Robert Lewis (he/him) is a voice teacher, acting teacher, director, writer and performer. For the past 20 years, he has directed for theatre and also devised site-specific performances. As a sessional voice teacher, he has worked at St Martins Youth Theatre, the Victorian College of the Arts, California State University, One Voice Centre, Dwi Emas International School, NIDA Open Program, amongst others, and has voice and accent coached many film, television and theatre productions. Robert also taught presentation skills, public speaking and adjudicated for speech and drama assessments and Eisteddfods.
Robert completed a Bachelor of Performing Arts (Theatre) at the University of Tasmania where he studied acting, technical theatre and directing, before completing a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) at Monash University focusing on voice teaching. He was the youngest person, at the time, to be admitted to the Graduate Diploma of Dramatic Art (Voice Studies) at NIDA in 2000. There, he trained with Bill Pepper and Betty Williams and worked with a variety of acting and directing teachers there such as Kevin Jackson, Tony Knight and Helmut Bakaitis in order to deepen the understanding between directing, actor training and the voice. His training with Keith Bain inspired him to further investigate the synergies of voice and movement, which led to his life-long passion of integrative practices. His final thesis at NIDA focused on voice and the director. Robert then completed a Graduate Diploma of Secondary Teaching at RMIT (Drama and Media), before taking up a position as Lecturer in Voice at the University of Tasmania. His PhD, which he completed in 2011, focused on intercultural physiovocal practices. Robert took up a position as Lecturer in Stage and Screen at Charles Sturt University where he continued to teach voice and acting and direct including taking up leadership positions such as Course Director for Creative Industries.
He is a certified One Voice Practitioner, having completed the One Voice Certification Course in New York in 2017 under the guidance of voice and movement pioneer Dr Joan Melton and osteopath Jennie Morton. Robert also trained with Cicely Berry, Frankie Armstrong, Rowena Balos, Mike Alfreds, OzFrank Theatre, as well as Butoh with Yoshito Ohno in Japan.
Voice Teacher
Robert has worked as a voice and accent coach for film, television and theatre for over two decades, including teaching extensively at a tertiary level. Drawing technical and practical expertise from a wide gamut of voice practices, he has shaped his system of voice teaching incorporating the Laban Movement System, Suzuki Method of Actor Training, and the Nobbs Suziku Praxis to form a physiovocal system that connects voice, body, space and imagination.
Robert works with the notion that the voice and body must be trained as one, not as separate entities and believes in a scientific approach by teaching students and participants what is happening in the body. In his work, creativity and imagery are coupled with scientific knowledge to fully understand the use and training of the performers instrument.
Robert’s overall passion is to expose students to original methodologies, and to encourage them to develop their own systems that reflect their individual needs, but above all, a flexible, multi-faceted system is essential for the ever-changing industry. Robert provides students with interdisciplinary and integrated, diverse approaches in order to develop fully rounded artists, as opposed to just training in theatre contexts, where the parameters such as architecture and audience/actor relationship, are set.
Theatre Director
Robert’s directorial approach is very physical, integrative and collaborative. Physiovocal training seamlessly transitions into the rehearsal process creating raw, dynamic, active environment. In his directing, Robert not only focuses on the actors and their world within the play, but the space as well, working the actors to disintegrate the barrier between performer, architecture, text and space. Some directing credits include When the Rain Stops Falling by Andrew Bovell, Norm and Ahmed by Alex Buzo, Possum by Sean Monro, The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh, Glib, Western (formerly Private Dancing) by Peter Webb, The Drowning Bride by Helen Howard and Michael Futcher, Savages by Patricia Cornelius, the premiere of Stephen Sewell’s The Photo, and the original plays Rabbits and Lines and Boxes. University directing credits include Shakespeare’s Othello, Hamlet, The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet and Richard III, and Earthquakes in London by Mike Bartlett, Love and Information by Caryl Churchill, The Trojan Women by Euripides, Dust by Stephen Sewell, A Dream Play by August Strindberg, Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca and The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, to name a few.
Acting Teacher
Robert works with the concept of unity between body, voice, text, imagination, space and action by training the physiovocal instrument. He approaches actor training through physiovocal means (i.e., embodied voice and movement practice as opposed to a predominantly psychological approach) drawing from over 20 years’ experience in the Yat Malmgren approach, Laban Movement System, Butoh, the Nobbs Suzuki Praxis, Alexander Technique, Cicely Berry, Patsy Rodenburg, Kristen Linklater and Joan Melton. Robert’s acting training stems from more traditional methods such as the Stanislavsky System and Meisner Technique, however, he expands on these practices by fusing them with other diverse systems.
In his training philosophy, there is no fundamental difference between ‘screen’ and ‘stage’ voice, movement and acting; much like his philosophy that there is no difference between the ‘singing’ voice and the ‘speaking’ voice: it is one voice. in fact, in contemporary performance practice, he trains actors to adapt to a wide facet of platforms brought on by new media and technology.
Persona Collective
Robert is the founder and director of Persona Collective, an ensemble of artists who explore intercultural, interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and integrative practices in order to create new ways of working. The company situates itself in the realms of performance, media, and visual arts to create reimagined classical, new, or established theatrical works. Persona Collective is both a performance company and a laboratory; it explores and develops rigorous and highly energised performance training methods, fusing an eclectic fusion of integrative practices to create new training aesthetics. Spectators that enjoy challenging, expressive and experimental work will find the Persona Collective experience most rewarding. Since its inception, Persona Collective has staged over 20 productions, received funding for various projects, contributed to national and international research in site-specific performance training, and resulted in published plays.
AusAct
Robert is the founder and convenor of the AusAct: Australian Actor Training Conference. This conference and training event is a presentation of actor training scholarship by researchers, practitioners and pedagogues working with original performer training methods developed within the Australian context. It is an event focusing on Australian actor training pedagogies and research and its relationship to place, space, land, environment, culture and technologies. Since 2018, the conference provided an avenue for the sharing of original materials and knowledge in dialogue within the Australian performer training context. The conference aims to celebrate, interrogate and showcase actor training methods that have been created and developed in Australia.
“Robert is an innovator and a phenomenal creative. Making ‘Norm and Ahmed’ together was one of the most beautiful and rewarding experience. His passion and dedication in allowing the actors to really immerse themselves in the work and character changed everything for us!”
Abu Kebe, actor
“Robert Lewis is a visionary director and theatre maker with a sharp eye and keen talent able to draw great performances from his actors and outstanding work from his creative team. His enthusiasm is inspiring, and I am always thrilled to work with such a committed artist.”
Stephen Sewell, playwright and screenwriter
“As my lecturer, Rob was interesting, curious, knowledgeable and inspiring. He encouraged us to explore voice and movement in new ways that stemmed from what felt like a deep well of knowledge and a true love of the craft and all the possibilities that came with it.”
Paige Rattray, Associate Director, Sydney Theatre Company
“Dr Robert Lewis is a gifted director, actor, and voice-movement specialist who inspires students long after they leave his classes! He is in demand internationally and has initiated major theatre collaboratives, including the Australian Actor Training Conference (AusAct). His creative skills make him a delight to work with, especially in programs connecting directorial perspectives and the actor’s instrument.”
Dr Joan Melton, Director, One Voice Centre for Integrative Studies, Emeritus Professor, CA State University Fullerton
“With a wealth of knowledge and limitless imagination, Robert Lewis is a brilliant theatre maker and a superb trainer of performers. A wonderful actor in his own right, Robert’s unique and engaging approach to actor training draws from the work of the finest practitioners while adding something wholly original, resulting in an approach to performing that achieves incredible results. His integrated voice and movement exercises, along with profound insights into the mind of a performer, position Robert Lewis as one of Australia’s most innovative theatre makers.”
Jimmy Harrison, theatre maker and voice coach
Robert Lewis 