The Need for Words: Voice and the Text

How we speak, what we speak and the impact of the spoken word is the story Patsy Rodenburg tells in this companion volume to her bestselling first book, The Right to Speak, her "Owner's Manual of the Voice." Rodenburg's humane attitude toward her reader and her keen awareness of the anxiety of amateur speakers set this work apart from other books on the voice. She first addresses each of the obstacles which prevent access to language and offers ways to overcome them. Part Two includes "Working with the Text," a series of exercises in which Rodenburg uses the language of Shakespeare, Romantic poetry, contemporary prose and numerous other texts in order to prompt the reader to discover his or her own unique need for words.

Patsy Rodenburg teaches at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, and is currently Head of the Voice Department at London's Royal National Theatre, where she has worked with such actors as Ian McKellen, Judi Dench and Daniel Day-Lewis.