Actor Training

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.

Preface  Introduction  1 Stanislavsky’s System: pathways for the actor SHARON MARIE CARNICKE  2 Meyerhold and Biomechanics ROBERT LEACH  3  Jacques Copeau: the quest for sincerity JOHN RUDLIN  4   Michael Chekhov on the technique of acting: ‘was Don Quixote true to life?’ FRANC CHAMBERLAIN  5 Michel Saint-Denis: Training the Complete Actor JANE BALDWIN  6 The Knebel Technique: Active Analysis in Practice SHARON MARIE CARNICKE  7  Brecht and actor training: on whose behalf do we act? PETER THOMSON  8   Joan Littlewood CLIVE BARKER  9   Strasberg, Adler and Meisner: Method acting DAVID KRASNER  10 Joseph Chaikin and aspects of actor training: possibilities rendered present DORINDA HULTON  11 Peter Brook: transparency and the invisible network LORNA MARSHALL AND DAVID WILLIAMS  12 Grotowski’s vision of the actor: the search for contact LISA WOLFORD  13 Training for play, lightness and disobedience in the pedagogies of Jacques Lecoq, Monika Pagneux and Philippe Gaulier  SIMON MURRAY  14 Training with Eugenio Barba: acting principles, the pre-expressive and ‘personal temperature’ IAN WATSON  15 Ariane Mnouchkine and the Theatre du Soleil : Theatricalising history; the theatre as metaphor; the actor as signifier. HELEN E. RICHARDSON  16 Wlodzimierz Staniewski. Gardzienice: the naturalised actor ALISON HODGE  17 Creating the Moment: Anne Bogart, SITI Company and Actor training ROYD CLIMENHAGA  18 Augusto Boal and the Theatre of the Oppressed FRANCES BABBAGE
 
 

Actor Training expands on Alison Hodge’s highly-acclaimed and best-selling 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:
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
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 their 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.