(toward) a phenomenology of acting

321 Pages·2019·10.615 MB·English

by  Phillip Zarrilli

(toward) a phenomenology of acting
In (toward) a phenomenology of acting, Phillip Zarrilli considers acting as a
‘question’ to be explored in the studio and then reflected upon.
This book is a vital response to Jerzy Grotowski’s essential question: “How
does the actor ‘touch that which is untouchable?’ ” Phenomenology invites
us to listen to “the things themselves”, to be attentive to how we sensorially,
kinesthetically, and affectively engage with acting as a phenomenon and
process. Using detailed first-person accounts of acting across a variety
of dramaturgies and performances from Beckett to newly co-created
performances to realism, it provides an account of how we ‘do’ or practice
phenomenology when training, performing, directing, or teaching. Zarrilli
brings a wealth of international and intercultural experience as a director,
performer, and teacher to this major new contribution both to the practices
of acting and to how we can reflect in depth on those practices.
An advanced study for actors, directors, and teachers of acting that is ideal
for both the training/rehearsal studio and research, (toward) a phenomenology
of acting is an exciting move forward in the philosophical understanding of
acting as an embodied practice.
Phillip Zarrilli is Artistic Director of The Llanarth Group and Emeritus
Professor of Performance Practice at Exeter University, UK. He directs,
performs, and teaches internationally, with recent professional productions
in the UK, Singapore, Costa Rica, Ireland, and Norway. Zarrilli is widely
known for his publications on acting including Psychophysical Acting: An
Intercultural Approach After Stanislavski (2009, 2010 Outstanding Book of
the Year, ATHE); Intercultural Acting and Performer Training, co-editor; Acting
(Re)Considered: Theories and Practices, editor; and Acting: Interdisciplinary and
Intercultural Perspectives, co-author.
Responses to (toward) a phenomenology of acting
“A master of practice-based research, Phillip B. Zarrilli transports us in this
book to experiences that Stanislavsky and Grotowski could only imagine.
Combining phenomenology, cognitive science, dynamic systems theory, the
enactive approach and a lifetime of discoveries as an actor, director, Asian-
inspired actor trainer, interdisciplinary philosopher and international perfor-
mance maker, Zarrilli expertly unlocks what the lay-actor might call ‘being
in the moment’. Every page gave me pause for thought; in fact, the reading
experience itself was phenomenological! Written with great poetic style and
evocativeness, this impressive tome takes Zarrilli’s already impactful contri-
bution to contemporary acting many steps further. It’s destined to become a
twenty-first-century classic.”
Bella Merlin, Actor, Professor of Acting at
University of California at Riverside, Author
“In this exhaustive, lucid, and rigorous study, informed by years of studio
work, Zarrilli explains how the actor can nurture and grow through the act
of embodiment, attending to lived experience and enriching it through work
on awareness. The book provides a clear and unpretentious view of how one
might apply the field of phenomenology in training and rehearsal, to enrich
approaching the creative state of the actor. Offering profound insights,
Zarrilli examines in detail phenomenology’s potential implications for a wide
range of acting practices, from Stanislavski’s later work on ‘experiencing’ to
the actor’s work in the post dramatic context. It takes the reader on a journey
between disciplines, repositioning both processes of acting and the languages
we use to reflect on and lead actor training. It is a far reaching and thrilling
journey into the embodied processes of acting which will liberate the actor.”
Ian Morgan, Performer and Course Leader MA
Theatre LAB (RADA)
(toward) a phenomenology
of acting
Phillip Zarrilli
with a foreword by Evan Thompson
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 Phillip Zarrilli
The right of Phillip Zarrilli to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
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
Names: Zarrilli, Phillip B., 1947– author.
Title: (toward) a phenomenology of acting / Phillip Zarrilli ; with a
foreword by Evan Thompson.
Other titles: Toward a phenomenology of acting
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge,
2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019028923 (print) | LCCN 2019028924
(ebook) | ISBN 9781138777675 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138777682
(paperback) | ISBN 9780429322525 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Acting—Philosophy. | Acting.
Classification: LCC PN2061 .Z37 2019 (print) | LCC PN2061
(ebook) | DDC 792.02/8—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019028923
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019028924
ISBN: 978-1-138-77767-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-77768-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-32252-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Garamond
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For Caitlin:
Thanks for the journeys we have taken together – in
life and in the studio.
Onwards . . . ever onwards . . .

Contents
List of figures viii
Foreword xiii
EVAN THOMPSON
Acknowledgements xv
Introduction: acting as a process of phenomenological
enquiry in the studio 1
1 First-person accounts of embodied practice: sensing as
‘living communication’ 20
2 The actor’s ‘lived/living’ bodymind 73
3 Attention and perception in action 114
4 Subjectivity, self, and character/figure in performance 135
5 The voicing body and sonorous speech 176
6 Imagining 215
7 Toward an intersubjective ethics of acting 263
Afterword: coda to no end 273
Appendix: an historical note on phenomenology and
suggested further reading 274
References 279
Index 297
Figures
Cover Photo: Milena Picado as May – ‘the semblance’ – in
Beckett’s Footfalls (Pasos), 2017. [Photo by Adrian Coto:
courtesy of Colectivo Escenico Dragon and The National
Theatre Company of Costa Rica.]
0.1 Phillip Zarrilli leading taiqiquan (Wu style) at Gardzienice
Theatre Association. [Courtesy Gardzienice.] 8
1.1 Pre-performative psychophysical training: one of the basic
animal poses (the lion) through which visual focus, tactile
awareness through the feet, and a 360-degree kinesthetic
awareness are opened. [At the Tyn y parc Studio in Wales:
Klaus Seewald foreground; Laura Dannequin and Sol
Garre Rubio background.] [Photo courtesy Phillip
Zarrilli.] 27
1.2 Traditional full-body massage for practitioners of
kalarippayattu annually given both with the feet and the
hands over a period of 15 days. [Photo courtesy Kaite
O’Reilly.] 30
1.3 Through the lion pose awareness is awakened through
the feet as well as along the spine and to the space behind.
[Sol Garre Rubio working with Laura Dannequin.]
[Photo courtesy Phillip Zarrilli.] 32
1.4 Told by the Wind: . . . at a threshold . . . two figures . . .
two lives . . . multiple time spaces . . . [A superimposed
image of male figure (Phillip Zarrilli) and female
figure (Jo Shapland) during a final dress rehearsal at the
Tyn y parc Studio in Wales. male figure stands at his
writing desk, his back to one of four thresholds or
entryways into a square of earth approximately
3 inches deep. female figure stands just at another of
Figures ix
four ‘thresholds’. The superimposed close-up shows
female figure’s right foot as she crosses the threshold,
placing her right foot into the earth.] [Courtesy The
Llanarth Group.] 40
1.5 Told by the Wind: Listening [Tokyo Theatre Babylon
performance.] [Photo courtesy The Llanarth Group &
Ami Theatre, Tokyo.] 45
1.6 Female Figure at the downstage threshold of the liminal
space between the two figures. male Figure is seated
upstage at his writing table and appears to be gazing out
the window. [Chapter Arts Centre. Photo Kirsten
McTierney Photographers.] 47
1.7 Female Figure in Scene 4 of Told by the Wind . . . an
evergreen branch in hand. [Photo Kirsten McTierney
Photographers, 2010. Courtesy The Llanarth Group.] 50
1.8 Told by the Wind: ‘Levitating’. [Courtesy The Llanarth
Group & Ami Theatre, Tokyo.] 51
1.9 Told by the Wind: On the threshold . . . a presence . . .
somewhere. [Courtesy The Llanarth Group & Ami
Theatre, Tokyo.] 52
1.10 Through the threshold, an ‘other’ . . . somewhere.
[Courtesy The Llanarth Group & Ami Theatre, Tokyo.] 53
1.11 Told by the Wind: . . . a hand . . . touching . . . [Courtesy
The Llanarth Group & Ami Theatre, Tokyo.] 54
1.12 Gitanjali Kolanad visualizing/imagining the goddess just
before beginning the process of psychophysically
‘transforming’ into a tree through use of ‘head to foot’
acting in The Flowering Tree. [Photo courtesy Gitanjali
Kolanad.] 57
1.13 Kutiyattam/Nangyar kuttu performer, Usha Nangyar
in full female costume and makeup, ‘breathing through
her eyes’. [Photo courtesy of Kunju Vasudevan
Namboodiripad.] 58
1.14 Celyn Jones and Nia Gwynn as Joe and Sarah in The
Almond and the Seahorse by Kaite O’Reilly at Sherman
Cymru, Cardiff, Wales. [Photo Kirsten McTierney
Photographers.] 63
2.1 Flung onstage, the protagonist falls. [Photograph Brent
Nicastro. Courtesy The Llanarth Group.] 76
2.2 ‘Reflects’ [Photograph Brent Nicastro. Courtesy The
Llanarth Group.] 78