Table Of Content

Actor Training Second Edition Actor Training expands on Alison Hodge’s highly-acclaimed and bestselling Twentieth Century Actor Training. This exciting second edition radically updates the original book making it even more valuable for any student of the history and practice of actor training. The bibliography is brought right up to date and many chapters are revised. In addition, eight more practitioners are included – and forty more photographs – to create a stunningly comprehensive study. The practitioners included are: The historical, cultural and political context of each practitioner’s work is clearly set out by leading experts and accompanied by an incisive and enlightening analysis of the main principles of the practitioners’ training, practical exercises and key productions. This book is an invaluable introduction to the principles and practice of actor training and its role in shaping modern theatre. Alison Hodge has been a professional director since 1982. She was assistant director for Gardzienice Theatre and co-authored, with Włodzimierz Staniewski, Hidden Territories: the Theatre of Gardzienice (Routledge, 2004). She is director of The Quick and the Dead, an international theatre research company, and a Reader in Theatre Practice at Royal Holloway College, University of London. Her website can be found at www.alisonhodge.net Stella Adler Eugenio Barba Augusto Boal Anne Bogart Bertolt Brecht Peter Brook Michael Chekhov Joseph Chaikin Jacques Copeau Philippe Gaulier Jerzy Grotowski Maria Knebel Jacques Lecoq Joan Littlewood Sanford Meisner Vsevolod Meyerhold Ariane Mnouchkine Monika Pagneux Michel Saint-Denis Włodzimierz Staniewski Konstantin Stanislavsky Lee Strasberg Actor Training Second Edition Edited by Alison Hodge First published 2010 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Selection and Editorial Material © 2010 Alison Hodge Individual Chapters © the contributors All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Actor training / edited by Alison Hodge. – 2nd ed. p. cm. Previously published under title: Twentieth century acting training, 2000. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Acting – Study and teaching. I. Hodge, Alison, 1959– II. Twentieth century acting training. PN2075.T94 2010 792.02'807 – dc22 2009028309 ISBN10: 0-415-47167-2 (hbk) ISBN10: 0-415-47168-0 (pbk) ISBN10: 0-203-86137-X (ebk) ISBN13: 978-0-415-47167-1 (hbk) ISBN13: 978-0-415-47168-8 (pbk) ISBN13: 978-0-203-86137-0 (ebk) This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. ISBN 0-203-86137-X Master e-book ISBN For Sophie and Hannah And, in gratitude, to Janice Barton, Tatiana Bre, Daniela Garcia Casilda, Chiara D’Anna, Luis Gallo Mudarra, Alexia Kokkali and Göze Saner Contents List of illustrations ix Notes on contributors xii Acknowledgements xvi Preface xvii Introduction xviii 1 stanislavsky’s system: pathways for the actor Sharon Marie Carnicke 1 2 meyerhold and biomechanics Robert Leach 26 3 jacques copeau: the quest for sincerity John Rudlin 43 4 michael chekhov on the technique of acting: ‘was don quixote true to life?’ Franc Chamberlain 63 5 michel saint-denis: training the complete actor Jane Baldwin 81 6 the knebel technique: active analysis in practice Sharon Marie Carnicke 99 7 brecht and actor training: on whose behalf do we act? Peter Thomson 117 8 joan littlewood Clive Barker 130 9 strasberg, adler and meisner: method acting David Krasner 144 10 joseph chaikin and aspects of actor training: possibilities rendered present Dorinda Hulton 164 11 peter brook: transparency and the invisible network Lorna Marshall and David Williams 184 12 grotowski’s vision of the actor: the search for contact Lisa Wolford 199 13 jacques lecoq, monika pagneux and philippe gaulier: training for play, lightness and disobedience Simon Murray 215 14 training with eugenio barba: acting principles, the pre-expressive and ‘personal temperature’ Ian Watson 237 15 ariane mnouchkine and the théâtre du soleil: theatricalising history; the theatre as metaphor; the actor as signifier Helen E. Richardson 250 16 w Łodzimierz staniewski: gardzienice and the naturalised actor Alison Hodge 268 17 anne bogart and siti company: creating the moment Royd Climenhaga 288 18 augusto boal and the theatre of the oppressed Frances Babbage 305 Index 325 viii contents Illustrations 1.1 Konstantin Stanislavsky (1922) 2 1.2 Stanislavsky as Astrov in Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya (1899) 3 1.3 Stanislavsky as Satin in Gorky’s The Lower Depths (1902) 7 1.4 Stanislavsky as Gaev and his wife Maria Lilina as Anya in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard (1904) 14 1.5 Stanislavsky as Mikhailo Raikitin and Olga Knipper as Natalya Petrovna in Turgenev’s A Month in the Country (1909) 20 2.1 Biomechanics: The Stance on the Back 27 2.2 Biomechanics: The Leap to the Chest 31 2.3 Biomechanics: The Stab with the Dagger 32 2.4 Biomechanics in action: D.E. (1924) 34 2.5 Meyerhold’s exercise: The Dactyl 35 2.6 Meyerhold’s exercise: Shooting from the Bow 39 3.1 Copeau: gymnastics class in the garden at Le Limon 45 3.2 Jacques Copeau as Plébère in L’Illusion 52 3.3 Copeau’s production of Les Fourberies de Scapin, Place Saint-Sulpice, Paris (1922) with Georges Vitray as Scapin and Suzanne Bing as Hyacinthe 59 4.1 Chekhov in the title role of Strindberg’s Erik XIV (1922) directed by Vakhtangov and performed by the Moscow Art Theatre 66 4.2 Chekhov in the Dartington Studio with students 69 4.3 ‘Lightness’ exercises by Chekhov Theatre Players in the Dartington Hall Gardens (1936) 72 4.4 Chekhov as Malvolio in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night performed by the Moscow Art Theatre 76 5.1 Saint-Denis giving a mask workshop at Juilliard retreat (1968) 83 5.2 Neutral or ‘noble’ masks: Four male and four female. Four stages of life – childhood, youth, maturity and old age 92 5.3 Saint-Denis’s production of Chekhov’s Three Sisters, for John Gielgud’s season at The Queen’s Theatre, London (1938) 94 6.1 Knebel as Charlotta in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard performed by the Moscow Art Theatre 100 6.2 Knebel’s production of The Magic Blossom at the Central Children’s Theatre, Moscow 112 6.3 Knebel at GITIS 113 7.1 Brecht directing Regine Lutz in Heinrich Von Kleist’s The Broken Jug 122 8.1 Littlewood directing Fanny Carby in a rehearsal of They Might Be Giants by James Goldman (1961) 132 8.2 Henry Chapman’s You Won’t Always Be On Top 134 8.3 Littlewood’s production of The Hostage by Brendan Behan at the Théâtre des Nations Festival, Paris 136 8.4 Littlewood’s production of Brendan Behan’s The Quare Fellow 141 9.1 Lee Strasberg directing a scene during class at The Actors Studio 147 9.2 Stella Adler giving direction to acting students at the Stella Adler Conservatory 153 9.3 Marlon Brando practicing for his role as a paraplegic in the film The Men 156 9.4 Marlon Brando stars in the film A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Elia Kazan 156 9.5 Sanford Meisner 157 10.1 Joseph Chaikin with the Living Theatre in Brecht’s Man is Man 166 10.2 Cynthia Harris, Shami Chaikin, Tina Shepard, Jim Barbosa, Ron Faber, Ralph Lee and Peter Maloney in The Serpent developed by the Open Theater between 1967 and 1969 167 10.3 Paul Zimet and Raymond Barry in Terminal developed by the Open Theater between 1969 and 1971 173 10.4 Tina Shepard, Paul Zimet and Jo Ann Schmidman in The Mutation Show developed by the Open Theater in 1971 175 10.5 Tina Shepard, Shami Chaikin and Tom Lillard in Nightwalk developed by the Open Theater between 1972 and 1973 177 11.1 Peter Brook: Stick exercise with the American Theater of the Deaf, Paris (1971) 186 11.2 Peter Brook’s production of Shakespeare’s La Tempête (1990). Ferdinand (Ken Higelin) explores a tropical paradise generated by ‘invisible spirits’ – Pierre Lacan, Tapa Sudana, Bakary Sangare (Ariel) 188 11.3 Peter Brook: Le Mahabharata at the Bouffes du Nord, Paris (1985). Note: An archery contest. Bamboo sticks are used to suggest weapons and to construct a dynamically layered space. The actor-storytellers aim to produce an energized depth of field, rather than absolute uniformity 195 12.1 Jerzy Grotowski, Chicago, April (1995) 200 12.2 Teatr Laboratorium 13 Rze˛ dów, Opole (1964) with Rena Mirecka and Zygmunt Molik 205 x illustrations 12.3 Teatr Laboratorium 13 Rze˛ dów, Opole (1964) with Rena Mirecka and Andrzej (Gaston) Kulig 206 12.4 Teatr Laboratorium 13 Rze˛ dów, Opole (1964) with Rena Mirecka 210 13.1 Lecoq with students at his international school in Paris 218 13.2 Gaulier observing students’ work in Japan 220 13.3 Pagneux leading a workshop in Spain 221 13.4 Theatre Complicite’s production of The Elephant Vanishes, inspired by the short stories of Haruki Murakami, directed by Simon McBurney, British production (2003) 232 14.1 Barba: Training at the Odin Teatret in the early 1970s 241 14.2 Barba: An Odin Teatret training session 242 14.3 I Wayan Bawa leading a training session of Balinese classical dance principles for participants at XIII ISTA, Seville, Spain, 2004 244 15.1 Mnouchkine at the Kabul, Afghanistan workshop 2005 251 15.2 Théâtre du Soleil’s L’Age D’Or with Philippe Caubère as Abdallah, asleep in the workers’ dormitory 255 15.3 Théâtre du Soleil’s production of Shakespeare’s Henry IV (Part 1) with Georges Bigot, John Arnold and Maurice Durozier (1984) 257 15.4 Théâtre du Soleil’s production of Le Dernier Caravansérail Part II (2005) 259 16.1 Włodzimierz Staniewski leading a master class at Columbia University, New York 269 16.2 Physical morning training in the grounds with Włodzimierz Staniewski, Mariusz Gołaj and members of the Academy for Theatre Practices (2009) 277 16.3 Physical morning training in the grounds with Mariusz Gołaj and members of the Academy for Theatre Practices (2009) 278 16.4 Joanna Holcgreber presenting the cheironomia technique in relation to the image from an Ancient Greek vase 283 16.5 Staniewski’s production of Iphigenia at Aulis according to Euripides (2007) 284 17.1 Suzuki Training with Ellen Lauren, Stephen Webber, Will Bond, SITI company 293 17.2 Suzuki Training with Barney O’Hanlon, Stephen Webber, SITI company 294 17.3 bobrauschenbergamerica with Ellen Lauren, SITI company 301 17.4 bobrauschenbergamerica with Kelly Mauer, Akiko Aizawa, Leon Ingulsrud, SITI company 302 18.1 Augusto Boal (2008) 306 18.2 Theatre of the Oppressed workshop, hosted by Cardboard Citizens, February 2008 312 18.3 Theatre of the Oppressed workshop, hosted by Cardboard Citizens, February 2008 314 18.4 Theatre of the Oppressed workshop, hosted by Cardboard Citizens, February 2008 316 illustrations xi Contributors Frances Babbage is Senior Lecturer in Drama at the University of Sheffield where she is also Director of the MA in Theatre and Performance Studies. She is the author of Augusto Boal (Routledge Performance Practitioners, 2004) and editor of Working Without Boal: Digressions and Developments in the Theatre of the Oppressed (Contemporary Theatre Review 3:1, 1995). She has regularly worked as a facilitator using methods derived from Boal’s practice and more generally as a performer and deviser. Her research has been published in journals including New Theatre Quarterly, Modern Drama and Comparative Drama. Jane Baldwin taught modern drama, acting, introduction to theatre and humanities at the Boston Conservatory, USA. Her books include Michel Saint-Denis and the Shaping of the Modern Actor, Theatre: The Rediscovery of Style and Other Writings, which she edited (Routledge), and Vie et morts de la création collective/Lives and Deaths of Collective Creation, co-edited with Jean-Marc Larrue and Christiane Page (Vox Theatri). Her articles have appeared in Theatre Topics, L’Annuaire théâtral, Theatre Notebook, and Theatre History Studies, among others. She is presently writing A National Drama: Jean Gascon and the Canadian Theatre. She has been an actress and director throughout her career. Clive Barker began his career in the early 1950s as an actor with Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop company at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, appearing in, amongst others, Brendan Behan’s The Hostage and the company’s devised show, Oh What A Lovely War! He directed productions, wrote plays and recorded documentaries for radio and television. From the mid-1960s he com- bined professional work with lecturing at the universities of Birmingham and Warwick. His actor training methods and ideas are set out in Theatre Games (Methuen, 1977) and he was joint editor of New Theatre Quarterly (Cambridge University Press). Clive Barker died in 2005. Sharon Marie Carnicke is Professor of Theatre and Slavic Studies as well as Associate Dean for the School of Theatre at the University of Southern California. Her book, Stanislavsky in Focus, is now in its second edition. She has professional experience on stage and a Ph.D. in Russian from Columbia University, and her research and teaching melds theatrical practice with historical scholarship. A widely published author, her works include Reframing Screen Performance (with Cynthia Baron), The Theatrical Instinct (a study on the avant-garde director Nikolai Evreinov), Chekhov: 4 Plays and 3 Jokes which includes her Kennedy Center award-winning translation of Anton Chek- hov’s The Seagull, and articles on topics from the Ballets Russes to performance in the town festivals of Puerto Rico. Franc Chamberlain lectures in Drama and Theatre Studies at University College Cork, Ireland and is Visiting Professor in Performance Studies and Creative Practice at the University of Northampton, UK. He is series editor for Routledge Performance Practitioners and the author of Michael Chekhov (Routledge, 2003) and co-editor (with Ralph Yarrow) of Jacques Lecoq in the British Theatre (Routledge, 2002) and (with Thomas Leabhart) of A Decroux Companion (Routledge, 2008). He has also prepared a new edition of Craig’s On the Art of the Theatre (Routledge, 2008). Royd Climenhaga teaches in the Theater and Arts in Context programmes at Eugene Lang College/The New School University in New York City. He writes on intersections between dance and theatre, with a book on Pina Bausch published through the Routledge Performance Practitioner Series. He has created and directed several new theatre pieces and develops and produces new physical performance works as Co-Artistic Director of Human Company. Alison Hodge has worked as professional director since 1982 when she co-founded the storytelling company Theatre Alibi. She was assistant director at Gardzienice Theatre and co-authored, with Włodzimierz Staniewski, Hidden Territories: the Theatre of Gardzienice (Routledge, 2004). She is director of The Quick and the Dead, an international theatre research company and a Reader in Theatre Practice in the Department of Drama and Theatre, Royal Holloway College, University of London. Her website can be found at www.alisonhodge.net Dorinda Hulton is a Senior Lecturer in Drama and a freelance director and dramaturg. Her research, professional practice, and teaching focus on processes that facilitate innovative theatre making. Her publications include ‘the creative actor’ in Theatre Praxis (Macmillan) and articles in Performance and Art Journal and Studies in Theatre and Performance, DVD-ROM for The Open University and The Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama, Oxford University. With Echo Arts, Cyprus, she acted as dramaturg for an interdisciplinary performance of new work, which represented Cyprus at the New Plays from Europe Festival (2006). She is Artistic Consultant to Theatre Alibi, UK. contributors xiii David Krasner (PhD) is Head of the Acting Program at Emerson College. He is an actor and director and has been a teacher of acting for thirty years. He is the author/editor of eight books and co-editor of the University of Michigan Series Theater: Theory/Text/Performance. He is currenty at work on a book on acting, practice and theory, and another on the history of modern drama for Blackwell Press. Robert Leach taught drama and theatre arts at Birmingham University and English Literature at Edinburgh University. He directed the Russian premiere of the formerly banned I Want a Baby by Sergei Tretyakov for the Teatr u Nikitskikh Vorot, Moscow, where it remained in the repertoire for over five years. His theatre books include Revolutionary Theatre (Routledge), Stanislavsky and Meyerhold (Peter Lang) and Theatre Workshop: Joan Littlewood and the Making of Modern British Theatre (Exeter University Press), which was short- listed for Theatre Book of the Year, 2006. Lorna Marshall trained in Japanese Theatre (Noh, Kabuki and Butoh) and Physical Performance (Jacques Lecoq and Etienne Decroux). She has worked in a range of styles including classical drama, circus, opera and physical theatre with companies such as the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and Shared Experience. She is Honorary Research Fellow at RADA, Advisor on Training at the New National Theatre (Tokyo) and Visiting Lecturer at the Shanghai Theatre Academy. She has a long-standing collaboration with Yoshi Oida, co-writing three books with him, including The Invisible Actor, and assisting several productions. Her writing includes The Body Speaks (second edition, Methuen, 2008). Simon Murray is Senior Lecturer in Theatre Studies at the University of Glasgow. He was recently Director of Theatre at Dartington College of Art, and has been a professional performer and director, working particularly in the field of devised theatre. He trained in Paris for a year during the late 1980s with Philippe Gaulier and Monika Pagneux. He is the author of Jacques Lecoq (Routledge, 2003) and joint author/editor (with John Keefe) of Physical Theatres: A Critical Introduction and Physical Theatres: A Critical Reader (Routledge, 2007). He is joint editor with Jonathan Pitches of Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, Routledge. Helen E. Richardson is Associate Professor of Theatre at Brooklyn College and has her PhD in Directing from the University of California at Berkeley, where her studies focused on the work of the Théâtre du Soleil. From 1991 to 1994 she served as Artistic Director of the award-winning Stalhouderij Theatre Company, Amsterdam’s resident English-language theatre, which featured an international ensemble of actors creating new works. She is currently Artistic Director of Tiyatroglobal, an international theatre, based in NY. Recently Tiyatroglobal was invited by the United Nations to create a piece for the Elimination of Violence Against Women Day. John Rudlin was formerly Senior Lecturer in Drama, University of Exeter. His publications include: Jacques Copeau (Cambridge University Press, 1986) and xiv contributors