Cicely Frances Berry (17 May 1926 – 15 October 2018) was a British theatre director and vocal coach.
Berry trained under
Elsie Fogerty at the
Central School of Speech and Drama, then based at the
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...
, London. She was the voice director for the
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...
from 1969 to 2014, and worked as a voice and text coach as an instructor at London's
Central School of Speech and Drama. She conducted workshops all over the globe, including
Korea,
Russia, and
Asia. Her work also extended to prisons, using Shakespeare as a vessel to find confidence in speaking and response to imagery. One of her earliest teachers was
Barbara Bunch
Barbara may refer to:
People
* Barbara (given name)
* Barbara (painter) (1915–2002), pseudonym of Olga Biglieri, Italian futurist painter
* Barbara (singer) (1930–1997), French singer
* Barbara Popović (born 2000), also known mononymously as ...
. In addition to her voice and text work in the theatre, she also did work in film, including serving as "dialogue coach" on ''
The Last Emperor'' (1987); "dialogue coach" on ''
Stealing Beauty'' (1996); and as "voice specialist" on
Julie Taymor's 1999 film, ''
Titus''.
Books
* ''Voice and the Actor'' (1973)
* ''Your Voice and How to Use It''
* ''The Actor and the Text''
* ''Text in Action''
* ''Word Play: A Textual Handbook for Directors and Actors''
Directing
* ''
Hamlet'' for the National Theatre Education Unit
* ''
King Lear'' for The Other Place and The Royal Shakespeare Company
Honours
* 1985 - Received OBE
* 1992 - Nominated for special award by Arts Council for her ‘response to the challenges posed by a technologically diverse and increasingly multi-cultural environment.’
* 1997 – Doctor Honoris, National Academy of Film and Theatre Arts, Sofia, Bulgaria
* 1999 – Honorary Doctorate of Literature from Birmingham University
* 2000 – The
Sam Wanamaker Prize for pioneering work in theatre
* 2001 – Honorary Doctorate of Literature from the Open University
* 2009 - Berry was appointed
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2009 Birthday Honours.
Footnotes
Bibliography
* Barnett, Laura,
Cicely Berry, Voice Coach to the Stars'. Guardian
* Berry, Cicely, documentary. ''Where Words Prevail''. Dir. Steven Budlong and Salvatore Rasa. Sorjourner Media, L.L.C., 2005.
* Berry, Cicely, Kristin Linklater, and Patsy Rodenburg. "Shakespeare, Feminism, and Voice: Responses to Sarah Werner." New Theatre Quarterly XIII.49 (1997): 48-52.
* Berry, Cicely. ''Voice and the Actor''. New York: Hungry Minds, Inc., 1973.
* https://www.imdb.com/
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berry, Cicely
1926 births
2018 deaths
British voice coaches
British theatre directors
British voice directors
Academics of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Women theatre directors