his web site. If anyone could help Clinton soften her style, as the campaign sought to do in the weeks leading up to the New Hampshire primary, it would be Sheehan.

http://www.sheehanassociates.com/media/media.html

LIVING HISTORY
A book by Hillary Rodham Clinton

"I seized upon the village theme, and we swiftly drafted the speech around it. Then I went to the tiny room in the basement of the United Center for one last rehearsal with Michael Sheehan, an extraordinary media coach who made Herculean efforts to teach me to use the TelePrompTer, which I had never worked with before and couldn't seem to master. Though I might finally have found the words I'd been searching for, I'd blow the speech if I delivered them looking like a robot, so I practiced until it felt right."

http://www.sheehanassociates.com/aboutus/bio_sheehan.html

BIO
Michael Sheehan

Michael Sheehan has been a leader in the field of communications consulting since 1981.

Michael has prepared countless corporate spokespersons for the major national television interview programs: NIGHTLINE, 60 MINUTES, 20/20, TODAY, GOOD MORNING AMERICA, CROSSFIRE and others. As a confrontational debate specialist, he is one of the most utilized consultants in the country. He prepares CEOs, CFOs and senior executives from banking/financial services, insurance, defense, airline, medical, energy, and consumer industries to step into the media/public affairs spotlight. Nationally known for his expertise in message development and training, he has been called upon to help in critical business situations such as initial public offerings, shareholder meetings, hostile takeovers/defenses, corporate legal battles and more.

His client list includes major corporations (JP Morgan Chase, Procter & Gamble, Lockheed Martin); trade associations (American Bar Association, Recording Industry Association of America); foundations and public interest groups (Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation); and the federal government (Centers for Disease Control, US Postal Service, Environmental Protection Agency).

Responding to the increasing demand for training internationally, Michael has worked in London, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Mexico City, Geneva, Brussels, Singapore and Vienna.

Michael has coached more Presidents, Vice Presidents, Cabinet Secretaries, Governors, and Members of Congress than anyone in the country. He coached President Bill Clinton during the 1992 and 1996 campaigns, Presidential Debates, and for all of his Inaugural, State of the Union, and Oval Office addresses. He coached both John Kerry and John Edwards for the 2004 Presidential/Vice Presidential Debates.

In 1988, Michael was debate coach for former Senator Lloyd Bentsen in his celebrated debate with Vice President Dan Quayle, and for Vice President Al Gore in his CNN debate with H. Ross Perot as well as the 1996 Vice Presidential Debate with Jack Kemp. Since 1988, he has been hired by the Democratic National Committee for every convention to edit the texts and rehearse all speakers, including the party's nominees and keynote speakers, for their nationally-televised convention speeches.

He received his BSFS from Georgetown University and his MFA from the Yale School of Drama. Profiled in national publications from The New York Times to The Washington Post, he has appeared on all three networks' news programs as well as those on CNN, CNBC, and Fox News. His speeches have been broadcast on C-SPAN, and he is a guest lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. In 1991, he received the Individual Achievement Award from the American Speech, Language and Hearing Association and was recently named to the Leadership Council for the Yale School of Drama.

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//080223/480/4237e378f6b349a0a5d01cbdc8f742b7/