In early 2026, Commissioned by Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Nay underwent a major research period around gender-inclusive practice in voice at UK drama schools, from which he created a training for voice teachers, now delivering regularly across major UK drama schools.
You can read the publication of his research below.
‘Speaking of Gender: Inclusive Practices For Voice Practitioners’: Research Findings & How They Shaped the Training, Executive Summary by Nay Oliver Murphy
As the first openly trans student for many of my teachers and visiting lecturers at drama school, I often found myself taking on the role of educator. In voice training specifically, my identity sometimes became a barrier, despite the genuine care and skill of my teachers. It was from that experience that Speaking of Gender was born: a consultancy and training business focused on the inclusion of trans and gender non-conforming people in the arts. Speaking of Gender: Inclusive Practices for Voice Practitioners is the first of its offerings - commissioned at RCSSD.
I sought to find out what's missing in vocal pedagogy in relation to gender-inclusive practice, in order to understand what a training for voice teachers should include. The research draws on a survey of over 100 drama school students, graduates and voice teachers of various identities and experiences, alongside interviews with working voice practitioners and trans-identifying graduates from different UK drama schools. The findings were analysed by me - a trans male drama school graduate, actor, writer, facilitator and trans writing consultant, with the support of Dr Broderick Chow (Reader and Director of Learning, Teaching and Inclusion at RCSSD.) Should you wish to read the full and more detailed report, please contact me (details below).
Core Statistical Findings
85% of trans respondents felt their personal experience of voice class didn't match their beliefs about what it should be like (compared to 45% of cisgender students and 22% of voice teachers). Nearly half of them (46%) strongly disagreed that their experience matched their beliefs - three times the rate of cisgender peers (15%)
Trans respondents were also remarkably consistent with one another compared with scattered responses from cisgender respondents - suggesting a shared, systemic experience rather than isolated incidents
91% of all respondents agreed that teachers should be able to navigate and empower individual students' voice journeys confidently
94% agreed voice teachers should have a general understanding of trans voices, and 64% agreed they should have an expert understanding
The gap between what everyone agrees should happen and what trans students are actually experiencing is the central finding of this research. It is not a gap in values - it is a gap in knowledge and tools. Perhaps the most powerful way to understand why that gap matters comes from a trans graduate, reflecting on what it means to carry unresolved identity in the voice room:
"If I'm going into a room and then becoming the teacher, it's obviously confusing to me. If I'm day to day making sure that you feel comfortable about myself in the room to approach voice, of course I begin to swallow myself up and hold myself in the shape of an apology as soon as I come to a performance."
Expansive Voice
One of the most exciting findings was how consistently gender-inclusive practice was described as benefiting all students - not just trans or non-binary students. A voice teacher described how a trans male student's vocal range "invited some of those cis men in the space to go much higher than I could ever dare take them." Another reflected: "there's something really exciting about not boxing voices according to gender." The research consistently pointed toward the idea that the closer we get to seeing the human and their voice - rather than a particular gender - the further the voice can go.
Unconscious Bias
The research found unconscious bias operating at every level - in teachers, in classmates, in the industry, and in trans students themselves. A voice teacher reflected: "we're helping people to express freely, but then we're also inadvertently guiding them sometimes towards particular sounds." A non-binary graduate described being consistently led away from a more naturally camp, ‘femme’ vocal quality - not through malice, but through deep-rooted societal associations on what ‘authentic’ voice is. The training includes an audio-based exercise designed to surface and examine these deep-rooted associations.
Crucially, the research found that trans students can also hold narrow or misinformed beliefs about their own voices. The dominant view across all respondents is that the ideal voice class is collaborative, individualised and student-led, with the teacher acting as facilitator rather than authority. And yet only 15% of trans students felt their experience matched this ideal, despite 91% of all respondents agreeing it should be the case. The research revealed why: listening to a student is not the same as being equipped to facilitate them. A trans male graduate described two well-meaning teachers who "just accepted and didn't push" - leaving him stuck in misinformed beliefs about his own voice in transition. It was only a teacher with prior experience of trans students who felt confident enough to gently challenge those beliefs. The research points clearly to the conclusion that knowledge of trans identity and knowledge of voice practice need to work together to create a gender-inclusive classroom.
One voice teacher described this beautifully: "My research basically said that if the voice teacher doesn't understand their own gender, they cannot create a gender-inclusive classroom."
General Awareness of Trans Identity
What came through clearly is that a general awareness of trans identity - different terms and identities, what gender dysphoria feels like, what it means to transition through drama school, the differences between trans masculine and trans feminine experiences - is the foundation that makes everything else possible. Most voice teachers described their current practice around trans students as a mixture of experience and guesswork - well-intentioned, but uncertain. Trans graduates consistently described teachers who were warm and accepting but "limited in the support they could give just because they didn't know the practicalities." Even for teachers already practicing gender-inclusive approaches, the research found that a structured space to reflect on and name what they are doing builds confidence significantly. One voice teacher said after a conversation about her own practice: "I am already doing that, but actually not as conscious as you've just laid out. And I guess that just taps into my confidence in how to frame that and find the right language to be as inclusive as possible." Reducing that uncertainty in teachers directly reduces the burden placed on trans students to educate before they can be supported.
Terminology
There was broad consensus that gender-inclusive language benefits all students - but no shared framework across institutions. Teachers described experimenting individually but feeling isolated and inconsistent. A newer voice teacher described their own recent voice training as using "gender-inclusive language sometimes but not all the time" - echoed almost exactly by a current student: "some of my voice teachers have used gender-inclusive language but many have not, or have used it sometimes."
Different voice practices use different frameworks, so it’s hard to point to a single correct way of using terminology. But what the research does point to is a human-first, descriptive approach as the emerging consensus among practitioners: describing acoustic qualities rather than gendering them, offering choice in singing rather than assignment. Something I will clarify in my training is the importance of naming the history of binary terminology that is likely to resurface in a students’ career, so that students understand why language is shifting, but can still be equipped to handle less informed professionals as they encounter the industry. The training explores terminology as a discussion and brainstorm rather than a set of rules, recognising that teachers need space to reflect on their own individual practice.
Identity and Voice
The research also surfaced specific areas where identity and voice intersect, which I include as part of the general awareness part of the training.
An unexpected finding was that 89% of global majority students were dissatisfied with their training - higher than the trans rate - yet only 15% linked it to their identity (compared to 64% of trans students.) The training reflects on how best to support intersectional identity, drawing on the experience of a mixed-race trans masculine graduate who spoke of how powerful it was to have their identity acknowledged in the room by their teacher - at the time presenting as a Black woman, for whom using their voice was "a politicised experience, whether I wanted it to be or not."
A significant divide emerged in the survey around whether students should develop all parts of their vocal range - only 54% of trans students agreed, compared to 82% of cisgender students. The research draws an important distinction between unconscious bias and gender dysphoria - a deeply embodied experience, connected to identity, that can make certain vocal exploration genuinely unsafe at a given moment.
The way unconscious bias can operate through character work and casting came up a lot with varying opinions, often described as pushing students toward sounds based on gendered assumptions about a character rather than the student's own interpretation, and the complexity of the casting question regarding access to trans narratives onstage. The training analyses this in more detail and offers teachers resources they may want to use with their students.
Technical Knowledge of Trans Voices
64% of all respondents agreed voice teachers should have expert knowledge of trans voices. The interviews revealed teachers feeling genuinely uncertain when working with students on HRT, unsure of the implications of binding on breath work, or unclear how far to push a voice that is in transition. Technical knowledge - what testosterone and oestrogen do to a voice, how to work sensitively with a voice that is changing - allows teachers to lead rather than guess. The training introduces what knowledge can be learned and signposts specialist practitioners for those who want to combine their general awareness with technical expertise. Several graduates spoke of moments their teacher referred them to an ‘expert’ in trans voice work - the 64% agreement that all voice teachers should be experts gives me the confidence to suggest to voice teachers that they go to the expert themselves. One voice teacher said ‘you can do that [send them to an expert]... they'll probably learn more from your voice class. But people just don't have the language or the knowledge to help guide them.’
To Conclude…
What is missing is not goodwill, but a structured, non-judgemental space for voice teachers to build general awareness of trans identity, reflect on their own practice, and proceed with greater confidence. As one voice teacher said to me: "I would encourage you to create something and not feel that you have to be the voice expert. Because we will bring that and bring the voice related questions. But we need people like you. Lived experience, recent."
The training that emerged from this research is a structured discussion covering general awareness of trans identity, gender-inclusive language and terminology, unconscious bias, casting and the industry, and an introduction to technical trans voice. It is designed for both permanent staff and visiting lecturers, new and experienced, and is intended to travel across institutions. It can be delivered how best suits each institution. For one school I will be spending a day with all the staff, being taught by them as well as delivering my workshop. For those with less time and budget, it can be delivered in 60 minutes one-to-one, 90 minutes for a small group, 2 hours for up to 8 practitioners and 3 hours for a larger group.
It is not designed to make voice teachers experts overnight (as I myself am not an expert), nor to encourage hypervigilance - one trans survey respondent noted that since transitioning, "everyone seems focused on 'empowering' me and helping me find my 'authentic voice', as though my authenticity was once rooted in the fullness of my humanity and is now confined solely to my gender." The goal is confidence, not hypervigilance. Confidence that allows teachers to see and work with the whole person - and in doing so, to work with the whole voice.