The Actor and His Text

Cicely Berry, Voice Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, is world-famous for her voice teaching. The Actor and the Text is her classic book, distilled from years of working with actors of the highest calibre.

Cicely Berry is the Voice Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and is involved in all its productions. Over the years she has worked with actors such as Antony Sher, Derek Jacobi, Jeremy Irons, Sinead Cusack and Jonathan Pryce. She has worked extensively with actors and acting companies abroad, particularly in the United States, China, India, Australia and Europe. Cicely Berry is also deeply involved with education work in Britain, taking workshops in schools and colleges. She sees her most important work in this area as that done with secondary school teachers, aimed at finding ways of teaching Shakespeare which make the plays more immediate and alive. She is patron of both Leicester and Northumberland Youth Theatres. She also works in prisons. In 1985, Cicely Berry directed a production of Hamlet for the National theatre Education Department which toured successfully in colleges and arts centres throughout Europe.