MEL CHURCHER
(Ann Churcher) worked mainly as an actor and broadcaster for her first
twenty years in the business.Her
work included leading roles at the National Theatre, New Shakespeare Co.
and extensive film and television work including classic series such as
Upstairs Downstairs, Edward VII & Duchess of Duke Street. Mel did enormous amounts of voice-over work,
dubbing and documentary presentation and was a full time presenter with
the BBC World Service from 1983-85.She was also part of the team recording The
Longman's Pronunciation Dictionary onto CD-ROM.In 1999 she appeared in the successful four-hander The
Beastly Chronicles of Saki at the Jermyn Street Theatre which has
also been released as a CD. Mel is a frequent contributor to BBC Radio
and Television's national and regional programmes.
Although Mel does still act and broadcast, she is now best known
as an international acting, voice and presentation coach, which
has been the main part of her work for the last twenty or so years.She
has run voice and text courses in America,
Singapore, Norway, Portugal, Hungary, Czech Republic and Croatia
and regularly runs 'Acting for Film' workshops in Germany. She has
also worked with one of Japan’s leading theatre companies.
She was responsible for voice and text work at the Barbican for
the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1991/2 and then became Head of
Voice at Rose Bruford College of Speech & Drama 1992/4. Since
then, she has directed and taught in most of the major London drama
colleges and regularly runs workshops for schools like LAMDA, Central
School of Speech & Drama, RADA, Drama Centre and Mountview School
of Theatre Arts. Her theatre voice work includes The Royal
Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare’s Globe Education Department,
Manchester Royal Exchange, Birmingham Repertory Theatre.Young Vic
and The Royal Court as well as the New Shakespeare Company at Regents
Park Open Air Theatre where she was resident voice and text coach
from 1996 to 2007.
Mel is also one of the top dialogue and acting coaches in movies.
Her work includes The Lady,
The Door, Chalet Girl, The Last Station, Sherlock Holmes, Control,
Eragon, Tirant lo Blanc, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (ADR only),
Beowulf & Grendel, King Arthur, Tristan & Isolde, Danny the Dog/Unleashed,
The Fifth Element, Joan of Arc, The Secret Garden,Madeline,
102 Dalmatians, Snatch, The Count of Monte Cristo, Harry Potter &
The Sorcerer's Stone (Green-screen work), The Hole, Secret Passage and
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.She also runs regular film acting workshops at the Actors Centre
in London and at ifs in Cologne and Interkunst in Berlin and advised on
the setting up of the MA in Screen Acting at Central School of Speech
and Drama.
Some
of the artistes Mel has coached (voice, dialect or acting) in alphabetical
order:
Victoria Abril, Liam Aiken, Rafael Amargo,
Thora Birch, Raymond Blanc, Katherine Borowitz, Gerard Butler, Henry
Cavill, Noel Clarke, Kerry Condon, Charlie Cox, Daniel Craig, Hugh Dancy,
Day (Thaitanium), Stephen Dillane, Jason Donovan,Joel Edgerton, Christopher
Egan, Alice Evans, Laurence Fox, Benno Furmann, Martina Gedeck, Paul
Giamatti, Giancarlo Giannini, Ioan Gruffud, Sienna Guillory, Desmond
Harrington, Sally Hawkins, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Djimon Hounsou, Kathryn
Hunter, Milla Jovovich, Angelina Jolie, Felicity Jones, Keira Knightley,
Jessica Lange, Alexandra Maria Lara, Jet Li, Kate Maberly, Ivano Marescotti,
Rachel McAdams, Mads Mikkelson, Johnny Lee Miller, Samantha Morton,
Esther Nubiola, Frances O'Connor, Clive Owen, Mica Paris, Sam Riley,
Michelle Ryan, Rodrigo Santoro, Til Schweiger, Sheridan Smith, Stellan
Skarsgård, Edward Speleers, Ray Stevenson, Joss Stone, Harry Treadaway,
Tricky, John Turturro, Leonor Varela, Jon Voight, Leonor Watling, Ray
Winstone, Michelle Yeoh, Caper Zafer & Billy Zane.
Directors
she has worked with (as coach or actor) include:
Bill Alexander, Vicente Aranda, Bill
Bain, Derek Bennett, Luc Besson, Michael Blakemore, Bill Bryden, Harry
Burton, Tim Burton, Ken Campbell, Alasdair Clayre, Chris Columbus, David
Conville, Anton Corbijn, John Dexter, Richard Donner, Uli Edel, Stefen
Fangmeier, Gerald Fox, Antoine Fuqua, Sarah Gavron, Brian Gibson, John
Gorrie, Terry Green, Sturla Gunnarson, Nick Hamm, John Hay, Dominic
Hill, Michael Hoffman, Agnieszka Holland, Helena Kaut-Howson, Hugh Hudson,
Ken Hughes, Katherine Hunter, Rachel Kavenagh, Edward Kemp, Louis Leterrier,
David Leveaux, Kevin Lima, Sharon Maguire, Charles Marowitz, Daisy von
Scherler Mayer, Sam Mendes, Jonathan Miller, Silvio Narizzano,Adrian
Noble, Roman Polanski, Vanessa Redgrave, Kevin Reynolds, Franc Roddam,
Guy Ritchie, Jimmy Sangster, Timothy Sheader, David A Stewart, Alan
Strachan, Tim Supple, Istvan Szabo, Ian Talbot, Phil Traill, Pete Travis,
Simon West, Andy Wilson, Philip Wilson and Peter Wood.
She also directs in the theatre and has her own
producing company, Trojan’s Trumpet.
As well as actors, Mel teaches leaders of business and commerce
charisma, confidence & presentation skills.
Mel has a BA Hons. (Open) an MA in Performing Arts (Mddx), an MA
in Voice Studies (C.S.S.D.) and an Institute of Phonetics Association
Diploma.She is a member
of The Writers’ Guild, Society of Authors, Equity, The Directors Guild,
Women in Film and Television, The English Speaking Union, The Voice Care
Network, a Llife Member of the British Academy of Film & Television
Arts, a voting member of the European Film Academy and served on the Council
of the British Voice Association 2001/4. Mel has had numerous articles
published. She has written two books Acting
for Film: Truth 24 Times a Second published by Virgin Books and
'A Screen Acting Workshop/DVD' published by Nick Hern Books.
Here is a short compilation of some of the movies she
has worked on:
