Cicely Frances BerryCBE (17 May 1926 – 15 October 2018) was a British theatre director and vocal coach.[1]
Berry trained under Elsie Fogerty at the Central School of Speech and Drama, then based at the Royal Albert Hall, London.[2] She was the voice director for the Royal Shakespeare Company 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. 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
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
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.