Twentieth Century Actor Training

270 Pages·2000·3.18 MB·English

by  Alison Hodge

Twentieth Century Actor Training
Actor training is arguably the most unique phenomenon of twentieth-century theatre
making. Here, for the first time, the theories, training exercises, and productions of
fourteen of the century’s key theatre practitioners are analysed in a single volume.
The practitioners included are:
• Stella Adler
• Eugenio Barba
• Bertolt Brecht
• Peter Brook
• Joseph Chaikin
• Michael Chekhov
• Jacques Copeau
• Jerzy Grotowski
• Joan Littlewood
• Sanford Meisner
• Vsevolod Meyerhold
• Wlodzimierz Staniewski
• Konstantin Stanislavsky
• Lee Strasberg
Each chapter provides a unique account of specific training exercises and an analysis
of their relationship to the practitioners’ theoretical and aesthetic concerns. The
collection examines the relationship between actor training and production and
considers how directly the actor training relates to performance.
With detailed accounts of the principles, exercises and their application to many
of the landmark productions of the past hundred years, this book will be invaluable
to students, teachers, practitioners and academics alike.
Alison Hodge is a lecturer in Drama at Royal Holloway College, University of
London. She was a founder and co-artistic director of Theatre Alibi before working
as Assistant Director to Wlodzimierz Staniewski at Gardzienice’s Centre for Theatre
Practices, Poland. She has directed a wide range of theatre projects from Stephen
King’s Misery at the Criterion Theatre, London, to a six-month actor training project
in association with London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts.

Twentieth Century
Actor Training
Edited by Alison Hodge
London and New York
First published 2000
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001.
© 2000 editorial material and selection Alison Hodge, individual chapters the individual
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
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-415-19451-2 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-19452-0 (pbk)
ISBN 0-203-00760-3 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-17547-6 (Glassbook Format)
For
Chris, Hannah and Sophie

Contents
List of illustrations xi
Notes on contributors xiii
Acknowledgements xvii
Introduction 1
Origins 1
The director and the actor 2
Innovation and reform 3
Early theoretical influences 4
Cross fertilisation 5
Antonin Artaud 6
Interculturalism 6
The actor’s presence 7
Systems or principles 8
1 Stanislavsky’s System: pathways for the actor 11
SHARON MARIE CARNICKE
Life and career 11
The System 16
Group I 18
Group II 23
Productions 29
2 Meyerhold and biomechanics 37
ROBERT LEACH
The Dactyl 46
Shooting from the Bow 49
viii Contents
3 Jacques Copeau: the quest for sincerity 55
JOHN RUDLIN
The context 55
The training 66
4 Michael Chekhov on the technique of acting:
‘was Don Quixote true to life?’ 79
FRANC CHAMBERLAIN
The context 79
Theory and practice 86
Into production 91
5 Brecht and actor training: on whose behalf do we act? 98
PETER THOMSON
Context 98
Exercises 102
Production 108
6 Joan Littlewood 113
CLIVE BARKER
Context 113
Background 115
Preparation 117
Rehearsal techniques 120
Later rehearsals 122
Performance 124
7 Strasberg, Adler and Meisner: Method acting 129
DAVID KRASNER
Introduction to the Method 129
Lee Strasberg 132
Stella Adler 138
Sanford Meisner 143
Conclusion: Method acting as a tool 147
Contents ix
8 Joseph Chaikin and aspects of actor training:
possibilities rendered present 151
DORINDA HULTON
Context 151
Exercises 158
Performance 163
9 Peter Brook: transparency and the invisible network 174
LORNA MARSHALL AND DAVID WILLIAMS
Context 174
Exercises 178
Production 187
10 Grotowski’s vision of the actor: the search for contact 191
LISA WOLFORD
Poor theatre: the art of the actor 196
Psychophysical training 198
Corporal exercises 200
Plastiques 203
Conclusion 205
11 Training with Eugenio Barba: acting principles,
the pre-expressive and ‘personal temperature’ 209
IAN WATSON
A context 209
Training 212
Training and performance 218
12 Wlodzimierz Staniewski: Gardzienice and
the naturalised actor 224
ALISON HODGE
Context 224
Origins and influences 226
Facts 229
Training 231
From training to performance 239
Index 245