Public presentation skills are traditionally taught in higher education as content-driven exercises, where students are evaluated primarily on structure, accuracy, and verbal delivery. This approach often overlooks the embodied, emotional, and relational dimensions of communication, leaving learners without guidance on how to manage anxiety, inhabit their bodies, or cultivate presence. This paper examines an undergraduate course at ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon that integrates theatrical techniques into public speaking pedagogy, positioning the body – not just the message – as a central element of academic communication. Using breathing work, voice projection, spatial awareness, improvisation, and guided performance exercises, the course helps students develop confidence, corporeal consciousness, and expressive intentionality. Through a mixed-methods action research approach, the study analyzes data from student reflections, classroom observation, and performance recordings to explore how these practices reshape learners’ relationship to public speaking. The study highlights how theatrical methodologies help students shift from performance anxiety to embodied agency, enabling them to deliver messages with clarity, authenticity, and emotional presence. The discussion positions theatrical public speaking pedagogy as a radical departure from traditional evaluative models. Rather than treating students as speakers who must simply “present content,” this approach views them as whole communicators who must integrate mind, body, and emotion. It argues that when learners are invited to explore movement, gesture, breath, and voice, they develop not only technical communication skills but also self-awareness, confidence, and creative expression – competencies essential for the demands of contemporary academic and professional life. By bringing theatrical practice into university classrooms, educators create inclusive spaces where students can experiment, take risks, and develop a grounded sense of presence. This paper proposes that embodied approaches to public speaking foster transformative learning experiences, empowering students to communicate with confidence and authenticity and inviting institutions to rethink traditional assumptions about what it means to “teach” presentations.

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ublic speaking,theatrical techniques,embodied learning,student confidence,presence,communication skills,higher education,performance,active learning,expressive competence