Peter Bridgmont
In the early hours of 24 June Peter Bridgmont crossed the threshold to the spiritual world. He and his wife used to teach speech and drama at the Chrysalis Theatre Acting School in London.
Peter Bridgmont was born in Great Britain in January 1929 and attended the Wynstones Steiner School in Gloucester. He studied acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London (GB) and began his career as an actor and artist in the West End, where he collaborated with Richard Attenborough on the production of the play The Mousetrap. At the Boundaries Theatre, whose director at the time was Joan Littlewoods, he met his later wife Barbara. Both did speech and theatre studies at the «London School of Speech Formation and Dramatic Art». They had three children: Richard, Andrew and Nicolas.
Persistent and charismatic
Peter Bridgmont was persistent, enthusiastic and charismatic, with an entrepreneurial spirit and a brilliant sense of humour. His ingenuity, great artistic talent and practical understanding of the transformative power of the dramatic art and of the living spoken word led to his wife and him building up their own initiative on the basis of Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy and his ideas on artistic speech. They also included in their work the avantgarde impulses of the British stage designer Gordon Craig and of the dancer Rudolf Laban.
Peter and Barbara Bridgmont taught speech to actors of the Shakespeare Globe Theatre Company in London and its director, Mark Rylance (who won an Oscar in 2017 for ‹The Bridge of Spies›).
Peter Bridgmont was acclaimed internationally for his stage work and his numerous audio recordings on anthroposophical and artistic themes as well as the seminars he gave at the Goetheanum, across Europe and in the usa.
His legacy is reflected in his books ‹Liberation of the Actor›, which was translated into several languages, ‹The Spear Thrower› and ‹Liberation of Acting› as well as in the many grateful memories of his numerious students all over the world.
Spanish connection
Peter Bridgmont supported ‹La Crisálida›, the first creative speech studio in Spain which was founded by his students, the actors and speech artists Luz Altamira and Álvaro Ramos, and Pilar Altamira, an actor, lecturer, writer and member of the Anthroposophical Society in Spain. The Studio also served as a venue for the seminars and lectures Peter Bridgmont held regularly between 1997 and 2003.