ALFRED WOLFSOHN
The work of the Roy Hart Theatre was first conceived by an individual; Alfred Wolfsohn, a German Jew, who heard the spectrum of sounds in the screams of a dying soldier in the first World War. He wrote of them in a manuscript entitled "Orpheus - or the way to a Mask" from which I have quoted an excerpt. He devoted his life to uncovering and understanding these unexplored human sounds consciously. He saw that the voice was a way through which all aspects of an individual could be developed.
After the 1914-18 War, Alfred Wolfsohn taught singing in Berlin. Originally his approach was from the standpoint of helping so-called orthodox singers to surmount problems of vocal expression. Then in 1939, he escaped from Nazi Germany to England. In London, further vocal exploration with his pupils gradually led to an enormous increases in their vocal range (from the normal 2 octaves to 6, 7, even 9 octaves, no matter the sex of the singer). This feat aroused the interest of doctors, laryngologists and biologists. It was thought that the structure of the voice depended mainly on the vocal chords, and pupils possessing this extended range would be likely to have some freakish development. But this proved not to be the case. In fact it was concluded that this "vocal phenomenon" need not be rare but could be achieved "generally through systematic work. The main task was of a psychological nature. Where necessary, additional resonance can certainly be discovered both in the thorax and in the head; bones can sing, but to do that they need not just a certain technique, but above all that indefinable mental and spiritual force which, for instance, makes ordinary gut able to render a violin concerto. It is primarily a matter of liberating the pupil from the fear of height and depth which he feels in his voice, and to which traditions have conditioned him".
Alfred Wolfsohn was born in Germany in 1896. He died in England in 1962, having substantiated his basic vision - namely that the voice is the audible expression of the soul of man, and not the function solely of any anatomical structure, whether it be called the larynx or what-you-will, but rather the expression of that mysterious something called the personality.
ROY HART
By this time, Roy Hart, a gifted young South African who had been reading English and Psychology at Wittwatersrand University, and had won a scholarship to The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, had begun to lead the work. He had already been singing with Wolfsohn for some15 year. Here I would, like to quote from a paper which he wrote in 1967: "I came to England, from South Africa with the seemingly egotistical intention of becoming an actor of some stature. I won a scholarship to RADA and was told that I had a good voice and stage personality. Yet I had known for some time that my voice was not rooted, not literally embodied; that the varied, roles I was considered to perform so well were actually only figments of my imagination with no connection to my body. In personal relationships, I was an aloof outsider. I was introduced to Alfred Wolfsohn at a time when I was becoming more and more convinced that there was a serious flaw in the approach to theatre in the Drama Schools in those days, I was interested in the relationship between the actor and his personal life. I became concerned, with the relationship between voice and personality, especially as this manifested itself in a spectrum of energy production varying from apathy to intensity. Most people I met, even many professional athletes, were unrelated to their bodies: the voice was a key to the insights I sought after, insights into an integrated mind/body relationship in the individual, whatever his profession might be…"
Pantheatre Portugal 