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An Interview with Patsy Rodenburg, Head of Voice, The Royal National Theatre of Great Britain Ellen Newman In October 1990, The Royal National Theatre of Great Britain acknowledged the significance of the voice specialist as a member of their permanent artistic production team by creating the position of Head of Voice and appointing Patsy Rodenburg to that position. She also serves as Head of Voice at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. A dedicated artist/teacher, Ms. Rodenburg brought to the National not only nine years' experience as Cicely Berry's assistant at the Royal Shakespeare Company but a strong international focus. In North America, for instance, Rodenburg has worked at the Old Globe in San Diego; in Stratford, Ontario; and with directors like Mark Lamos. She has taught performers from Greece, China, Russia, Poland, and Hungary, including the Moscow Art Theatre company, Peking Opera, and the Greek National Theatre. In addition, her teaching reaches beyond actors and singers to include teachers and young people in such distant places as Soweto and India. This Spring, Ms. Rodenburg conducted a series of residencies and workshops here in North America, following the publication of her second book, The Need for Words, by Methuen. This therefore seems an opportune time to publish an interview she granted me in 1991. At the time of this conversation at her London home, Rodenburg had been at the National for less than six months; and her first book, The Right to Speak, had just been published. Here she discusses her position at the National, her first book, and her philosophies of education and theatre. She also speaks passionately about bringing her work to people, particularly in Third World nations, who have been deprived of their language, their culture, their voice. MARCH 16, 1991 NEWMAN: Tell me about your work at the National Theatre. RODENBURG: I'm enjoying myself enormously there. I'd done some freelance work at the National; but then, out of the blue, Richard [Eyre, Peter Hall's successor as The National's Artistic Director] asked to see me and offered me head of the department of voice. NEWMAN: Had they ever had a person in that position? 119 120 Ellen Newman RODENBURG: No, I believe it's only the second time this kind of appointment's been made in the world. I took up the appointment on the first of October [1990], the very day that I also received my book commission. A rather magnificent and very odd day! NEWMAN: Do you work on every play? RODENBURG: No, but I'm available to all members of the company for work. I am trying to cover all the big house shows. The Olivier is acoustically notorious, but the audibility complaints are down. Every few weeks I offer a class; I'm doing one next Tuesday on Greek drama. But the most obvious part of what I do at the National is work in rehearsals of a particular play alongside a director. NEWMAN: You are there during rehearsals; do you get another room? RODENBURG: Yes. I hold tutorials involving voice and text work. What is starting to happen is that they're actually giving me rehearsal time to do voice calls when the whole company is there. The directors are beginning to want me in rehearsal. NEWMAN: Do they schedule your rehearsals day by day? RODENBURG: Yes. I give my availability. NEWMAN: Do they also let you take one or two actors away? RODENBURG: Yes, I'm flexible in the way I work. NEWMAN: Yours is almost a new role in the theatre, someone to whom the director can turn for help. Do you feel your work and the work of voice coaches is well-respected? RODENBURG: Certainly. The work you do as a voice coach will not just inform that production; it will inform, it will improve, every other production the actor's ever in. NEWMAN: Do the actors at the National have warm-ups among themselves on stage or somewhere else when you are not available? RODENBURG: Some do. They're more likely to come if I'm there. But what's heartening is that I'm getting full companies without having to...

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