The Actor Speaks: Voice and the Performer

From the bestselling author of The Right to Speak and The Need for Words comes this Bloomsbury Revelations edition of the essential guide to voice work: The Actor Speaks. Beginning with what every first-year acting student faces in class and ending with what leading professional actors must achieve every night on stage, Patsy Rodenburg’s celebrated work as one of the world’s foremost voice and acting coaches is fully revealed in this thoughtful and inspirational book about acting.

Written for the training and working actor, Rodenburg’s book brings to life a wide range of exercises and methods to release the actor’s voice, covering everything from posture, breath and the body, performing in specific spaces, previews and first performances, managing different length runs, using microphones and dealing with an ageing or sick voice. This book allows the reader to perform every night, reaching the pitch, passion and vocal intensity that the best roles require.

Patsy Rodenburg, OBE is Professor of Text and Poetry, and formerly Head of Voice, at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, UK and formerly at the Royal National Theatre. She trained in Voice Studies at the Central School of Speech and Drama and is recognized as one of the world’s leading voice and acting coaches. Previously, Patsy was in residence with the Royal Shakespeare Company for nine years and also work with the Royal Court Theatre, the Donmar Warehouse and the Almeida Theatre, London. She has worked extensively with many of the great world theatres including the Moscow Art Theatre, Complicite, Cheek by Jowl and Comédie-Française. Patsy has worked regularly with some of the best-known actors and biggest names in theatre, film and television including: Nicole Kidman, Rachel Weisz, Emily Watson, Jude Law, Tom Wilkinson, Hugh Jackman, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cate Blanchett, Minnie Driver, Kim Cattrall and David Schwimmer.