JAMES STRECKER: I understand you’ll be going back and forth to France over the next 3 years to participate in a program called the Advanced Pedagogic Group at the Centre Artistique International Roy Hart. To begin, what is the history of this Centre and what is its purpose?
STACIE DUNLOP: These clarifying words come directly from the Roy Hart Theatre’s website: “Roy Hart’s dream when he came to Malérargues in 1974 was to create a living theatre of reflection, research, creation and recreation ‘away from the world’. The world has changed so much since that time and on many levels the revolution of the extended human voice has succeeded. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the alienation of the individual from soul, and art from life. Healing that gap is still the centre of the work and the inspiration of the theatre at Malérargues. Where there once was a tightly knit hermetic theatre of 47 persons, Centre Artistique International Roy Hart now is a centre and constellation point for a worldwide association of thousands, interested in furthering the heritage of that theatre. Especially active with workshops and performances during the summer months, the whole year is alive with rehearsal, workshops, open classes and residencies for creation and study. Roy Hart’s dream is still alive and well.”
JS: Please tell us about the Advanced Pedagogic Group, why it exists and what its purpose is.
SD: The Advanced Pedagogic program offered at the Centre Artistique International Roy Hart is a series of workshops that are ten days in duration that are offered in six sessions over a 2-3 year period. This training is very intensive and in order to be considered for accreditation, one must have at least 300 course hours and 15 private hours.
To become a Roy Hart teacher, you must attend the workshops offered at the Centre Artistique International Roy Hart, in Malérargues, France, as they do not offer this training anywhere else in the world. Melérargues is a unique place, situated in the Cevennes forest, where the studios and theatre space along with the residences is where the original members of the Roy Hart Theatre lived with Roy Hart after they moved from London, UK in 1974.
I have already participated in the first three sessions in March, July and September of 2018. Over the next three sessions the course work will focus on my crossing the bridge from student to practitioner while continuing to explore a personal development process which is vital to teaching this work. The process is facilitated through supervised group and individual lessons, along with teaching ateliers to the student teachers, in which feedback will come from both the participants and the supervisors. It is through this very hands-on process that the lead Roy Hart Teachers can monitor how the student teachers are absorbing their way of transmitting the voice work.
JS: Can you tell me a bit about your plans as a result of your participation there?
SD: As a Certified Roy Hart teacher, I will be able to conduct workshops in Canada as those offered currently only in Europe. Having this accreditation will help in building notoriety in the performing arts community, which could in turn attract students from across Canada to study the Roy Hart method at my private studio or through workshops that I would conduct.
JS: Who was Roy Hart, and what is your connection to him?
SD: Roy Hart was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1926. He studied psychology and English at Witwatersrand University where he emerged as a gifted actor, and gained a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. He later met Alfred Wolfsohn, which led him to abandon a promising career in the ‘West End’ theatre to study with Wolfsohn. In search of that ‘something lacking’ he did not perform in public for the next seventeen years. He emerged in 1969 to a period of intense international artistic and psycho-therapeutic activity: solo performances in Henzes’ “Versuch über Schweine”, Maxwell-Davies’ “Eight Songs for a Mad King” and Stockhausen’s “Spiral” and Euripides’ “Bacchae” performed with his own company. He was also a guest speaker at psychotherapeutic and theatre congresses throughout the world. In 1972, he began to perform as an actor with his own company, which by that time had grown to more than forty members.
My initial training was in Canada and the USA with Richard Armstrong, an original member of the Roy Hart Theatre, with whom I studied through the period from 1993-2000. My main teachers for this APG program are Edda Heeg, Carol Mendelsohn and Saule Ryan, who are all experts in their field and Saule was an original member of the Roy Hart Theatre. The lineage of this teaching is vital, with guest teachers Kaya Anderson being one of the last students of Alfred Wolfsohn and Kevin Crawford, who was also an original member of the Roy Hart Theatre.
JS: What exactly is explored in Roy Hart voice work?
SD: It is not easy to explain what we explore in this work. Partly we explore our vocal range outside of the “normal” classical and perhaps traditional “boundaries” and classifications that are put on the voice types. We play with the ideas of male and female, and break down the traditional barriers that accompany this way of classification. We explore what Roy referred to as the 8-octave voice, a way of thinking that takes us out of the box that is typical of where one might think the voice, body, or soul of the human being can exist in. (Do you see what I mean by this not being easy to explain?)
To give you an idea as to what I am doing in a more practical sense, here is what the APG workshop structure looks like:
The 10-day workshop format has the day broken down into four 1.5 hour sessions in which there is a group warm up, group singing lessons, ateliers (which have a focus on technique and vocal physiology), group discussion on the history of Roy Hart and group pedagogic discussions. This all provides a structure whereby students can go deeper into their own voice work, while focusing on some of the main elements of voice teaching as practiced today by recognized Roy Hart teachers.
JS: You’re a professional musician, a soprano, so what makes this training so important to you in this stage of your career?
SD: This work broadens my thinking and engaging, as a performer, teacher and human creative being.
JS: How long will it take for you to become a certified Roy Hart teacher?
SD: I should be able to complete the initial 6-sessions of 10-day workshops by the spring of 2020, and after they are completed, a mentorship stage of an undetermined period of time will continue until my mentors feel I am ready to become certified.
JS: Are you planning to integrate this training into your classical vocal teaching?
SD: Yes, I do, and already have been. It’s impossible not to integrate this way of exploration into all facets of my performing and teaching life.
JS: Will you be offering this training in a different format to that of your more traditional and classically based voice training?
SD: Yes, I will be giving workshops. I plan to start with workshops of 6 participants and then grow the group size to a maximum of 12 as I become a more experienced teacher. Working in a group is very important in this type of training. There is a lot that can be learned by working and exchanging energy with other creative beings.
JS: Does this training at Roy Hart give you a different perspective on your current teaching and your performing practice?
SD: Definitely. In the first three sessions at Malérargues, I have rediscovered a deep physical and emotional connection to the work, which in turn I believe has further opened up my voice and mind and has also helped to ground me as a performer and teacher, building my confidence along with helping me in my journey to define myself as an artist.
JS: What type of “student” will benefit from working with you?
SD: Any person, singer or non-singer, actor, poet, dancer, performance artist, someone who might have had past struggles with their voice…anyone…everyone.
JS: I have several of your recordings and wonder how you think this pedagogic training will affect your future work as a performer?
SD: I hope it will help to deepen my approach as a performer and open up my voice even more.
JS: Roy Hart came from the theatre world and you are from the classical voice world. Can you draw for us some connections between the two?
SD: I am actually more specified in the classical genre, being a contemporary voice specialist, but Roy Hart worked with Peter-Maxwell Davies, Stockhausen and Henze, all whom I consider to be GODS of the “classical” music world. I perform Maxwell-Davies Miss Donnithorne’s Maggot, a companion piece to his Eight Songs for a Mad King, which was composed specifically for Roy Hart and his incredible voice. In the archives at Malérargues, there are letters between Roy and Stockhausen, Henze, and Maxwell-Davies…reading them puts me in complete awe.
JS: Where do you see yourself going forward as a teacher and a performer, in relation to your studies at Roy Hart?
SD: I see myself further opening up, and hopefully becoming a better listener, colleague and giving/connected performer and a more patient and supportive teacher.