A note from Peter O’Toole to John Neville, in Canada, about my Bottom.

Me as Edgar and Peter Ustinov as King Lear, directed by Robin Phillips, at Stratford.

The brilliant Heath Lamberts as Cyrano de Bergerac, and me as his best friend LeBret, at the Shaw Festival and Royal Alex in Toronto, directed by Derek Goldby.

Chiron, *Titus Andronicus*, directed by Brian Bedford, starring Bill Hutt, at Stratford, Ontario.

Orgon, as Brian Mulroney, in *Tartuffe*, for CBC and the Neptune Theatre in Halifax; directed and adapted by Richard Ouzounian, co-starring the delightful Walter Borden, as a Reganesque Tartuffe.

7 summers logging eventually earned me 7 summers at Stratford.

Professional Acting Resume
Film reel
SOL on You Tube

Rodger Barton
I have been an actor/teacher/single dad/monologue coach for most of 35 years. I spent 7 seasons with the Stratford Festival in Canada, doing eight Shakespearean productions under Robin Phillips, many with Brian Bedford, Martha Henry, Bill Hutt, five productions with Maggie Smith and two with Peter Ustinov.

Around twenty years ago, I decided to help young people love Shakespeare as much as I do. To do that, they had to play him out loud. To enjoy playing him aloud they needed cut scripts. I discovered and implemented the thought-verse formatting, and then noted the series to finish the job. Interestingly, a French teacher did a meticulous final proofing. I combed the scripts endlessly. It took two years to complete 12 plays. While creating them I read them, and re-read them, and re-read them some more aloud, with Keith Knight - taking equal turns at 'Hamlets and Horatios.' They were only finished when we agreed that they made complete sense. I then sold paper versions of the series for several years. New Year's 2013, in an effort to trump budgets and bores and stick to my purpose of growing love for Shakespeare, I decided to post the whole series on this website for free. I then had about 50,000 scripts downloaded. I don’t actually expect teachers to be very practiced at teaching communication skills; usually they are talking to 30 students at a time. What the students mainly need is individual and group practice. This whole website is a tool-chest for that challenge - a vocal gym, crammed with the best of Shakespeare.

The SOL audio recordings and monologues, produced during Covid, are a new way to meet the plays - the way Will intended, out loud! I played all the parts except the French ladies in Henry V. The audio files for each play provide choices for stresses and colours. The monologue page, which I continue to add to, provides pdfs and mp3s for 40 of Shakespeare’s greatest soliloquies and passages. I plan to spend future months adding acting notes for many of the speeches. If you listen to a few of them you will notice that I take no notice of the scholarly blather about rhythm. I try to invent my text, not chant it.