Cicely Berry, voice coach to the stars

The legendary voice coach Cicely Berry CBC has taught all of Sean Connery to Samuel L Jackson. But it can be fixed diction Laura Barnett

Cicely Berry

not impressed. I sit on the floor, back against the legs, up and down trying to "Tomorrow, tomorrow, and tomorrow" soliloquy of Macbeth. The last time I spoke those words aloud, I was about 12 and wore a school uniform. And it certainly was not jumping up and down for now.

"does not move enough!" Said Berry, director of the Royal Shakespeare Company voice. I rebound harder. "It's better! Can you feel the resonance? "I can. My voice has deepened, the words shake the stomach." Drag this rate smaller by the day! "Suddenly, I sound like a good actor. Almost.

professional actors do this kind of vocal exercises all the time, my respect for his willingness to sacrifice his dignity has increased tenfold. And the legions of them - Sean Connery, Samuel L. Jackson, Emily Watson, Helen Hunt - made with Berry. In the theater world, the CIS, as is universally known, is a legend, now 85, was in the Royal Shakespeare Company since 1969, when he joined the invitation of artistic director, Trevor Nunn and then, becoming the voices of experts on installations working first for a theater.

Its purpose - as described in his four books, taught drama at school many - is clear: help the actors feel comfortable with their own voice and use it to perform both in poetry and musicality of the language of Shakespeare. You can see it growing on YouTube, a diminutive if the presence of a gentle giant step guide hypnotic screen through its highly respected workshops. They are generally pleased, often quite desperate.

them: "Two households ..."

Berry: "How many houses"

them: "Two households"

• Berry likes to quote the innovative director Peter Brook, who worked in his seminal 1970, the production of a dream of a summer night, which had a simple white box as a whole, and Slinky trees. "Peter Brook says there are always a million ways to say one line," says Berry. "It may be a bit exaggerated, but not much, the actor must take this line of work for themselves, however, feel the rhythm behind it is what is exciting ... It sing the blues like "
• We are in Stratford-upon-Avon CBC headquarters, where I witnessed firsthand how the physical method of Berry. During rehearsals of Hamlet in 2001, was the star of the series, Samuel West, throwing chairs around the room. However, most shops, and my own taste, start more slowly, Berry asks me to lie on the ground to release the tension that causes most of us breathe from the throat to speak (poorly), instead of stomach (good). Then comes a breathing exercises - exhale while counting to 10 and add a buzz, a long-term "ha". And so, yes, I'm here, jumping up and down on the floor trying to do justice to Macbeth.

Berry likes to involve the actors to move as he speaks, to highlight both the speed and the sound of the language. Often opt for the 129 Shakespeare sonnet that begins: "The expense of spirit in a waste of shame". With a broad smile, said Berry. "Esprit was a euphemism for semen, so really all this sonnet is a bitch to involve actors walk briskly around the room until you feel the movement of the tongue in their bodies until they can feel how to represent the physical act. "

She believes that the actors and the public need to get that visceral connection to the words of Shakespeare. "Somewhere," she says, "Shakespeare has academic work for us. People look at the meaning of everything. But at the time of Shakespeare, only 8% of the population could read. They have a sense for sound. "

Fascination

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