DUDLEY KNIGHT
Professor Emeritus of Drama at the University of California, Irvine. Founding member of the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut; extensive stage career includes major roles with American Conservatory Theatre and Magic Theatre (San Francisco), Globe Theatre and La Jolla Playhouse (San Diego), Mark Taper Forum and Los Angeles Theatre Center, Colorado Shakespeare Festival (six seasons), Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Connecticut Repertory Theatre, Utah Shakespearean Festival and Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, along with hundreds of roles in film, television, radio, and voice-over. “Best Leading Actor” (King Lear) Orange County Register, 1989. “Best Director” (Mastergate) Los Angeles Times, 1991. OC Weekly Award (SubUrbia) 1999.
Certified as master teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework. A forty-year career as voice, speech and dialect teacher and voice director for professional theatre; conducts workshops and lectures on voice and speech for actors and voice teachers worldwide; published articles in journals and in the books The Vocal Vision and Standard Speech. Editor of A World of Voice, 2011. Subject of a book chapter in Voice & Speech in the New Millennium, 2011. Speech textbook Speaking with Skill published by Bloomsbury/Methuen Drama, 2012. 1993-1997: artistic staff of South Coast Repertory as resident voice and dialect consultant; 1996-1999: board of directors of VASTA (Voice and Speech Trainers Association); member of Actors’ Equity, SAG, AFTRA, ATHE, VASTA, ADS, IPA.
On June 25th, 2013, walking home from rehearsal, on a beautiful cool night in Irvine, Dudley Knight was struck down by a heart attack. He died soon after without regaining consciousness. For those of you who knew him, and loved him, it must be a consolation to us that his last night on this earth was so full of joy, and the comfort of being close to loved ones, and immersed in an exciting new project.
For those of you who came to this site in the hope of learning more about him and his work, rest assured, his work will still be taught, the workshops offered, and everything that he hoped for in sharing Knight-Thompson Speechwork with the world will be carried forward.