Voix de l’inouï. Le travail de la voix au Roy Hart Théâtre, hier et aujourd’hui
Marianne Ginsbourger
21 janvier 1997
Singing, shouting, speaking, whispering, howling, breathing, moaning: there is no limit to the forms of vocal expression we might enumerate, were we to attempt to define the work of the Roy Hart Theater. This internationally renowned, multicultural theatre group bases its artistic work and research on the ‘human voice’. Human: this voice which encompasses all the emotions that the being is capable of expressing and whose register covers up to eight octaves (compared to the two and a half to which we usually limit ourselves). At the Roy Hart Theatre, we are neither tenor or bass, alto nor soprano but each of us embarks on a vocal journey, exploring a variety of timbres and pitches, feminine and masculine sounds. And if there is aesthetic research, it is not an end in itself: the sound is ‘human’, bearing emotions above being ‘beautiful’. This concept was evolved by the actor Roy Hart from the work of his teacher Alfred Wolfsohn with whom he worked from 1947 to 1962. The latter, struck by the incredible range of the voice from the depths to the heights, devoted his life to the exploration of vocal potential and thereby the psyche. The voice is proven to be a means to explore of our deep self, in the tradition of the psychologist C.G. Jung (with the analysis of dreams). This book is the first published in French on the Roy Hart Theatre. Marianne Ginsbourger presents the history of the group from its origins in 1947 to the present day, as well as its unique approach to working on the voice. Ginsbourger analyzes the process of theatrical creation, illustrated with black and white photos. She also describes the unique offerings of the group today – namely the workshops and training programmes running from two days to a week and longer – supporting her writing with testimonials.