The Actor Speaks: Voice and the Performer (review)

Patsy Rodenburg's third book, The Actor Speaks, succeeds on multiple levels as an overview of the lifelong process of training and maintaining the actor's voice. This book covers a wide range of topics from finding one's center and breath support, to dealing with wigs and costumes that might interfere with an actor's vocal production. Rodenburg does not propose a training methodology as Kristin Linklater and Arthur Lessac do; she provides us with a comprehensive and rich variety of exercises, reflections, and practical tips gleaned from many years of experience working with student and professional actors. While Rodenburg's two previous books, The Right to Speak and The Need for Words, were written for a wide audience, The Actor Speaks specifically addresses working actors and acting students training for professional careers. However, it is written in straightforward language with little discipline-specific jargon, making it highly accessible for educators who teach acting as well as voice.

The Actor Speaks is divided into seven sections or "stages." Stages 1-3 (the bulk of the book) speak to the initial training of the actor's voice and include material on freedom; support and placement of the voice; extension of vocal range; and beginning work with scripted text. These sections are packed with specific exercises that are appropriate both for a classroom setting and an individual voice workout. Rodenburg's approach is very physical: she suggests pushing against a wall or lifting a chair over one's head to heighten the feeling of breath support during vocalization (34). In her discussion of verse, she suggests that an actor "walk the journey of the speech," physicalizing the thought process of the character (197). Throughout the book, Rodenburg stresses use of the breath as the foundation for all voice and speech work.

Stages 4-7 are based on Rodenburg's work as a professional voice and speech coach with individual performers and ensembles. These sections focus on the application of the trained voice to the rehearsal and performance process. Rodenburg discusses issues such as adjusting one's voice to a variety of spaces, adapting to less than ideal performance conditions, transferring from rehearsal hall to stage, dealing with the demands of design and technology, preparing for auditions and other stressful situations, and surviving a long run. These sections contain a wealth of practical tips to help an actor troubleshoot problems that may arise in the rehearsal and performance of any play, classical or contemporary.

Stage 5, "Voice, Text and Rehearsal Meet the Stage," is extremely useful as a detailed guide for the actor struggling to adjust his or her voice to a variety of different performance spaces. Rodenburg suggests "testing" each space for acoustics both from the stage and from the audience (298). Her advice to the actor to "breathe the space"—to stand on an empty stage and to breathe to the perimeters of the entire space—is particularly helpful (296). This exercise is fully described earlier in the book (56), and works to calibrate the actor's voice to a specific space, eliminating the most common vocal problems in performance: lack of clarity and insufficient volume.

The book is laid out in an organized fashion that proceeds clearly through the training process to performance. One minor criticism: a separate index of exercises for easy reference would be most helpful.

As a practicing voice teacher and actress, I use many different voice and speech texts. The authors of these texts all face a similar challenge—how does one articulate on the written page a process that is fundamentally kinesthetic? Language is not always precise enough to describe an intricate, personal, and physically felt experience. Rodenburg, by clearly outlining the whole voice training process, provides a context for this work. She also provides a wealth of detail in her instructions for individual exercises. While there will always be room for misunderstanding in any text written...