Pamela Rudge
Pamela studied at The Royal College of Music and until recently combined her duties at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School with a busy singing life.
She has a wide repertoire from early to contemporary music, singing opera, light opera, oratorio, recitals and concert work, performing in concert halls, theatres and cathedrals throughout the UK and also in France, Germany, Holland, Zimbabwe and Mali. Pamela sings as a soloist with UK orchestras in works such as Elgar’s Sea Pictures. Pamela is equally at home on the operatic stage, playing roles ranging from Mrs Herring in Britten’s Albert Herring to Suzuki in Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. In recent years she has become more involved in chamber opera, playing roles such as Madame Popova in Walton’s setting of Chekhov’s The Bear, and most recently creating the role of Marie Coulette (a formidable pipe-smoking granny) in the World premiere of A Foreign Field, an opera by Eric Wetherell, for which she achieved much critical acclaim. Pamela has worked as a soloist on Radio 3 and 4 and on TV.
She adjudicates for festivals and runs vocal workshops and singing courses for theatre companies and singing groups in Switzerland, Cyprus, Glasgow, Norwich, Warwick, Whitby, Wiltshire, Cornwall and Bristol. In 2015 Pamela was invited to lead a Development Day for AOTOS (Association of Teachers of Singing) South West on “The Singer Speaks, the Actor Sings” with Lynette Erving, former Head of Voice at BOVTS. Pamela has conducted many musical theatre shows, most notably London Road for BOVTS at Bristol Old Vic, which was nominated for “Best Theatre Production in the South West”, and the world premiere of Mrs Beeton Says, a new musical by Eamonn O’Dwyer & Helen Watts, commissioned by BOVTS and now published by Samuel French. Pam was recently musical director for Catastrophe Bay, another new musical by Jim Barnes and Kit Buchan, staged at BOV, and also for Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Minack Theatre, Cornwall.
In the course of her work at BOVTS she has had much success training actors in singing, having two winners, three runners-up and twelve finalists in eight years in the prestigious Stephen Sondheim Student Performer of the Year competition, as well as training four members of the Royal Family in The Crown! As well as coaching actors and singers in West End shows and throughout the UK, Pam now works with film companies as music consultant and is voice and performance coach for public speaking organisations.
Session: Make a New Musical
An exciting opportunity for actors, singers and writers to create and perform a new musical in a week! Students who want to develop skills in one of these disciplines or all three are welcome. In the space of a week, you will decide on an idea and take it from initial concept to performance using inspiration from existing musicals, building your performance skills and experience in the process.
Whilst creating a new musical, students will:
- explore skills in storytelling, devising, writing, acting and singing.
- look at what it means to work truly collaboratively.
- develop a tight ensemble company to create a show, fully stretching multi-tasking skills. It will be about process and product!
- deepen and expand acting and singing techniques - in the former pushing for bravery, play and clarity in storytelling and in the latter looking at breath management, breath support, widening pitch and dynamic ranges, as well as clarity in articulation and acting through song.
This course will demonstrate how to make brand new material - and then how to achieve total clarity the very first time audiences hear it. It will celebrate students as individuals, as well as the power of ensemble.
If this sounds fun, challenging and a bit of you, then let’s make a show!