(Continued from p. 4)

I have complicated feelings about that. I used to have one feeling about it, and it has slightly changed. I know that what finally became American Standard Speech can often be quite flat and boring to listen to. It's clear, but it doesn't have much color. I think a good actor with Standard American Speech is fine ­ a good actor who has range, emotion, a body, imagination. I'm not sure that everybody has to sound absolutely the same on all the sounds any more. I used to think they did, but I'm not nearly as bothered by certain things that I used to be bothered by, or that some voice teachers are bothered by. Even a slight problem with an "s" doesn't bother me ­ a big lisp drives me nuts, but a slight problem doesn't bother me the way it used to. If I hear a little bit of r-coloring show up in a play I don't fall to the floor any more.

What does make you "fall to the floor"? What are the things that really bother you?

I think I fall to the floor if someone's regional speech is so regional that they sound like they're from another world than everyone else; so that someone walks on stage and their speech says "I'm from Minnesota (or Brooklyn, or Alabama....)." I need final consonants, I need a lot of other things, but I don't necessarily need what we used to consider perfect versions of all the sounds. It can be nice when it happens, but I'm not as concerned about that uniformity it as I once was. You know, for example, if an African-American actor has a certain amount of African-American rhythm in his speech that's fine ­ but that's different from "street speech." I do think actors need to transform themselves, so they can't have such a strong local speech pattern that it prevents them from doing anything but that.

So what I'm hearing you say is that speech should have enough personality to give it life, but not so much so that it overtakes whatever rhythm might be inherent in the language or the structure of the verse.

That's right. And that's a change for me, and a welcome one. And I don't think that's a relaxation of standards, because standards are just temporary. I don't wear breeches, but I haven't lost my standards of dress. I wore bell bottoms and Nehru jackets in the sixties, and I think I looked good then; I think I look good now, although I'm no longer wearing them because there's been a change. Some of those kinds of changes get incorporated into speech. I think it's tricky. But there was bad taste in bell bottoms, and there's bad taste now.

>>

It's a very complicated issue. I know that I want an audience to hear without worrying about "What did they say? What did they mean?" I also don't want them alienated because they think that person up there is from another world.

Isn't a lot of that going to depend upon the individual actor's relationship to a particular style of speech? I mean that there's nothing inherently alienating in a particular style of speech, but rather it's the actor's use of it in a given moment that makes it immediate or not.

Totally. If it belongs to them, it's not going to be a problem. If it doesn't belong to them, then of course it'll be a problem. But I know for instance there are certain sounds that really bother Liz Smith, and she'll turn to me and say "Can't you hear that?" and I'll say "Yes, I can hear it but it doesn't bother me anymore." [laughing] Now, she might look at me with loathing and disgust, but the truth of the matter is that I'm running a major Shakespeare theatre and it doesn't bother me.

Is there anything you'd like to add in closing?

I think vocal coaches are an essential part of the theatre, and I don't think there are enough who fit the description I've given. And so I hope more people consider this an interesting profession, because I don't think there are a great many truly wonderful vocal coaches around.

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