The Need for Words

Patsy Rodenburg, OBE, is Professor of Text and Poetry at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, UK, after serving as Head of Voice from 1981–2016. In 1981 she was appointed the Voice Coach for the Royal Shakespeare Company, responsible for the works of the Company in London, and in 1990 was appointed the first Head of Voice at the Royal National Theatre where she ran the department until 2006. She has worked with theatre companies across the UK including Theatre de Complicitè, Shared Experience, Cheek by Jowl and the Royal Court, having coached numerous West End and Broadway productions. Patsy has also worked at many major theatre companies all over the world, including Stratford Festival Theatre (Ontario, Canada), Kabuki Theatre (Japan), Indian National Theatre (Mumbai, Japan), Lithuania National Drama Theatre (Vilnius, Lithuania), Royal Dramatic Theatre (Stockholm, Sweden), The Market Theatre (Johannesburg, South Africa), Beijing Opera (China) and Verbier Festival (Verbier, Switzerland). She has been teaching storytelling to teachers and corporate leaders since 1976. www.patsyrodenburg.co.uk.

About the Author
Acknowledgements
Foreword Antony Sher

Introduction 1

Let’s Consider Shakespeare!

PART ONE The Need for Words

1 Connecting with Words

The Speaking Act
Distrust of Words
Returning to Words
In the Beginning was the Word
The Power of Words
The Importance of Oracy
The Deeper Need for Words
Lost Voices
Not Empty Rhetoric
Native Eloquence
Words are Physical

2 The Breakdown of Words

Family
Education
Conservation
The Written Word vs the Spoken Word
Speaking Your Way into Writing and Reading
Discussion and Debate
Training Young Actors
Guarding Against Quick Fixes

3 Cultural and Physical Barriers

The Age of Cacophony and Image Saturation
Embodiment
Role Models
Speaking in Public
The Inability to Listen
Tensions and Physical Habits as Barriers
Poetry
Profanity
Language of Gestures
Wit and Wordplay
Irony and Satire
The Tyranny of the Intellectual
Codes and Code Breaking
The Media and Tabloid Thinking
Solipsism
Advertising
Power Talk or Don’t Talk Back
The Passion-Mongers
Sentimentality
Fillers and Clichés
Sexual Politics
Political Correctness
RP or Not RP
RP is a Choice
Overcoming the Speech Barrier

PART TWO Voice and the Text

4 Finding a Voice

Releasing Physical Barriers
Getting ‘In Voice’
Focal Points
Simple Voice Workout

5 Voice into Words and Text

Connecting to a Text
Experimenting with Language
Sounding Real
Language Exercises

6 Working Further with Texts

The Marriage between Voice and Text
Clues from the Great Writers
The Poetry Barrier
The Structure of Verse
The Way Words Work
Starting with Shakespeare
Speaking Shakespeare’s Text
Sonnets
Shakespeare’s Speeches
Shakespearean Prose
The Verse Duet
Medieval Verse
Christopher Marlowe
John Milton
Jacobean Drama
A Modern Jacobean Equivalent
The Age of Pope and the Age of Reason
Restoration Dialogue
Oscar Wilde
George Bernard Shaw
Styles in Speaking Texts
Greek Tragedy
Edward Bond
William Blake
Samuel Beckett
Harold Pinter
Working with Song Lyrics
Bad Texts
Prologues and Epilogues

Copyright and Permissions Acknowledgements
Index