RODENBURG, Patsy 1953-

PERSONAL: Born September 2, 1953, in London, England; daughter of Marius and Margaret Edna (Moody) Rodenburg. Education: St. Christopher's School, Beckenham; Central School of Speech and Drama, London. Hobbies and other interests: Traveling, reading.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—c/o Royal National Theatre, Upper Ground, South Bank, London SE1 9PX, England.

CAREER: Royal Shakespeare Company, voice coach, 1981-90, formed Voice and Speech Centre, 1988; Guildhall School of Music and Drama, head of voice department, beginning 1981; Royal National Theatre, head of voice, 1990—. Distinguished visiting professor, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, 1989; associate of the Michael Howard Studios, New York, NY, 1996, and the Royal Court Theatre, London, England, 1999; extensive work in theatre, film, television, and opera in Europe, the United States, Canada, Asia, and Australia; coached theatre and opera companies in Great Britain, including the Royal Opera, Opera North, English Shakespeare Company, Cheek by Jowl, Theatre de Complicité; coached leading international theatre and opera companies, including the Stratford Festival Theatre (Canada), Kabuki Theatre (Japan), National Theatres of Greece, Lithuania, and Norway, National Theatre School of India, Market Theatre of Johannesburg (South Africa), Peking Opera, Ex Machina (Robert Lepage). Recent productions include Twelfth Night (Donmar), Amy's View (Royal National Theatre), Richard II, Coriolanus (Almeida), Via Dolorosa (Royal Court), Merchant of Venice (Royal National Theatre), and The Blue Room (Donmar).

MEMBER: Honorary member, Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA), 1995.

AWARDS, HONORS: Licentiate of the Guildhall School of Music (the City of London), 1982; Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music (FSGM).

WRITINGS:

The Right to Speak: Working with the Voice, foreword by Ian McKellan, Routledge (New York, NY), 1992.

The Need for Words: Voice and the Text (a companion volume to The Right to Speak), foreword by Antony Sher, Routledge (New York, NY), 1993.

The Actor Speaks: Voice and the Performer, foreword by Judi Dench, Methuen Drama (London, England), 1998, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2000.

Speaking Shakespeare, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: Notable British voice and acting coach Patsy Rodenburg is head of the voice department at the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and head of voice for London's Royal National Theatre. She has trained thousands in voice and is a former colleague of Cicely Berry, of the Royal Shakespeare Company. She has translated her experience into four books on speaking and acting.

The first, published in 1992, is The Right to Speak: Working with the Voice, in which she gives actors as well as businessmen, media personalities, politicians, students, teachers, and homemakers the skills they need to overcome shyness and poor voice and speaking habits, find their true voice, and speak with total confidence. The book includes breathing and exercises for releasing and toning the natural voice. Her goal for her readers, she writes, is "a voice rid of doubt and insecurity" and her technique "a path to speaking in your own way with your own God-given voice, bum notes and all." In a review for Theatre Journal, Dorothy Chansky wrote of the book, "Anyone would breathe more deeply, stand more freely, and probably speak with more pleasure and self-assurance as a result of following its precepts." She also described Rodenburg as a "caring and pragmatic teacher." Rodenburg points out that many women are subject to using a high-pitched, non-threatening voice and that a common habit among women is "devoicing." Chansky found problems with the book where cultural terms were used without clarification, and she objected to Rodenburg's "naïve positivism and romantic embracing of the exotic other" when discussing the freer speaking habits of people in cultures apart from the Anglo-Saxon.

The Need for Words: Voice and the Text is a companion book to The Right to Speak. In the first section, Rodenburg explores stumbling blocks to effective speech in modern culture and argues for a central language in education and ordinary life. In the second part, she includes exercises for connecting voice and the written word and for exploring the way words work in communication. These exercises use the work of Shakespeare as well as contemporary prose, romantic poetry, and other texts to entice readers to enjoy the excitement of words. Tony Goode, in a review for New Theatre Quarterly, concluded that the book and its companion volume provide "a rich seam of ideas aimed at practically and creatively facilitating our reappraisal of the exactness of the relationship between sound and meaning."

Rodenburg's third book, The Actor Speaks: Voice and the Performer, covers the actor's craft and process from beginning classes to seasoned stage acting. She proceeds through seven steps crucial to acting: relaxation and breathing, vocal range and power, communicating with the audience, including movement and singing with speech, understanding a text and bringing it to life, acting in different venues, and overcoming problems in long-running productions. She stresses the importance of learning craft and technique as a way of liberating the actor.

Rodenburg's most recent work is Speaking Shakespeare, which, in four sections, equips actors to delve into the heart of the great playwright's work on the stage. Refreshing the reader with the basics of breathing, relaxation, and voice, the author then moves on to discuss the importance of fully understanding Shakespeare in order to perform his plays. She then includes practice with seventeen of his most well-known speeches, from Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Richard III, and others. She also encourages the actor to use imagination to translate characters through their speech and communicate them to the audience. Daniel Benoliel, in the Contemporary Review, commented that the book is "very clearly written" and that "as a comprehensive guide to a difficult subject it is excellent." Elizabeth Stifter, of Library Journal, called it "nicely focused."

Dany Margolies, in a review for Back Stage West, wrote, "Rodenburg has developed a specific, systematic, clear approach to speaking Shakespeare—although much of her physical approach would undoubtedly apply equally to other playwrights." Margolies noted the author's encouragement of "athleticism" in actors as well as "a heightened state of body and mind—no onstage downtime or warm-ups in Shakespeare." He praised her careful explanation of Shakespeare's iambic pentameter, vowels, consonants, and rhythms and the way in which she connects all these with lines in his speeches, concluding that all stage actors "should have these skills at the ready."

A contributor to Publishers Weekly praised Speaking Shakespeare for its value not only to actors but to the general reader of Shakespeare, observing, "It's difficult to think of a better way for the layperson to understand Shakespeare's language than by approaching it from the inside out." The contributor called Rodenburg's book "incredibly worthwhile" for both actors and Shakespeare fans.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Theatre, September, 2003, review of Speaking Shakespeare and The Actor Speaks, p. 79.

Back Stage West, September 26, 2002, review of Speaking Shakespeare, p. 7.

Contemporary Review, October, 2002, Daniel Benoliel, "Getting the Most out of Shakespeare," p. 245.

Library Journal, October 1, 2002, Elizabeth Stifter, review of Speaking Shakespeare, p. 97.

New Theatre Quarterly, February, 1994, Tony Goode, review of The Need for Words: Voice and the Text,
p. 104.

Publishers Weekly, August 28, 2000, "The Art of Acting," p. 72; September 16, 2002, review of Speaking Shakespeare, p.64.

Reference & Research Book News, May, 2001, review of The Actor Speaks: Voice and the Performer, p. 211.

Theatre Journal, October, 1993, Dorothy Chansky, review of The Right to Speak: Working with the Voice, p. 409.

Theatre Topics, September, 1994, Ellen Newman, "An Interview with Patsy Rodenburg, Head of Voice, The Royal National Theatre of Great Britain," pp. 119-126.*