Theater's Gigi Buffington to Study with Master Voice Coach
Gigi Buffington, actress and voice instructor in Columbia's Theater Department, has just completed filming Galileo's Grave for writer/director Clayton Brown. Buffington, who played the lead role in this IFP/Chicago Production Fund winner also starred in Amie Siegel's docudrama Empathy (2004).
Now she's poised for her next big adventure.
A former modern dancer, Buffington now specializes in voice and is quite the mover and shaker in that world. However, she wants to know more, deepen her knowledge and experience. So she applied to a new Master's program in Voice Training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London and was one of only three students accepted in the program.
She will leave the U.S. this fall to spend two years working in close association with the world-renowned Patsy Rodenburg, who has coached some of the greats including Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Ian McKellen and Ian Holm.
Says Buffington, "I have used Patsy Rodenburg's texts (widely considered to be the ultimate texts on voice work) for teaching Voice in my own classes at Columbia. Now I will have this incredibly rare opportunity to work directly with, and be mentored by, Ms. Rodenburg. I look forward to bringing my new knowledge and skills back to the theater students at Columbia."