Creating a School for Working with the Word

by Barbara Renold

“In the sounds of speech live Divine Beings; and we must approach these Beings with devotion, with prayerful devotion. They will then be the very best teachers we could possibly have.

…And we are dealing with realities when the sounds of speech in their mysterious running become for us Gods— Gods who form within us our speaking.”

“In the human form the universe is revealed; in the forming of word and sound man is revealed. The speech organism itself teaches us how to speak; the organs of throat and mouth become the pupils of the sounds. The sounds are the Gods who instruct us; we must approach them with reverence.”

(Ru dolf Steiner, Speech and Drama Course, Lecture 18, Sept. 22, 1924)

We all speak. Why might someone spend four years studying the art of speech, or even wrestle with deciding whether that was a life vocation?

The Steiner School of Speech Arts opened in 2017 as a full-time training in the Art of Speech in response to a person wishing to take up this path. Though we have remained small in numbers, the intensity and joyfulness of the work continues to permeate those taking ‘a path less trodden’ and enlivens the life of the community through festivals, end-of-term presentations, and plays.

Speech is very much connected with an experience of ourselves, our sense of Self, our personality. When we are tired or inebriated, when the Self is not so well connected to its physical instrument, speech is one of the first things that goes, and then, closely connected to speech, thinking. Those speaking more than one language as a mother tongue are well aware of how differently one feels, thinks, perceives the world, depending upon which language you are speaking or thinking. The more we care about how we speak, the more our experience of true Selfhood, and not egotism, increases.

Thoughts clothe themselves in the spoken word. They are in themselves, however, wordless. This process happens so instantaneously and instinctively that we are largely unaware of how we translate a thought into language. This is an intellectual use of language.

Through creative speech, the artists enliven the spoken words through the speech sounds themselves, enhancing the intellectual meaning to an imagination. We work to do justice to those places where speech is creative, as in reciting poetry, creating the character in plays, etc.

It is a long journey to bring one’s speech organism and growing relationship to the sounds of speech, to realize the wealth of the sounds that create a much vaster experience than the personal experience of the speaker. Four years working with diverse exercises, poetry, plays, eurythmy, Greek gymnastics, all activities to ‘tune the instrument’ to bring speech alive, is but a brief beginning to a life-long path.

The Steiner School of Speech Arts offers the opportunity to work on creative speech. We believe that a full-time immersion is a one of the gifts of the 20/21st centuries, given to humanity through the

Spiritual Science of Rudolf Steiner, which we wish to cultivate, thereby ensuring its future existence. We are extremely fortunate to be situated in the culturally-rich environment of the Threefold Educational Center, in Spring Valley, New York, a tremendously supportive place for those seeking an artistic enlivening. We welcome anyone who wishes to come for a visit!

Speech artists can be contacted through our website: creativespeech.org.

Barbara Renold is a practicing speech artist, teacher and director of community theatre. She trained at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, from 1978-1981, and supplemented her studies at the Harkness Studio in Sydney, Australia, in 1982-83. During her time as a speech and drama teacher at Sunbridge College (1983-2007), she taught in all programs and directed many student productions. Her great passion is Rudolf Steiner’s Mystery Dramas, and she has directed two full cycles. This work culminated in the historic Mystery Drama Festival of August 2014 in Spring Valley, NY, in which, for the first time in English, all four dramas were presented by one cast, in a nine-day conference. Currently she teaches at Eurythmy Spring Valley and is one of the founding teachers of the full-time speech training, the Steiner School of Speech Arts, housed in the Threefold Community in Spring Valley, NY.