Impuestos indirectos

Berry thus, has been part of a long continuum of British voice and speech teachers who have all been connected to institutions who train actors and who were also further and importantly, inspired in these early decades by the work of French actor, teacher and director Michel Saint-Denis. He was a nephew of Jacques Copeau, the great French actor and teacher who founded the ‘Ecole du Vieux-Colombier’ in 1921 (Martin 1991:156). Saint-Denis founded the London Theatre Studio in 1935, just before the Second World War and brought a fresh approach to the English actor training system. His approach focused on the integration of aspects of training, e.g., releasing the creative play between voice, body and the imagination (Gordon 2009:159). He brought a greater awareness of physicality in acting which must also have influenced the style of vocal delivery, given his active encouragement of using improvisation skills (both non-verbal and verbal) to explore characters and scenes (Gordon 2009:159).

According to Gordon (2009:142) the older English playing tradition, established after the production methods of actor-managers such as Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and Sir Henry Irving and later Harley Granville-Barker were entrenched, is still to be found in the “naturalistic acting from the outside [to in] that still today characterizes performances in realistic plays on the stage and on television” (Gordon 2009:142). In reaction to the Victorian style of elaborate scenery and costumes and a melodramatic performance style, William Poel advocated a more language-based approach (Gordon 2009:143). Instead of paying too much attention to psychological motivation English actors were encouraged to find dramatic truth through the meaning and sound of the language in plays and to explore rhythm, tone and tempo to create character. Poel brought back the emphasis onto the words of the text and relegated sumptuous scenery and visual effects to the background (Gordon 2009:144). This attention to the text (particularly in Shakespearean productions), was refined and modernised further by Granville-Barker whose “aesthetic was as refined and spare as that of Copeau” (Gordon 2009:145).

In the early, twentieth century West End and Shakespearean productions, Granville-Barker aimed to establish a simpler acting style which combined a more subtle speaking style with the musicality of Poel’s approach to rhythm and tempo, placed within a more open, abstract playing space on stage (Gordon 2009:146). The text and the playwright’s vision was still considered paramount but a more flexible vocal approach was encouraged which reflected the modern sound in British society at the time (Gordon 2009:147).

Saint-Denis in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s brought an anti-realist approach to the theatre with strong emphasis on the physical, expressive qualities of the actor to the British theatre training and practice. Gordon states that “Saint-Denis more than anyone was responsible for

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establishing the principles that would in time shape the curriculum of the modern British drama school” (Gordon 2009:147). He became head of the Old Vic Theatre School between 1947 and 1952 and is recognised for his tangible influence on many teachers and actors during this time; indeed on most of the drama schools in and around London. The idea of “action and physical expression” (Gordon 2009:148) brought a new dynamic to British acting.

He proposed a stronger emphasis on ensemble acting and the ideal actor was someone who would be both flexible in skills and temperament and who would be able to perform in many different styles of plays (Gordon 2009:148,149). He believed that a good actor required more than just technical skills. These views led to a freer and more creative approach towards training and also left its mark on voice and speech training ideals and methods. He questioned the historical value of adhering slavishly to the text and also suggested that movement and voice training should be taught together and not separately (Gordon 2009:152). He strongly believed that the student’s imagination should be actively developed along with technical training. Improvisation was incorporated into many facets of the curriculum (Gordon 2009:152). The importance of the awareness of the body as a whole was central to Saint-Denis’s philosophy of actor training (Gordon 2009:153).

This can be linked further to the work he felt should be done on the voice. He proposed singing to stretch the range of the voice and doing physical movements combined with tone exercises (Gordon 2009:155,156). Standard Speech was not considered to be necessary for all performances, “vocal play….and stimulation of the actor’s vocal-aural imagination was as important” and non-verbal and vocal improvisation was considered useful and necessary (Gordon 2009:156).

All these early influences on actor training seem to point the way to Cicely Berry’s development as a teacher and coach. Already one can see a connection to Saint-Denis’s ideas of exploring the text in a more creative, spontaneous way and how the words might demand to be played in certain ways and how the playwright therefore “might direct the actor” through the use of language (Gordon 2009:158). Of course, there must have been reciprocal influence coming from the British actors and their solid traditions (particularly vocal) but he does seem to have contributed towards loosening up rigidly held notions of speaking the text.

Saint-Denis’s view of the intuitive (Gordon 2009:167) being a crucial part of actor training and the importance of stimulating the imagination, rather than too much factual and psychological investigation into character work foreshadows the views held by Cicely Berry towards text and analysis. The expressive qualities of words (linked to their intentions of course) and sounds, and their release through the body was to become the main objective in her work with actors and indeed, speakers in other walks of life too.

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One point of difference between methods proposed by Saint-Denis in the late 1940s and 1950s and Berry’s later approach, is the importance of developing vocal tone quality through singing. Martin quotes Saint-Denis in Voice and Modern Theatre (1991:159,160): “Our concern is to awaken in the actor a musical and a poetic sensitivity capable of being translated to the stage…by modulated tones conditioned by the text”. Berry certainly supports the idea of developing the resonance in an actor’s voice but sees this as part of the general vocal training and not an end in itself. For her, the focus on the word is what is most important and that all technique is aimed at the clear release of thought embodied in the word. Beauty of tone was considered secondary. So, in her view the discipline of singing training, was not quite as useful for the demands made on the actor (Berry 1986:15,16). She reiterates this sentiment in an interview with Kate Parker, “The old ways made one think that the voice was too much like an instrument we use, rather than a part of ourselves” (Parker 1985:32).

However, Saint-Denis’s concept of multi-faceted and integrated training was pursued most actively in the sixties and also affected the way rehearsals during productions were conducted, particularly as Gordon points out in “subsidized British theatre” (Gordon 2009:167). Saint-Denis was part of the British tradition of allowing the expressive actor, skilled both vocally and physically, to create a style of playing which emerged from rigorous exploration of the text itself, revealing the structure of the text clearly (Gordon 2009:167). The ideal for him was to find a “unified style of playing” that explored the full possibilities for performance from multiple, training perspectives (Gordon 2009:167). This idea of multiple approaches, yet with a unified vision, is also to be seen in Berry’s work as she progressed from teaching at the Central School to becoming first, Head of Voice at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the seventies, and then in later years, Voice Director.