Donal Bannister
Tenor Trombone Tutor
Job Role: Head of Learning and Teaching
Department: Acting
Honours: MA in Voice Studies
Simon originally trained and worked as a professional actor before returning to Central School of Speech and Drama to do an MA in Voice Studies. He has worked for over 15 years as an acting, voice, text and dialect coach in several UK universities and drama schools and has worked extensively with Shakespearean text. He regularly mentors voice coaches for the MA programme at Central and has directed professional productions in London, Edinburgh and Cardiff, as well as for RWCMD.
His professional theatre coaching includes work with National Theatre Wales, Bristol Old Vic Theatre, Salisbury Playhouse, The Young Vic (London), Sheffield Crucible and Sherman Theatre (Cardiff) as well as for several production companies including the BBC and HBO.
Simon’s research focuses on issues around creating an accessible theatrical language to engage non-traditional theatre-going audiences in order to make theatre a more inclusive industry.