Henry Higgins Is Real (And Female)



By Mel Gussow
The New York Times
January 8, 2001





Patsy Rodenburg Teaches British Stars How to Speak





Patsy Rodenburg is the most respected voice coach in Britain. In her work with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theater (where she heads the voice department), she has trained a galaxy of actors, including Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Ian McKellen and Ian Holm. As director of voice at
the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, she also instructs newcomers to the profession.

In "The Actor Speaks: Voice and the Performer" (St. Martin's Press, 2000), her most recent book, Ms. Rodenburg tells actors that their voices, even more than their looks, may be their most valuable asset. "This is where the work of a voice coach comes into play," she adds. In Dame Judi's foreword, she calls the book a bible and a security blanket. "If you cannot have Patsy in
person, then her book is the next best thing," she writes.

Last year Ms. Rodenburg worked with Ralph Fiennes for the first time in years. "I had to put him back onstage," she said. Mr. Fiennes was preparing to perform in "Richard II" and "Coriolanus" in London and later at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

"He was worried that after four years of film, not only had his voice gone a bit rusty and needed working, but he wondered if he could remember all the text," she said.

Her work with Mr. Fiennes was relatively easy because of "the great foundation" of his classical acting during his early years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, she added. "A lot of young actors now go straight into film or television and never get to do that work," Ms. Rodenburg said. "It's not embedded in them. When you work with actors who have been onstage for 40
years, the work's been done by their doing it every night."


 

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