LANGUAGING THE ACTOR
AN EXAMINATION OF THE TERMINOLOGY USED IN ACTOR TRAINING
Bernadette Anne Pryde
Diploma of Teaching Graduate Diploma in Dramatic Art in Voice Studies
Faculty of Creative Industries Queensland University of Technology
Submitted for the award of Master of Arts (Research) 2002
FORMALIA
KEYWORDS
The following is a list of keywords that appear within the thesis, or are associated with the thesis topic. These keywords have been listed for cataloguing purposes. Keywords that apply to this study are: acting; actor training; Australian actor training; grounded theory; and language.
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ABSTRACT
Throughout the twentieth century increased interest in the training of actors resulted in the emergence of a plethora of acting theories and innovative theatrical movements in
Europe, the UK and the USA. The individuals or groups involved with the formulation of these theories and movements developed specific terminologies, or languages of acting, in an attempt to clearly articulate the nature and the practice of acting according to their particular pedagogy or theatrical aesthetic. Now at the dawning of the twenty- first century, Australia boasts quite a number of schools and university courses professing to train actors. This research aims to discover the language used in actor training on the east coast of Australia today. Using interviews with staff of the National
Institute of Dramatic Art, the Victorian College of the Arts, and the Queensland
University of Technology as the primary source of data, a constructivist grounded theory has emerged to assess the influence of last century‟s theatrical theorists and practitioners on Australian training and to ascertain the possibility of a distinctly Australian language of acting.
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LANGUAGING THE ACTOR: an examination of the terminology used in actor training
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FORMALIA ...... I KEYWORDS ...... I ABSTRACT ...... II TABLE OF FIGURES ...... VII LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...... VIII STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP ...... IX ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...... X CHAPTER ONE ...... 1 INTRODUCTION ...... 1 The Problem ...... 1 The Hypothesis ...... 3 The Terms of the Study ...... 4 Implications and Limitations ...... 5 An Overview of the Study ...... 7 CHAPTER TWO ...... 10 LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 10 Introduction ...... 10 Section One: Actor Training ...... 12 The Origins of Training: the twentieth century phenomenon ...... 12 The Areas of Study: acting, movement and voice ...... 15 Saint-Denis: a model for training ...... 17 An Age of Paradigms: eclecticism, internationalisation or boutiqueing? ...... 20 Problems and Challenges: what of the future? ...... 22 Section Two: Actor Training in Australia ...... 24 The Origins of Training: a question of taste ...... 24 NIDA: vocational training...... 25 VCA: the community alternative ...... 28 QUT: local or international? ...... 30 Methodologies of Autonomy: Yat, Impulse and Morris ...... 32 Today: the state and the art ...... 35 Section Three: Languaging ...... 37 Language: that which makes us human ...... 37 The Function or Use of Language: can we count the ways? ...... 38
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Meaning: a glass of the elusive ...... 40 Understanding: translation or conceptual guesswork? ...... 42 Culture: a linguistic phenomenon ...... 43 Metaphors: do we live by them? ...... 44 Language in Education: a limited or hidden awareness ...... 46 Section Four: The Language of Actor Training ...... 50 Acting Terminology: describing the indescribable ...... 50 A Common Vocabulary: an ongoing debate ...... 53 A Free Instrument: what do you mean? ...... 54 Conclusion ...... 56 CHAPTER THREE ...... 59 RESEARCH DESIGN ...... 59 Introduction ...... 59 Constructivist Grounded Theory ...... 60 Constructivism: an awareness of multiple perspectives...... 60 Constructing Knowledge: a personal account ...... 61 Grounded Theory: a process of discovery ...... 61 Data Collection ...... 64 The Research Tools: laying the foundations ...... 64 Interviewing the ATC: adapting the grounded approach ...... 65 The Case Study: experiencing the phenomena of languaging ...... 68 Data Analysis ...... 70 Strategies of Analysis: from Glaser to Charmaz ...... 70 Design Limitations ...... 73 Conclusion ...... 74 CHAPTER FOUR ...... 76 THE ACTOR TRAINING COMMUNITY ...... 76 Introduction ...... 76 Section One: The Search for an Appropriate Job Title ...... 83 Lecturer and Tutor: the great misnomers ...... 83 Job Titles: a relationship between job function and job context ...... 86 The Modes of Instruction: to deposit or withdraw ...... 87 Billing: the title, function and context relationship in action ...... 90 Old Favourites and New Ideas: the job title search continues ...... 92 Section Two: The ATC Training Aesthetic ...... 93 An Aesthetic?: “oui mais non” ...... 93 Ensemble: relinquishing the ego as a career strategy...... 93 Notions of Truth: believability and embodiment ...... 95 Theatre Making: signs of independence and integrity ...... 97 The Industry: notions of inside and outside ...... 99 Section Three: The ATC Training Methodology ...... 100 Transforming the Past: unique or boutique ...... 100 Methodological Alignment Patterns: similarity in diversity ...... 103
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Boutique to Unique: the embodiment of methodology ...... 104 Stage One: exposure ...... 105 Stage Two: absorption...... 106 Stage Three: embodiment ...... 107 Section Four: The Training Practices of the ATC ...... 108 Pedagogic Histories: the past creates the pedagogic present ...... 108 Training the Trainers: an international pilgrimage ...... 108 The Pedagogy of Investigation: be aware, examine and expand ...... 109 The Pedagogy of Fusion: occidental meetings...... 111 The Pedagogy of Speed: making the most of three years ...... 113 Section Five: Training Aims and Obstacles ...... 115 Training Aims: an independent process for survival and change ...... 115 The Culture of the Institution: physical, managerial and professional blocks ... 116 The Culture of the Industry: as a paradigm, deregulation and the media ...... 119 The Culture of the Student: generational attitude and learning ...... 121 Notions of Identity: still the cultural cringe? ...... 123 Working Within the Limitations: overcoming the obstacles ...... 125 Section Six: The Ideal Training Environment ...... 128 Constituting the Ideal: the institution and the student ...... 128 Distinctions Between the Schools: institutional considerations...... 132 Section Seven: ATC Definitions of Acting ...... 134 What About Acting?: the missing ingredient ...... 134 A Definition of Acting: what language should I use? ...... 134 Acting: an action relating to an imaginary stimulus ...... 136 Great Acting: the loss of ego for the sake of the audience...... 138 Great Acting in Australia Today: alternative criteria ...... 140 Australia‟s Great Actors: the choice of the ATC ...... 142 Conclusion ...... 143 CHAPTER FIVE ...... 150 THE LANGUAGING HABITS OF THE ATC ...... 150 Introduction ...... 150 ATC Awareness of Languaging Habits ...... 154 Authentic Vernaculars: the words that work for me ...... 154 The Inner Storehouse of Word-Containers: what‟s in a word?...... 156 The Relationship Between an Authentic Vernacular, an Inner Storehouse and Word-Containers ...... 158 Free and Instrument ...... 161 Patterns of Definition: notes, range and the relationship with word-containers 161 Interrelationships: binary distinctions, negativity and metaphors...... 163 Pedagogic Appropriateness: high order and low order terms ...... 165 Asserting the Vernacular: the act of transforming the student ...... 169 Conclusion ...... 172
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CHAPTER SIX ...... 177 CONCLUSION ...... 177 The Actor Training Community ...... 178 The Languaging Habits of the Actor Training Community ...... 180 A Comparative Analysis of Conceptual Frameworks ...... 182 Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Training: the similarities ...... 182 Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Training: the differences ...... 183 Implications for Contemporary Training ...... 185 Australian Eclecticism: empowerment rather than dilution ...... 185 Methodology and Vernacular: the marriage of ways and words ...... 185 Deconstructing Conceptual Frameworks: actively listening...... 187 A Common Vocabulary: the ATC‟s truth denied ...... 188 The Future Languaging of Actor Training ...... 189 Universities or Conservatories: the job title controversy ...... 189 Languaging the Spiritual: rebutting McCutcheon ...... 190 Acting Pioneers: the test of time ...... 190 Further Considerations ...... 191 Final Word ...... 192 APPENDIX A ...... 194 DATA COLLECTION TOOLS ...... 194 The Questionnaire ...... 194 APPENDIX B ...... 195 GLOSSARY OF TERMS ...... 195 APPENDIX C ...... 198 CD-ROM OF INTERVIEWS ...... 198 Interviews with NIDA Staff ...... 198 Interviews with VCA Staff ...... 198 Interviews with QUT Staff ...... 198 CD-ROM ATTACHMENT ...... 199 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 200
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TABLE OF FIGURES
Figure 1 - Relationship between Authentic Vernacular and Inner Storehouse ...... 159
Figure 2 - Relationship between Authentic Vernacular, Inner Storehouse and Word- Containers ...... 160
Figure 3 - Relationship between Authentic Vernacular, Inner Storehouse of High Order and Low Order Terms, and Word-Containers ...... 166
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
The following abbreviations have been employed throughout the main body of the thesis.
ATC - Actor Training Community
NIDA - National Institute of Dramatic Art
QUT - Queensland University of Technology
UK - United Kingdom
US - United States
VCA - Victorian College of Arts
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STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP
The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted for a degree or diploma at any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made.
Signed:......
Date:......
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A very grateful thank you to the interview participants from the National Institute of
Dramatic Art, the Queensland University of Technology, and the Victorian College of the Arts, without whom this study would not have been possible.
A special thank you to Dr Jacqueline Martin for her supervision and advice.
Thanks to Dr Bradley Haseman, and the team of post-graduate students in the Faculty of
Creative Industries, for inspiration and feedback.
Thanks also to Jon Carter, Simon Macklin and Jason Zadkovich for all things technical.
Mum and Dad thank you always for your faith.
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Languaging the Actor: an examination of the terminology used in actor training is a study that generates theory regarding how Australian actor trainers use languages of acting in the training context. With particular reference to the common theatrical terms
“free” and “instrument”, the Acting, Movement, and Voice staff of the National Institute of Dramatic Art, the Victorian College of the Arts, and the Queensland University of
Technology, shed some light on the subject. In this chapter, the origin of the inquiry is clarified, and predictions regarding what might be the case are discussed with reference to the study‟s constructivist grounded methodological position. Furthermore, the study‟s operational terms are defined, and the limitations and implications of the study are posited. Lastly, an overview of the chapters is provided.
The Problem
As an undergraduate student of Drama, I developed an awareness of the terminology employed to assist students in the practical application of acting, physical and vocal skills. Being asked to imagine the voice as a reed instrument, without possessing any prior knowledge of such musical instruments, resulted in a frustration with the training context: I decided the training of one‟s voice must surely be too difficult to accomplish if one must initially train as a musician to comprehend it. Resisting the notion of the voice as an instrument, a heavy, metallic, complicated implement, that one holds up to the body in order to be played, this seventeen year old preferred to regard it as
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something personal, a holistic part of the expression of one‟s body. Consequently, the seed of inquiry was planted: there must be alternative languages to use in the training process.
When employed as an actor trainer, to assist in clarifying performative concepts for the students, it seemed appropriate to call on certain terms and phrases coined by the practitioners and trainers I had been exposed to in the past decade. It struck me that the students may deem my choice of training language as problematic as I had found the training language of my undergraduate years. Thus for me, a term such as “free”, borrowed from Linklater‟s (1976) call to free the natural voice, began to lose its meaning and pedagogic significance in the training context. Hence, the seed of inquiry‟s roots began to take hold: the language of training must be dependent upon the theories and practices of acting that the trainer has been exposed to.
Finally, when reading a student‟s training journal for assessment purposes, and learning that the student was distressed by the amount of time he had to devote to Movement and
Voice classes when all he really wanted to do was focus on the Instrument Work, the possibility of confusing, if not contradictory, languages of training became clear. Thus, the seed of inquiry began to sprout: the trainers must express themselves via individual training languages, which have their foundations in the conceptual frameworks of acting that they align themselves with.
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Having reached this stage of inquiry, a series of questions needed to be formulated so as to aid a deeper understanding of the manner in which actor trainers use language in the
Australian training context. Therefore, this study seeks answers to questions regarding the identity of the actor training community in this country, including an indication of the conceptual bases of acting advocated by such a community. It subsequently poses questions concerning what terminology the actor training community utilise in the training context. Additionally, to elucidate the two terms I have experienced difficulty with, and to offer a specific view of how the training community employ terminology in the training context, the study queries the actor trainers‟ use of the common theatrical terms “free” and “instrument”. In other words, the study asks: who is training actors in
Australia today?; how can this group be identified?; what terminology do they use in training?; and what is their position on “free” and “instrument”?
The Hypothesis
Admittedly, the sneaking suspicion that a relationship exists between a trainer‟s choice of terminology in the training context and the trainer‟s background, could be considered an hypothesis. Moreover, the niggling feeling that the term “free” has been superseded by more actable terms, and “instrument” has been rejected by contemporary voice trainers, could also be considered hypotheses. However, the prospect of forming an hypothesis to then set about verifying in the field seemed to limit the potential of the study. Thus, instead of suggesting what the case is, the strategies of grounded theory have been adopted as a guide to determining what the case may be. In this way, the data
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collected from the actor training community of Australia has allowed a theory to emerge regarding the use of terminology by this particular group of actor trainers. The approach gives the trainers an opportunity to speak for themselves about their conceptual framework and their definitions of “free” and “instrument”. Furthermore, such an approach compliments a relativist and subjectivist position.
The Terms of the Study
Borrowing the notion of language as action from Speech Act Theory, the process of languaging refers to the action of verbally communicating, in this case, with the students involved in actor training. The specific words a trainer selects to use in the training context, and the metaphorical conceptualisations the trainer associates with these words, constitute the trainer‟s languaging habits.
Unless otherwise noted, those involved with the training of actors will be termed as trainers. While it is recognised that this term does not adequately describe the functions of those involved in actor training, in a study examining the multi-meanings of terminology, some uniformity must be introduced. In this way it will be understood when the researcher‟s voice is operative, and when the group under investigation is speaking.
The group of actor trainers included in this study will be referred to as the Actor
Training Community (ATC). This is not to suggest that this particular set of Acting,
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Movement, and Voice trainers form the only community of trainers in the country, but a collective term allows for efficient description and analysis of the emergent phenomena.
As the study embraces a constructivist grounded methodology, it is important for the reader to remember that the findings of the study are not to be perceived as objective facts, but as theoretical conceptualisations that have inevitably been coloured by the researcher‟s subjective comprehension of the phenomena. Thus, throughout the study the first person singular will be employed to remind the reader of the researcher‟s impact on the data.
Categories that have evolved so as to identify the Actor Training Community and the patterns of languaging behaviour evident within this community have been labelled in accordance with the data collection and analysis strategies advocated by Glaser and
Strauss (1967), namely line-by-line coding, focused coding, constant comparison, memo writing and theoretical sampling. So as to clarify these more complex notions, provided is a glossary of terms (see Appendix B), such as authentic vernacular, notes and range, that have emerged from in vivo codes and constant comparisons.
Implications and Limitations
Due to the nature of contract employment at universities today, the staffing arrangements within the training schools can have the tendency to be rather fluid. This makes it difficult to determine accurately the up-to-the-minute views of a community of trainers, as the makeup of the group keeps changing. Moreover, the community referred
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to in this study only involves fifteen actor trainers working on the east coast of Australia today, rather than the full gamut of trainers across the country. Hence, the theory generated is only representative of this group. Objectivists could argue that the study is limited, as it has not been scientifically verified, however, an open invitation exists to the researcher who would be interested in verifying the languaging theory developed in this study, using members of the actor training community elsewhere in the country.
While the study has its limitations, it does provide original insight into the state of actor training in Australia today. Complementing the work of O‟Connor (in Watson: 2001) and Strube (2001) who have recently highlighted the training methodologies advocated by particular trainers at the National Institute of Dramatic Art, the Victorian College of the Arts, and the Queensland University of Technology, this study not only investigates the methodologies advocated by the trainers, but theorises how they go about articulating these methodologies. Furthermore, the study may prove useful to actor trainers who wish to develop a deeper awareness of how they use language in the training context. In turn, it may offer students of acting some clues as to how to discern the conceptual framework of acting underlying a trainer‟s language of training.
Moreover, the study adds another point of view to the acting vocabulary debate that, in the interest of effective learning outcomes, questions whether actor trainers should share the same language of training. Lastly, a knowledge of the current definitions of the common theatrical terms “free” and “instrument” may guide future actor trainers in their decision to employ or dismiss the terms in their training context.
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An Overview of the Study
This study is divided into five major sections. Firstly, a background in actor training and theories of language provide a foundation for the study. Secondly, the research design determines how theory regarding the languaging of the actor is to be generated. The
Actor Training Community in question is then identified, to assist in the framing of the languaging habits of the Actor Training Community, that are to be analysed in the following section. As a result, the final section summarises the findings of the study.
What follows is a more specific break down of the chapters.
Chapter Two provides a review of the relevant literature pertaining to actor training and language. Thus, the origins of actor training, focussing predominantly on twentieth century training, is provided. Actor training in Australia is discussed, with particular reference to the National Institute of Dramatic Art, the Victorian College of the Arts, and the Queensland University of Technology, in the chronological order of establishment as training schools. Theories on language are then considered, prior to a survey of the languages of acting evident in actor training.
Chapter Three specifies the research design. A constructivist grounded methodology, that blends the strategies of Glaser and Strauss (1967) with the approach to grounded theory advocated by Charmaz (1988, 1995, 2000) is detailed. Subsequently, data collection methods and data analysis strategies are specified. Moreover, the implications and limitations of the research design are included.
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Chapter Four identifies the Actor Training Community under investigation. The members‟ search for appropriate job titles is discussed, as well as the community‟s training aesthetic. Additionally, the stages the Actor Training Community pass through in order to develop unique training methodologies are highlighted. In turn, the training practices endorsed by the community are uncovered, and the training aims and obstacles are referred to. Furthermore, the Actor Training Community‟s ideal training environment is described, and the community offer definitions of acting and great acting.
Chapter Five analyses the languaging habits of the Actor Training Community.
Therefore, the development of what is categorised as an authentic vernacular is described, with reference to how members acquire language, and function in terms of it.
Also, patterns of definition regarding the terms “free” and “instrument” are disclosed, clarifying what the terms mean to the Actor Training Community, and how they are employed or dismissed within the training context.
Chapter Six concludes the study. A comparative analysis of the conceptual frameworks evident in the twentieth century and the twenty-first century ensues. The implications for contemporary training, including internationalisation, the relationship between training methodologies and languages of acting, the students‟ role in deconstructing the trainers‟ languaging habits, and the common training vocabulary debate, are considered.
Furthermore, the future languaging of actor training is discussed. Hence, a position is taken on the job titles the university enforce, the evolution of spiritual languages of
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acting is reviewed, and the effect of time on the impact of acting languages is remembered. Further considerations, such as potential areas for languaging investigations that are beyond the realm of the study, are then proposed.
In conclusion, Languaging the Actor: an examination of the terminology used in actor training asks the question: how do we use languages of acting in the contemporary
Australian training context? Adopting a constructivist grounded approach, a theory has emerged that asserts that there is a relationship between the methodology a trainer embodies, and the trainer‟s authentic language of training. Borrowing from the acting theorists and practitioners they have been exposed to, such terms as “free” and
“instrument” will be employed by the trainers, if the terms‟ pedagogic value is determined. At the beginning of a new century, actor trainers face challenges of a peculiarly Australian nature, and therefore continue to investigate how to effectively communicate with the current generation of students, in a language that translates to something that is actable. Thus, while there may not yet be a distinctly Australian language of actor training, the languaging of the actor in the Australian training context continues to evolve. In the following chapter, a review of the literature regarding acting and language will begin the confirmation of such an emergent theory.
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CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
According to Dane (1990: 72) a literature review places one‟s research in a context related to existing research and theory and it ensures that the research will contribute to a better understanding of the phenomenon. This literature review presents an historical view of actor training and highlights languaging from a pedagogic perspective. Thus, the languaging of the actor in training is framed within a context that will enable insight into the way in which Australian Acting, Movement and Voice trainers utilise language in their interactions with students, within training contexts such as the conservatory, the classroom, the studio, or the rehearsal. It must be stressed that the broad scope of this literature review reflects the pluralist view of knowledge in the constructivist paradigm.
Consequently, the approaches, methodologies, theories and terminologies presented herein offer an indication of the myriad themes and issues considered in the process of developing a grounded theory of languaging that is specific to the Australian actor training context.
The review of the literature is divided into four segments. Section One offers an overview of actor training. While the historical origins of training are suggested, and some reference is made to the traditions of the East, twentieth century Western actor training is the focus. Pioneers in the field of acting and training are investigated. Also, the subjects most commonly taught within training schools are clarified. Furthermore,
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particular attention is given to the model of training developed by Michel Saint-Denis, highlighting his influence over the training of actors in the last century. This section concludes with a summary of the problems and the challenges facing actor training today and in the future.
Actor training in Australia comprises Section Two of the literature review. A background to the establishment of training schools in this country is offered, with particular reference to the public sector tertiary level courses offered at the National
Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), and the
Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Observations regarding the state of institutionalised training in Australia are also included.
Section Three examines language. The functions and uses of language are discussed, as well as the concepts of meaning and understanding. Additionally, the roles culture and metaphor play in human understanding and action are emphasised. Language awareness in the classroom is highlighted. In turn, the educator‟s conscious and unconscious selection of language for use in the classroom is scrutinised. While the literature reviewed may not relate to actor trainers specifically, wisdom is gleaned from linguistic anthropologists, philosophers and educationalists so as to indicate the possible ramifications of languaging in the actor training context.
Finally, in Section Four, the languages of actor training are considered. Highlighted are the diverse terminologies arising from approaches advocated by those regarded as
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pioneers of twentieth century actor training. Some key terms adopted, adapted or developed by those involved in Australian training today are also included in this discussion, with particular reference to NIDA, VCA and QUT. Subsequently, the ongoing debate concerning the lack of a common vocabulary in actor training is explored. Moreover, drawing attention to the commonly used terms “instrument” and
“free”, the concerns raised in the debate are emphasised.
It is appreciated that the following term is usually associated with primary and secondary rather than tertiary educational facilities, nevertheless in this chapter, classroom refers to training contexts including the conservatory, the studio, and the rehearsal. Also, the abbreviations NIDA, VCA and QUT will be used throughout the literature review when referring to the National Institute of Dramatic Art, the Victorian
College of Arts, and the Queensland University of Technology respectively.
Section One: Actor Training
The Origins of Training: the twentieth century phenomenon
Barba and Savarese (in Meyer-Dinkgräfe, 2001: 166) explain that the Indian treatise on actor training known as the Natyashastra suggests that performance styles should be
„passed on from the teacher (guru) to the student (shishya) in an unbroken line of knowledge (parampara)‟. Similarly, a strong master / disciple relationship is at the centre of actor training dating back as far as the fifteenth century in China and Japan
(Hodge, 2000; Meyer-Dinkgräfe, 2001). Moreover, Bentley (in Meyer-Dinkgräfe, 2001:
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160) suggests that „there are some indications of a [more] systematic institutionalised training in Elizabethan and Jacobean England‟, and Meyer-Dinkgräfe (2001: 160) states that „in France the Royal Dramatic School was founded in 1786, a forerunner of today‟s
Conservatoire‟. However, Hodge (2000: 1) posits that „actor training in Europe and
North America is a phenomenon of the twentieth century, and has come to inform both the concept and construction of the actor‟s role, and consequently the entire dramatic process‟.
During the 1920‟s in the United States, James H. McTeague (in Aldridge, 1993: 23) explained that „the concept of an “acting school” was born because certain men recognised that in order to preserve an acting tradition, some provision had to be made to train the neophyte‟. At the same time in the United Kingdom, theatre artists such as
Granville-Barker, critical of the present state of theatre, argued in favour of institutionalised actor training. Hodge (2000: 2 - 3) suggests that actor training in the
West flourished because of an increased awareness of the rigorous Eastern training traditions and the influence of objective scientific research, as well as the desire to reform, renovate, reconstruct or revolutionise theatre. Consequently, Hodge (2000: 2) believes that Western practitioners began searching for objective languages of acting to further the craft of acting. In Europe and the US, the development of models, systems or tested techniques that attempted to rationalise the process of acting led to the opening of new acting studios, schools, academies and laboratories.
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While the theatre historian Oscar Brockett (in Aldridge, 1993: 24) believed Francois
Delsarte‟s system, that assumes a scientific correlation between expression, emotions and ideas was „the first significant attempt to reduce every aspect of the actor‟s training to method‟, it was Denis Diderot‟s first publication in 1830 of Le Paradoxe sur le
Comédien that Hodge (2000: 3) credits with the theoretical roots of early twentieth century training. His materialist analysis that suggests a dualistic model of the actor anticipated ideas that Stanislavsky also explored early in the twentieth century, namely
„emotion memory, imagination, creative unconsciousness, public solitude, character body, the score of the role and spontaneity‟ (Roach in Hodge, 2000: 4). Furthermore,
Hodge (2000: 4) states that „theories concerning the mind and / or body dynamic remain a continuous source of investigation and interpretation within actor training‟.
The twentieth century also gave rise to the status of the director. No longer an actor / manager but a specialist engaged in all aspects of production, the role of the director could be perceived as one that disempowers the actor. However, the emergence of the director facilitated further objective investigations into actor training (Hodge, 2000: 2).
Meyer-Dinkgräfe (2001: 163) proposes that particular directors in the twentieth century can be identified as pioneers who have developed new approaches to acting, and in turn, actor training. Listing them in alphabetical order, Meyer-Dinkgräfe (2001: 163) honours
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 and Tadashi Suzuki. The influence of these directors over the Actor Training
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Community under investigation in this study will be discussed in Chapter Four.
Additionally, Hodge (2000: 2 - 6) notes that the widespread collaboration amongst actors and directors, which was typical of late twentieth century practitioners, has resulted in the realisation of new performance aesthetics.
The Areas of Study: acting, movement and voice
While trainers may have retained, rejected, refined, transformed, or re-interpreted elements of the diverse approaches developed during the twentieth century, three areas of study remain central to actor training. Acting, Movement and Voice are common to all training institutions, although as subjects, they may be given titles including: characterisation, body training and voice work (Meyer-Dinkgräfe, 2001: 165); script analysis and external technique (Aldridge, 1993: 190); or improvisation and interpretation, movement and language (Saint-Denis, 1960: 99 - 100). Regardless of how these areas are conceived, Meyer-Dinkgräfe (2001: 158) hints at their lasting significance within the training of actors when he explains that even in ancient Rome
„the great actors, such as Roscius and Aesopus, listened to the great orators of their time to improve their vocal delivery and gestures‟.
According to Martin (1991: 154 - 156) prior to 1945 in the UK, schools such as the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the Central School of Speech and Drama, the
Guildhall of Music and Drama, and the London Academy of Music and Drama offered
Acting, Movement and Voice classes. It seems as though these subjects were considered part of „normal‟ training by the time the Old Vic Theatre Centre was established in 1947
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by Michel Saint-Denis (Martin, 1991: 158 - 160). While apparently alternative in their approach to actor training, Martin (1991: 167 - 17) asserts that Acting, Movement and
Voice classes have been present within the curriculum of Margaret Bury‟s and Joan
Littlewood‟s East 15 Acting School, and that of The Drama Centre, founded in 1961 and
1963 respectively. In the US, Aldridge (1993: 27 - 28) explains that the Laboratory
Theatre School, which opened in response to the Moscow Art Theatre‟s 1922 - 1923 tour of America, and was responsible for fostering the development of Stella Adler and
Lee Strasberg, offered Acting, Movement and Voice in its curriculum. Furthermore, with reference to the course descriptions of the UK, US and German drama schools
Meyer-Dinkgräfe (2001: 165 -166) reaffirms that Acting, Movement and Voice are still emphasised within the three to four year acting courses.
Seemingly in agreement with the Central School of Speech and Drama‟s view that
„acting, movement and voice are not separate subjects but different aspects of one activity‟ (Martin, 1991: 163), the pioneer director-teachers Barba, Brook, Copeau,
Grotowski, Meyerhold, Saint-Denis, and Stanislavsky are known to have integrated elements of Movement and Voice into their approaches to acting and training (Pippen with Eden, 1997: 81). Specialists within the fields of Movement and Voice were many and varied throughout the twentieth century, however Pippen with Eden (1997: 30 - 33) choose to highlight the contributions made by those specialists whose work is usually linked to training schools more so than companies. The systematic approaches of King,
Gronbeck-Tedesco, Newlove‟s interpretation of Laban, and Sabatine are recognised as influential in Movement training for the actor. Whereas Berry, Lessac, Linklater and
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Rodenburg are considered to be forces in the area of Voice (Pippen with Eden: 11 -12).
Moreover, the authors of Resonating Bodies suggest that Berry‟s texts have become „the voice “bible” in Britain and, subsequently, in Australia‟ (Pippen with Eden: 17). In
Chapter Four, the lasting influence of such specialist trainers on the Actor Training
Community under investigation in this study will be specified.
Saint-Denis: a model for training
The development of actor training could be viewed as significant because those who wished to examine what was involved in acting professionally could learn their craft in the controlled environment of a classroom with specialist teachers on site to offer guidance (Aldridge, 1993: 23 - 24). In turn, the most significant individual within the development of actor training is arguably Michel Saint-Denis, „the nephew of Jacques
Copeau, the founder of one of the most legendary of all drama schools, L‟École du
Vieux-Colombier in 1921‟ (Martin: 1991: 156). The schools that Laurence Olivier (in
Saint-Denis, 1960: 12) described as being „blest by the marriage of his intuition with his experience‟ include: the London Theatre School (1935 - 1939) and the Old Vic Theatre
Centre, England (1947 - 1952); L‟École Supérieure d‟Art Dramatique, France (1952 -
1957); L‟École Nationale de Theatre du Canada, (1960); and the Drama Division of the
Julliard School, America (1968). Established in 1963 by an assemblage of teachers from the Central School of Speech and Drama discontented with the training on offer there,
The Drama Centre alleges that it is the true heir of Saint-Denis‟ Old Vic Theatre School in its merging of European and American theatre traditions and its goal to teach the actor
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how to work independently (Martin, 1991: 169). Nevertheless, the impact of Saint-Denis on actor training in general cannot be underestimated.
In a series of informal lectures during his first visit to the US in 1958, Saint-Denis discussed his approach to actor training, with particular reference to the Old Vic Theatre
Centre, which was comprised of a training school with a professional theatre wing.
Throughout these lectures, compiled in 1960 under the title Theatre: The Discovery of
Style, Saint-Denis explained that the purpose of the training he promoted was twofold:
1. To bring reality to the interpretation of all theatrical styles, particularly the classical, and to achieve the greatest possible freedom in their practice. 2. To enlarge the actor‟s field of expression and to equip him in such a way that he could mime, sing, dance, perform acrobatic tricks, without specialising beyond the normal requirements of an actor (Saint-Denis, 1960: 97).
Defining an ensemblier as an artist who aims at unity of general effect, he described those involved with the training as ensembliers who „set out to develop initiative, freedom, and a sense of responsibility in the individual, as long as he or she was ready and able to merge his personal qualities into the ensemble‟ (Saint-Denis, 1960: 92). He advocated a minimum of three years „for a successful course in acting, mainly because of the lengthy nature of the work that has to be done on the voice and on the practice of language in various styles‟ (Saint-Denis, 1960: 94). This pioneer also recommended a rigorous timetable of studies and rehearsals, the contracting of students, and the right to eliminate people at the end of each year for bad work or lack of discipline (Saint-Denis,
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1960: 95 - 96). Furthermore, he forbade work outside the school except where authorisation was granted by the director.
Saint-Denis (1960: 98) explained that each section of the training „was approached from a dramatic point of view. Academic attitudes were avoided. Behind all scholarly knowledge or intellectual considerations, there had to be the requirements of dramatic necessity‟. Additionally, he clarified why training schools should recruit young people or adolescents:
We aim at the complete professional development of this unique artist: an artist who is his own instrument; an artist who, apart from the necessary cleverness and even shrewdness which is required for the practice of any art, needs at the beginning of his career something of the naive and open attitude which belongs naturally to children and tends to disappear after adolescence (Saint-Denis, 1960: 108).
Although Saint-Denis divided the training into the three main subjects called
“Improvisation and Interpretation”, “Movement” and “Language”, as previously mentioned, he attempted to prevent departments from becoming independent kingdoms by encouraging the teachers to share certain classes and rehearsals (Saint-Denis, 1960:
99 - 100). Moreover, this director-teacher, realising that artistic development is a complex process, consulted with the staff and some of the more talented graduating students every summer, so as to revise and correct the training school‟s ways of working
(Saint-Denis, 1960: 92).
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In relation to the outgoing students, Saint-Denis (1960: 93) explained that one of the school‟s principal „preoccupations was to provide [them] with good professional opportunities, while at the same time refusing to consider [the school] as a machine through which students were obliged to pass if they wanted to emerge with the security of a job‟. Additionally, recommending the need for students to extend their studies into a fourth year, reminiscent of the Russian acting courses, Saint-Denis (1960: 108) asserted that:
…in the fourth year the school should have the opportunity of developing its own company so that what is original in the school‟s work can be shown properly to the public. Public appreciation and press criticisms might also help to kill at the roots the pretentiousness which is always liable to appear in young actors who feel they have received „special‟ treatment.
Lastly, in emphasising the importance of actor training, Saint-Denis (1960: 108) stated that „one can conduct experiments in a school which cannot be attempted elsewhere. For that reason a good and daring school can be of great help to the theatre‟.
An Age of Paradigms: eclecticism, internationalisation or boutiqueing?
At the close of the twentieth century, actor training had evolved as a phenomenon through the contributions of the aforementioned director-teachers, and their inquiries not only into curriculum development, but also into interculturalism and the notion of the actor‟s presence. Moreover, Antonin Artaud, who „envisaged an “athlete of the heart” who had to make use of his emotions “as a boxer uses his muscles”‟ (Artaud in Hodge,
2000: 6), played a significant role in the training approaches investigated in the latter
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half of the century, by a number of those formerly listed as pioneers. However, while the past century may be perceived as a time of seeking methodologies for training, by the
1970‟s it was recognised that Stanislavsky‟s original search for a universal system of actor training was somewhat naive. Consequently, Hodge (2000: 8) explains that „later practitioners resisted the notion of anything as absolute as a universally applied method‟.
She goes on to use the thoughts of Chaikin (1972: 21) to illustrate the new emergent philosophy. Chaikin posited that systems were:
...recorded as ground plans, not to be followed any more than rules of courtship. We can get clues from others, but our own culture and sensitivity and aesthetic will lead us to a totally new kind of expression, unless we imitate both the process and findings of another. The aesthetic remakes the system (Chaikin in Hodge, 2000: 8).
Therefore, at the close of the century, Pippen with Eden (1997: 3), calling on the work of
Zarrilli (1995: 16), state that „we are living in a generation that can only lay claim to “a particular paradigm of performance in a particular context for a particular purpose”‟.
In this environment, where the eclectic nature of the influences on actor training „hint at...the internationalisation of performing training‟ (Watson, 2001: 8), Barba argues that:
…we live in an age in which actors can...distinguish between national and professional identity. The geographical underpinnings of a national identity have little to do with the contemporary actor. He or she can study any number of different techniques with teachers from a range of countries and performance genres. Professional identity is formed by those with whom one studies, not by the country in which one lives or by the ethnic group to which one belongs (Watson, 2001: 8).
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Grotowski however cast doubts on the extent of such internationalisation. Meyer-
Dinkgräfe (2001: 164) suggests that Grotowski believed that the state of sacred theatre achieved in Asian theatre forms, where spontaneity and discipline co-exist and reinforce each other, was a desirable state for a Western actor, yet he questioned whether the
Asian techniques used to achieve this state would work for Western actors. Furthermore, adding fuel to the internationalisation debate, during a forum between Anne Bogart and
Kristin Linklater hosted by American Theatre, the moderator David Diamond (2001: 34) queried what he called a dilution in training, whereby the student „tries to get a little bit of Suzuki here, a little bit of Grotowski there‟. Anne Bogart asserted that „boutiqueing is very dangerous...it doesn‟t matter what you choose to study, but you have to stick with it‟ (Diamond, 2001: 34). Linklater went so far as to say that due to the “freeing” nature of her voice work and what she sees as the “controlling” nature of Suzuki work, she
„could not train young actors in voice work if they were doing equal amounts of time in
Suzuki...If an actor‟s psycho-physical system is constantly being thrown in one direction and then another, it won‟t learn as fast‟ (Diamond, 2001: 34).
Problems and Challenges: what of the future?
Actor training at the end of the century was facing three areas of concern according to an article in American Theatre entitled “Is Training In Trouble?” (in Holder, 1989: 37).
Firstly, due to the poor cultural environment, the students were lacking in literary awareness and were oblivious to the culture that surrounded them. Secondly, the lack of opportunities for graduating students highlighted the need for a closer relationship between the university actor training programs and professional companies. Finally, a
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perceived packaging of personalities for film and television rather than a commitment to the development of disciplined and versatile stage actors was causing discontent amongst students and the staffs of training schools (Holder, 1989: 37 - 38). However, at the Arts on the Edge Conference of 1998, McCutcheon introduced a new dilemma for a new century, thereby adding another dimension to the internationalisation / boutiqueing debate: the avoidance of a spiritual approach to training. She stated that:
Although soul and spirit are words commonly used by the practitioners whose methods we use today, the actual exercises are still focused on the physical, vocal and emotional, not the spiritual. It seems logical for the language of actor training to come up to date. To embrace the contemporary language of our times. An interesting thought when the “spiritual” actor training approaches and exercises are to be found in cultures thousands of years old (McCutcheon, 1998: 6).
Seemingly reinforcing the relationship between approaches to actor training and the spiritual, Meyer-Dinkgräfe (2001: 176) in his discussion of contemporary theatre artists believes that „what inspires their “turn to the East” are Eastern assumptions about states of consciousness that lie beyond the intellect, beyond the emotions‟. Furthermore, when postulating about the future of acting and, in turn, actor training, Meyer-Dinkgräfe
(2001: 178) explains that:
Through activation of the unconscious level of the mind, [theatre artists] hope to stimulate the experiences of communitas, of flow, of unification of binary opposites. They are, in other words, searching for an overarching totality, but not in the expressed fields of science, art, morality or law, as did the eighteenth- century philosophers of the Enlightenment, but in a field beyond expression, in the field of consciousness.
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In summation, whilst only establishing itself in the past one hundred years, actor training in the West has been forged by innovative director-teachers, as well as Movement and
Voice specialists. While the training approaches may differ from school to school, the subjects commonly known as Acting, Movement and Voice seem to prevail. By the latter half of the century, many practitioners had „eschewed the notion of a comprehensive system in favour of identifying first principles within the context in which their training operates‟ (Hodge, 2000: 8). It has been acknowledged also that issues such as cultural poverty, employment prospects, the perceived requirements of the film and television industry, and internationalisation may affect the nature and quality of the training available. Finally, at the dawning of a new century, the desire to investigate the unconscious introduces a new challenge to Diderot‟s dualistic model of the actor.
Section Two: Actor Training in Australia
The Origins of Training: a question of taste
As early as 1892, Rees (in Scott-Matthew, 1995: 1) explains that in the Dramatic Year
Book the lack of a special Australian school of stage art was noted, due to „overcrowding in the ranks of the profession...wholesale importation of European and American companies and a misapprehension on the part of foreign artists themselves as to what will suit Australian tastes‟. While three strands of theatre, namely commercial, community or Little, and university, existed in Australia at the time of Queen
Elizabeth‟s first visit in 1954, there was still no sign of comprehensive training of a professional standard (Addeison and Harrop, 1971: 179). In fact, prior to 1958:
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The actor had either to find training and experience outside of Australia, to which, if successful, he tended not to return (Judith Anderson, Peter Finch, Robert Helpmann), or learn by imitation of his fellow Australian actors, equally self-taught (Addeison and Harrop, 1971: 179).
Thus, actor training in Australia did not come into existence until after The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1957) and just before The One Day of the Year (1962) (Kendall,
1984: 155).
Today, actor training courses are offered by both the private and public sectors. The private schools include The Ensemble Studios, The Actor‟s Centre and the Drama
Action Centre, to name but a few. According to O‟Connor (in Watson, 2001: 49) public sector courses currently exist at: Flinders University, Adelaide; James Cook University,
Townsville; the University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba; the University of
Wollongong; Charles Sturt University, Riverina; Ballarat College; and the University of
Tasmania, Launceston. NIDA, VCA, and QUT are the three public sector training institutions of particular relevance to this study.
NIDA: vocational training
As the need for trained Australian actors became evident, „the idea of a National
Institute of Dramatic Art was put first to the University of Melbourne, whose
Professorial Board rejected it on academic grounds‟ (Kendall, 1984: 155). However,
Addeison and Harrop (1971: 179) explain that in 1958 „the Elizabethan Theatre Trust at last accepted the necessity of actor training and cooperated with the University of New
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South Wales and the Australian Broadcasting Commission in the founding of the
National Institute of Dramatic Art‟. Kendall (1984: 155) claims that due to the persuasiveness of the first founder and Director of NIDA, Robert Quentin, the financiers agreed to leave the school alone to grow. Furthermore, Kendall (1984: 155) posits that leaving the school alone may have been the smartest decision considering „as NIDA has flourished, so in its wake have others, in every mainland state‟.
Originally a two year program, in 1972 the Director of NIDA, John Clark, believed that the school closely resembled the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and Saint-Denis‟
Canadian National Theatre School (Clark, 1972: 6). During this period Clark (in
Addeison and Harrop, 1971: 180) stated „we provide training for the theatre as it exists, but we hope they‟ll be a bloody sight better at it‟. Moreover, he defended the prevailing pragmatism of the school by explaining that:
We want to help find the best method that is right for the actor, so he can be independent of directors. In the Australian theatre nine out of ten directors they‟ll meet will be bloody awful. The actor must have discovered a way of working for himself (Clark in Addeison and Harrop, 1971: 180).
Acknowledging that in some sections of the contemporary theatre community a freedom of self-expression was all that was required of the actor, Clark (1972: 8) asserted that:
While this kind of “amateurism”, based on the conviction that “anyone can do it”, has produced isolated excellent results, it bears no relationship to the professionalism on which all great and lasting theatre activity has been firmly based, and therefore has nothing to do with the work of the Institute.
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The Jane Street Theatre, founded in 1966, provided NIDA staff and students with a link to the professional theatre, and consequently contributed to the school‟s efficacy. Clark
(1972: 11) claimed that:
While most Institute teaching emphasises the traditional theatre crafts and technical skills, Jane St. provides an essential balance by encouraging the development of new ideas, experimentation and imaginative freedom within the framework of a carefully administered professional theatre.
The Director was adamant that „unless the Institute has a major responsibility for both the administration and artistic policy of the theatre, its value as a training instrument will inevitably be lost‟ (Clark, 1972: 13). He additionally maintained, in his 1972 unpublished report, that if the school possessed the buildings to house an integrated theatre, film and television school „the result could be an institution of great value to both the film industry and the professional theatre‟ (Clark, 1972: 14).
NIDA now has the buildings. The Institute also offers courses to train actor trainers: post-graduate courses in Voice Studies and Movement Studies. Established in 1991 under the Linklater advocate Isobel Kirk (Scott-Matthew, 1995: 12), the Voice Studies course is presently under the direction of Bill Pepper, an Australian graduate of
England‟s Central School of Speech and Drama. 1991 also saw the establishment of the
Movement Studies course under Keith Bain, who uses a „richly textured and eclectic‟ approach according to a graduate of the program (Pippen, 1998: 136). Furthermore, it is interesting to note that the current Head of Acting, Tony Knight, was once a leading trainer at Sydney‟s answer to London‟s Drama Centre, the Drama Studio. In the mid-
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1980‟s, Kendall (1984: 157) was of the opinion that of all the actor training schools in operation, this school was „the one most likely to prove revolutionary‟.
VCA: the community alternative
Suggesting in 1972 that a proposal for a second training school in Australia would
„inevitably lead to two substandard organisations instead of one concentrating in it the best teaching staff and the best students available in Australia‟ (Clark, 1972: 15), the
Director of NIDA conceded that a second school would emerge when alternative training methods were deemed necessary. Calling on the British experience of the
1950‟s which saw the inception of the East 15 Acting School and The Drama Centre,
Clark (1972: 16) stated that „the time to consider alternative forms of theatre training in
Australia will become apparent as soon as the theatre enters a similar period of conflict and turmoil and produces teachers with a desire and ability to put their new ideas into practice‟.
By 1976, these conditions seemingly arose, as the establishment of the VCA Drama
School offered an alternative to NIDA‟s vocational skills acquisition: the school aimed to „equip individuals and groups of performers with the requisite skills needed for community theatre‟ (Kendall, 1984: 156). Kendall explains that „VCA students were expected to be innovative, cantankerous and anti-hierarchical, and it was assumed that the role of the actor in the community and the media would be debated constantly‟. The appointment of Roger Hodgman during the early 1980‟s saw the school gravitate towards a more structured methodological approach that intended to nurture the
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„autonomous actor‟ (Kendall, 1984: 156). Yet Kendall maintained that „whatever the changes of emphasis and staff at the College, it is likely that the main criterion of its graduates will remain not only whether there is work but whether the work is worthwhile‟ (Kendall, 1984: 156).
Today, the handbook compiled by the VCA School of Drama for the students, detailing the school‟s philosophy as well as the units of study and the assessment tasks, is called
The Autonomous Actor. Thus, under the leadership of Lindy Davies since 1996, the actor training school has further embraced the methodological concerns promoted by
Hodgman. It is worthwhile noting also that Davies was a 1967 foundation member of the
Australian Performance Group, a group described as possessing „a fierce commitment to innovative and anti-traditional approaches to theatre‟ (Addeison and Harrop, 1971: 184).
Significant in a time when the traditions of English and American theatre dominated
Australian theatre and the structures and goals of actor training, La Mama, as it became known, was said to reveal:
...a passion for experimentation, for new theatrical means and techniques capable of expressing Australian realities. International in awareness, but nationalistic in its artistic concerns, La Mama sought to break from the colonial past into the consciousness of the new Australia (Addeison and Harrop, 1971: 185).
In 1970, through the group‟s own intensive training program, the workshops made open to the public, the establishment of an improvisational training program for young people, and the staging of non-commercial productions, La Mama influenced young actors in
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Perth, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. According to Addeison and Harrop (1971:
185) a seed was planted during this time: young actors were introduced to fresh working methods of improvisation that replaced foreign modes and materials with indigenous methods and substance.
QUT: local or international?
Paul Paye, an American cabaret performer and theatre teacher who was employed to develop a theatre oriented department at the Kelvin Grove College of Advanced
Education, visited VCA as well as NIDA in 1976 to refine course program ideas
(Pippen, 1998: 102, 106). By the time the full time Associate Diploma in Theatre was to be launched in 1978, a brochure had been published listing the aims and objectives of the course as:
a) To train actors and directors for work in the theatre. b) To allow students to develop their particular theatrical interests and creative talents, both individually and with others. c) To inspire students in commitment to the improvement and development of theatre in the community, thus providing amateur groups with a supply of talented, well-trained personnel (Pippen, 1998: 108).
However, it was not until 1988, under the leadership of Mark Radvan, that the course became a three year Bachelor of Arts with a focus towards the „autonomous student‟
(Pippen, 1998: 108). In 1990, when the Brisbane College of Advanced Education
(BCAE) became the Queensland University of Technology, conservatory style training ensued and finally, in 1998, the acting course was granted independent departmental status (Pippen, 1998: 133, 140).
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With a policy of internationalising the programs, due to what the Director, Peter
Botsman, perceived as the „insular nature of the College at the time‟ (Pippen, 1998:
109), a controversial character known as Trukan was employed to train the acting students in 1977. Distancing himself from the original aims and objectives of the course,
Trukan ignored timetables „doing three day and night intensives and then giving the students a week off‟ (Pippen, 1998: 110). He invited two members of Grotowski‟s ensemble, Vladek Schlebel and Molik, to work with the students, as well as mainstream theatre stars such as Keith Michel and Warren Mitchell (Pippen, 1998: 109 -110). After his contract was terminated in 1979, practitioners based in the local theatre industry formed what Pippen (1998: 113) refers to as the new regime. During this period a strong relationship between the training and the industry developed. The theatre company known as TN was deeply enmeshed in this relationship. According to Pippen (1998:
122), Trukan‟s replacement, Don Batchelor:
...had a vision of young graduate actors apprenticing with TN. The Elizabethan Bequest scholarship was reinstituted to sponsor a student each year...TN2 developed in 1986 provided a context where young actors‟ progress could be closely watched and their suitability for employment in the Company gauged.
This association was only terminated when TN collapsed in 1990.
After this time, a new found interest in the policy of internationalisation, and that of benchmarking, led to a pilot project whereby a number of American actor training programs were researched so as to discover the context „that best mirrored the vision of
QUT Academy of the Arts‟ (Pippen, 1998: 135). This project, in turn, led to further
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strategies for national and international benchmarking that included inviting nationally and internationally celebrated directors to work with the students (Pippen, 1998: 135). It is important to mention that such strategies have resulted in the appointment of the new
Faculty of Creative Industries Head of Acting, nationally renowned director John
O‟Hare, and the engagement of the former UCLA actor trainer, Leonard Meenach.
Methodologies of Autonomy: Yat, Impulse and Morris
O‟Connor (in Watson, 2001) suggests that NIDA, VCA and QUT have something in common. Apart from offering Acting, Movement and Voice as subjects, Tony Knight
(NIDA), Lindy Davies (VCA) and Leonard Meenach (QUT) espouse methodologies that
O‟Connor (in Watson, 2001: 50) explains „place the actor at the centre of the craft, empowering the actor, affording the actor artistic integrity and control of creativity‟.
Knight‟s “Yat” technique, Davies‟ Impulse Work, and the Eric Morris system as practiced by Meenach, all contribute to the notion of the autonomous actor, and in doing so „demonstrate processes whereby the actor may map his or her own work within the existing industry model which is dominated by the presence of the director‟ (O‟Connor in Watson, 2001: 47).
According to O‟Connor (in Watson, 2001: 51):
“Yat” is Laban movement analysis given the benefit of Jungian typological analysis. Late in his career...Laban, who was collaborating with Jungian analyst William Carpenter, equated movements with intentions, which in turn related to the Jungian personality functions of Thinking, Sensing, Intuiting, and Feeling. These functions were in turn correlated with Laban‟s Motion Factors - Space, Weight, Time, Flow.
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The technique has existed for thirty years and it is constantly being refined as a practical methodology by Yat Malmgren, who Laban entrusted with his theories. A founding member of the Drama Centre, the eighty-something Malmgren, still teaches this process in which „the actor analyses character in terms of physical, movement-based images, which become icons of action (movement images) that the actor can back-reference in order to inform performance‟ (O‟Connor in Watson, 2001: 52). Bearing some resemblance to Michael Chekhov‟s psychological gesture and Stanislavsky‟s playing of actions, “Yat” „negates the Cartesian mind-body dualism: the body is the mind; the mind is the body‟ (O‟Connor in Watson, 2001: 52). Reminiscent of the Indian training tradition of the guru and the shishya, „the technique is acquired at the feet of the master‟, as Malmgren has never wished to publish the technique (O‟Connor in Watson, 2001:
52). It is the opinion of Kendall (in Watson, 2001: 52) that the training „does not take place en ensemble, however, when two students of the system come together, their common training facilitates ensemble performance‟. In conclusion, the “Yat” technique can be perceived as a „highly systematic process, which empowers the actor by providing a physical vocabulary of analysis‟ (O‟Connor in Watson, 2001: 52).
Due to an experience of an autocratic director early in her professional career, the notion of the autonomous actor is absolutely central to Davies‟ methodology (O‟Connor in
Watson, 2001: 55, 59). Her Impulse Work „is closely text-based, seeking to assist the actor to find the moment-to-moment impulses behind the dramatist‟s words‟ (O‟Connor in Watson, 2001: 56). The influence of Linklater is evident in the “dropping in” stage of her process, and the drama-in-education work of Dorothy Heathcote is apparent in the
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“abstract” phase. While Davies may borrow Stanislavsky‟s term “action” for one of her seven “Fields of Impulse”, she asserts in Strube (in Watson, 2001: 57) that „action analysis may, on its own, account for what actors seem to be doing from an external observer‟s point of view, but it does not comprehensively account for what is going on in the minds of the actors themselves‟. Thus Davies‟ Impulse Work:
...focuses on the present, trying to access the chaotic rather than the rational aetiology of behaviour. Beats, units and objectives are reductionistic and rationalistic, excluding all else in the name of intentionality. Plumbing the impulses behind the words and actions, however, discovers a universe teeming with chaos and accident. Davies argues that this is a truer reading of life than one which is based on rationalism and determinism. So many forces are operating at any given time to produce a given moment that to reduce these to a single cause is to misrepresent the essence of the moment (O‟Connor in Watson, 2001: 56).
Although the technique bears his name, Eric Morris, is not the originator of the approach that Meenach practices at QUT. According to O‟Connor (in Watson, 2001: 53) „it began with Martin Landau, who had studied with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New
York and started classes in Los Angeles, where Eric Morris, Joan Hotchkis and Jack
Nicholson were among his students‟. O‟Connor (in Watson, 2001: 53) goes on to explain that „Morris, Hotchkis, and Nicholson developed the work into a system, which divides into instrument and craft work‟. He clarifies that the instrument is the actor‟s psycho-physical self, and calls on the words of Morris (in Watson, 2001: 53) to define the craft as „the choices and approaches that lead [...] to fulfilment of the material. [...]
Craft is a tool box‟. Like Davies, Meenach is somewhat critical of Stanislavsky‟s system
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as it „creates a gap between the actor‟s intellectual understanding of character and playing the moment to moment experiences of the character‟ (Watson, 2001: 54). As
Meenach was not satisfied with Stanislavsky‟s notion of playing an intention, he created what he calls the emotional cocktail that is:
…a tool for spontaneously experiencing what the actor is to believably recreate...it keeps actors from emoting text if they have learned it is a combination of feelings that must be experienced, not just one emotion. It is best to describe the being state with at least three emotional or being state adjectives...It makes no difference that some adjectives used are feelings and others states of being. What is important is that the actors have a target idea of what to shoot for when experiencing the text (Meenach in Watson, 2001: 54 - 55).
O‟Connor (in Watson, 2001: 55) suggests that the approach to training departs from its roots in Stanislavsky and Strasberg, considering a set of strategies are devised to cope with the dilemmas of performance as they appear. Lastly, he posits that „the system gives the actor a battery of devices which enable self-direction and self-correction, thus ultimately affording the actor the status of an autonomous creator‟ (O‟Connor in
Watson, 2001: 55).
Today: the state and the art
Claiming that in the present climate of economic rationalism, institutions are „looking to find an edge...in the market...in the artform...or in anything which might gain for them a chance of better students, better graduates, better funding‟ (Lancaster, 1998: 1), Scott-
Matthew (1995: 7) states that the amalgamation of tertiary actor training institutions
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with universities has „heightened the debate concerning the awarding of degrees for vocational actor training courses‟. Additionally, while Kendall (1984: 159) believes that classes such as Acting, Movement and Voice should be integrated, he emphasises that training in Australia should be training the actor to work independently. In favour of such an approach, O‟Connor (in Watson, 2001: 59) states that „the benefits are clear for the actor working in an industry which is still dominated by the figure of the director, whether in theatre or film‟.
As can be seen, actor training in Australia grew from a dissatisfaction with the importation of American and European theatre product and a desire to nurture potential talent on home soil. The establishment of NIDA at the close of the 1950‟s saw the beginning of a new era. Over the next fifty years, vocational training would become more than just skill acquisition: it would challenge a young actor to be available to the possibility of a uniquely Australian aesthetic. Due to various modes of internationalising and benchmarking, the training programs would also offer an actor the means by which to maintain creative control in an age dominated by the director. Thus, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, a time of economic rationalism where Australian university degree programs are competing for students and funding, methodologies advocating the autonomous actor prevail.
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Section Three: Languaging
Language: that which makes us human
Hawkes (1977: 33) explains that like Whorf and Sapir, Levi-Strauss believed that
„language is man‟s overwhelmingly distinctive feature‟. According to Maturana (in
Pippen, 1995: 89) language „constitutes our humanness more than our membership of
Homo sapiens‟. Moreover, Foley (1997: 74) asserts that „to be human and to be language bearing is inseparable‟. Yet Zarrilli (1995: 8), in reference to acting specifically, argues that often „we do not examine either our language or the assumptions that lie behind it‟.
Saussure (in Zarrilli, 1995: 8) suggested that „language does not provide us with access to the “Real”, but rather with a version of reality‟. Additionally he stated that „language is a system of inter-dependent terms in which the value of each term results solely from the simultaneous presence of the others‟ (Saussure in Hawkes, 1977: 26). Subsequently
Hawkes (1977: 27) observes that the total mode of language is oppositional as „the absence of certain words partly creates and certainly winnows and refines the meanings of those that are present‟. Furthermore, Saussure (in Hawkes, 1977: 78) proposed that language exists „in terms of two fundamental dimensions‟. Therefore:
...messages are constructed...by a combination of a „horizontal‟ movement, which combines words together, and a „vertical‟ movement, which selects the particular words from the available inventory or „inner storehouse‟ of the language (Hawkes, 1977: 77 - 78).
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Lastly, Hawkes (1977: 28) concludes that language should be viewed as „a structure which has modes, rather than an aggregate of items which has content‟, considering
Saussure (in Hawkes, 1977: 28) posited that language should not be regarded as a substance but as a form.
Wittgenstein (in Duranti, 1997: 238) went so far as to state that „to imagine a language means to imagine a form of life‟. Drawing on this idea, Duranti (1997: 337) explains that
„to have a language not only means to have an instrument to represent events in particular ways, it also means to have the ability to interact with such events, affect them or be affected by them‟. Thus, Duranti (1997: 338) suggests that:
Having a language does not only allow us to make sense of what we see and hear out there. It also allows us to look inside our mind and soul to ask such questions as; Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? Why are we here?
Furthermore, Maturana (in Foley, 1997: 74) believes that:
It is by languaging that the act of knowing, in the behavioural coordination which is language, brings forth a world. We work out our lives in a mutual linguistic coupling, not because language permits us to reveal ourselves but because we are constituted in language in a continuous becoming that we bring forth with others.
The Function or Use of Language: can we count the ways?
Stewart, the late eighteenth century philosopher believed that the function of language was simply „to bring two minds into the same train of thinking; and to confine them as nearly as possible to the same track‟ (Stewart in Taylor, 1992: 123). Alternatively, combining Saussure‟s notion of language as a structure, rather than an aggregate of
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isolated entities, with the belief that language fulfils a variety of functions in society,
The Prague School of Structuralism formulated a number of specific language functions.
Hawkes (1977: 75 - 76) explains that these functions included: the cognitive or referential, which is used for the transmission of information; the expressive or emotive, which is used to indicate the mood or attitude of the speaker or writer; and the conative or injunctive, used to influence the person to whom it is addressed. Also, according to
Hawkes (1977: 85 - 86), Jakobson recognised the phatic as a function used to check that the contact is working properly, and the metalingual as a function used to check that the same code (ie: speech, numbers, writing, sound-formation) is being used by both parties.
Finally, Mukarovsky (in Hawkes, 1977: 75) suggested that the poetic or aesthetic function of language „is not used in the service of communication, but in order to place in the foreground the act of expression, the act of speech itself‟.
In relation to speaking particularly, the Speech Act Theorist, Austin, believed that „in saying something, we are always doing something‟ (Duranti, 1997: 222). According to
Duranti (1997: 220), Austin „distinguished three types of acts that we simultaneously perform when we speak‟. These acts included: a locutionary act, the act of saying something; an illocutionary act, the act the speaker can accomplish in saying something by means of the usual force of the locutionary act; and a perlocutionary act, the act produced by the uttering of a particular locution (Duranti, 1997: 220). Furthermore,
Duranti (1997: 220) suggests that by restricting the term meaning to the first act and force to the second, Austin‟s theory „sanctions the notion that language is action and captures the fact that the same sequence of words can perform quite different kinds of
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acts (in each case having a different force) and also recognises that there is something constant (meaning) across different uses of the same utterance‟.
Searle, in redefining Austin‟s illocutionary acts, distinguishes five things that can be done, often simultaneously, when using language. Duranti (1997: 223) explains that firstly we can tell people how things are. This act is known as an assertive, and can be described using verbs such as claiming, denying or lamenting. Secondly, we can try to get people to do things. This act is a directive, examples of which include requesting, demanding and warning. We can express our feelings and attitudes: an expressive act such as apologising, complaining or praising. A declarative act, such as adjourning, appointing and cursing, can bring about changes. Lastly, a commissive act, such as promising, threatening or offering, can commit us to some future actions.
Wittgenstein however „believed that one could not determine once and for all the number of uses of language‟ (Duranti, 1997: 222). Moreover, while Wittgenstein did not wish to suggest that meaning is synonymous with use, he did state that „one cannot guess how a word functions. One has to look at its use and learn from that‟ (Wittgenstein in Duranti, 1997: 233).
Meaning: a glass of the elusive
Hawkes (1977: 64) explains that Formalist Theory asserted that „no word has one
“simple” meaning. The “meaning” of A is not simply A1 or A2 or A3, for A has a larger capacity to mean which derives from its particular context or use‟. Jakobson also
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believed that the context had to be considered, as well as the message, the addresser, the addressee, the contact, and the code (Hawkes, 1977: 83). While he viewed these six elements as crucial to the „total act‟ of communication, he argued that meaning is never stable because the elements are never in perfect „balance‟. In other words he posited that meaning is determined according to the dominant element (Hawkes, 1977: 84).
Betraying his Prague School background, Jakobson called on the functional dimensions of language to further this notion. Hawkes (1977: 85) clarifies this process of deriving the meaning of a message by associating a function with an element:
For instance, if the communication is oriented towards the addresser of the message, then the emotive function dominates, and this arrangement would yield a message...which aims to express the addresser‟s emotional response to a particular situation.
Derrida reinforced this view of meaning as ever changing, as he was convinced that:
…nothing, no word, idea, text or subject, is what it was intended to be; nothing is identical with itself; the moment something is thought, said, written or intended, it becomes a trace of itself, no longer itself, no longer present; in this way, meaning, truth, identity, presence are always deferred and never arrive (Fortier, 1997: 39).
Alternatively, those who employ the conduit schema to explain the notion of meaning suggest that „a word or a sentence HAS meaning, like a glass has water in it‟ (Foley,
1997: 39). Likening the relationship between a word and its meaning to a container and its contents, Johnson (in Foley, 1997: 39) asserts that:
1 ideas or thoughts are objects 2 words and sentences are containers for these objects
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3 communication consists in finding the right word-container for your idea-object, sending this filled container along a conduit (e.g. writing) or through space (e.g. speech) to the hearer, who must then take the idea-object out of the word-container.
Understanding: translation or conceptual guesswork?
The hearer plays a significant role in the act of understanding according to Gardiner (in
Taylor, 1992: 125): „he is a recipient rather than an initiator, no doubt, but the act of understanding is one which demands considerable mental effort...Words serve only as clues. It is upon the listener that devolves the duty of interpreting those clues, of finding the thing-meant‟. For Taylor (1992: 125) Gardiner intimates that:
…the meaning which the hearer comes to assign to a word or a sentence can never be more than “roughly similar” to the speaker‟s intended meaning. For the speaker and the hearer will always associate different experiences with the words they or their interlocutors use.
In agreement with Gardiner as well as Wittgenstein, who used the metaphor of a chess game to explain that „not everyone understands a word or an utterance in the same way‟
(Duranti, 1997: 237), Foley (1997: 170) states that „because we are always understanding from within some conceptual scheme, or folk theory, or another, we will have to understand some other theory in terms of our own, i.e. translate it into the terms of our own‟. Furthermore, Foley (1997: 171) asserts that „because translation requires moving the categories of the alien system into those of our own, this imposes constraints on how radically different the alien system can be. If completely incompatible, even partial translation should be impossible‟. Leaning on the work of Quine, who
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emphasises languages as systems, Foley (1997: 171) clarifies that in the task of translation „we are not trying to match the meanings of words across systems, but the conceptual schemes these belong to‟. Foley (1997: 171) concludes that such a task:
...always requires the translator to make underdetermined guesses about matches between the systems which cannot be completely resolved. And inevitably the kinds of guesses she is likely to make are those embedded in the categories and practices, the conceptual systems, of her Native language.
Culture: a linguistic phenomenon
Habermas, a Critical Theorist, argued that „the enlightenment project must work towards an “ideal speech situation” in which all distortions of ideology, institution, power and rhetoric have been understood and set aside so that rational exchange of truth can take place unhampered‟. However, Foley (1997: 7) seems to suggest that this ideal is an impossibility, by claiming that „as we create meaning in an ongoing relationship, we carry our history of linguistic and cultural practices from many other previous relationships‟. Thus positing that language is a part of culture, Mauss (in Duranti, 1997:
26) observes that „the process of socialisation, of which the acquisition of language is such an important part, is aimed at shaping the child‟s mind and behaviour toward ways of thinking, speaking, and acting that are acceptable to a community that is larger than the child‟s own family‟. In turn, this view reinforces Wittgenstein‟s belief that language forms are „cultural practices that must be understood within the context of a community of users‟ (Duranti, 1997: 233). Moreover, to illustrate this notion, Duranti (1997: 238) calls on the theory of gender differences generated by Maltz and Borker in 1982: „men and women use language differently because boys and girls learn to use language in
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different contexts, in other words they have been socialised differently, or, in
Wittgenstein‟s terms, they use the same words but experienced different “forms of life”‟.
According to Sapir (in Hawkes, 1977: 31), the pioneer of what came to be known as
Structural Linguistics, „we see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation‟. While this link between cultural and linguistic practices can limit, or as
Artaud (in Fortier, 1997; 44) would say, localise, one‟s experience of the world and one‟s available vocabulary, Duranti (1997: 334) claims that:
To have a language then means to be part of a community of people who engage in joint, common activities through the use of a largely, but never completely, shared range of communicative resources. In this sense, having a language also means being part of a tradition, sharing a history, and hence access to a collective memory, full of stories, innuendoes, opinions, recipes, and other things that make us human. Not having a language or having only a very limited set of its resources means to be denied such access.
Metaphors: do we live by them?
Lakoff and Johnson (1980: 3) believe that „our conceptual system is not something we are normally aware of. In most of the little things we do every day, we simply think and act more or less automatically along certain lines‟. So as to determine these so called lines, Lakoff and Johnson (1980: 3) suggest looking at language: „since communication is based on the same conceptual system that we use in thinking and acting, language is an important source of evidence for what that system is like‟. Their research has found that our conceptual system „is fundamentally metaphorical in nature‟ (Lakoff and
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Johnson, 1980: 3), therefore they „view language as providing data that can lead to general principles of understanding. The general principles involve whole systems of concepts rather than individual words or individual concepts‟ (Lakoff and Johnson,
1980: 116). Additionally, they assert that „such principles are often metaphoric in nature and involve understanding one kind of experience in terms of another kind of experience‟ (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 116). Furthermore, they suggest that „because so many of the concepts that are important to us are either abstract or not clearly delineated in our experience (the emotions, ideas, time, etc.), we need to get a grasp on them by means of other concepts that we understand in clearer terms (spatial orientations, objects, etc.)‟ (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 115).
Foley (1997: 182), in accordance with Lakoff and Johnson, states that „by mapping certain salient features of the source domain onto the target domain, metaphor allows us to construe the more abstract, less knowable in terms of the more concrete and directly experiencable‟. He also emphasises the significance of choice among metaphors by referring to the work of Quinn: „the choice of metaphors for some domains is not totally random, but reflects some basic cultural understandings individuals have of that domain‟
(Foley, 1997: 183). Moreover, Saussure (in Hawkes, 1977: 77 - 78) explained that any message combines the process of placing one word next to another and selecting words or concepts that are „like‟ another. Thus, this oppositional combinative process of the metonymic and the metaphoric represents „in effect the essence of the total opposition between the synchronic mode of language (its immediate, coexistent, „vertical‟
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relationships) its diachronic mode, (its sequential, successive, linearly progressive relationships)‟.
So as to clarify the link between the everyday human use of metaphor and notions of definition and understanding, Lakoff and Johnson (1980: 116) posit that „definitions for a concept are seen as characterising the things that are inherent in the concept itself. We, on the other hand, are concerned with how human beings get a handle on the concept - how they understand it and function in terms of it‟. In summary, they believe they have a very different view of definition from the standard account:
An experiential theory of definition has a different notion of what needs to be defined and what does the defining. On our account, individual concepts are not defined in an isolated fashion, but rather in terms of their roles in natural kinds of experiences. Concepts are not defined solely in terms of inherent properties; instead, they are defined primarily in terms of interactional properties. Finally, definition is not a matter of giving some fixed set of necessary and sufficient conditions for the application of a concept...; instead, concepts are defined by prototypes and by types of relations to prototypes. Rather then being rigidly defined, concepts arising from our experience are open-ended. Metaphors...are systematic devices for further defining a concept and for changing its range of applicability (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 125).
Language in Education: a limited or hidden awareness
Donoahue (1996: 6) claims that „through written and oral language, individuals make, record, and present their unique meanings to others‟. Moreover, Vygotsky (in Donoahue,
1996: 6) believed that „when language and thought transact within particular contexts, learning happens and learners transform‟. However, in the realm of education, where it is recognised that an understanding of language is essential to a well-grounded
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education, Brumfit (in James and Garrett, 1991: 30 - 35), complains that teachers are largely untrained in language because „little in their training has prepared them to look at language objectively‟. To remedy this situation, Brumfit (in James and Garrett, 1991: 38
- 39) argues for basic linguistic practice to be introduced into teacher training. Moreover,
James and Garrett (1991: 11) claim that the Kingman Report „calls for “all teachers of all subjects” to be given in-service and probationer instruction about language‟.
In the realm of actor education specifically, Zarrilli (1995: 8) believes that many discourses of acting fail to reveal that “the truth” expressed is a construction derived from the particular author‟s position because to do so would leave the author open to question and revision. While he offers no suggestions as to how to assist the trainers in becoming more conscious of their language constructions in the training context, Zarrilli does offer the student of acting some advice on how to cope with the conceptual framework hidden in a trainer‟s language of acting. Apart from suggesting that the student should develop an understanding of semiotics in order to survive in the postmodern era (Zarrilli, 1995: 16), he states that:
...first, by understanding that all languages of acting are metaphorical he can attempt to fill in the gaps between this particular language and what he needs to do as an actor, that is, he can translate the confusing language into terms that are more actable...; second, if he finds the underlying philosophical assumptions which inform this language and paradigm of acting problematic, he may actively and openly problematise the language and the paradigm it assumes, and search for more appropriate alternatives (Zarrilli, 1995: 10).
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Consequently, it is possible to posit that to have language is to be human. A structure of inter-dependent terms constructed through both „vertical‟ and „horizontal‟ movements, language can be viewed as a form of life. It allows us to experience, question and know our world. Language has a diverse range of functions from simply placing two interlocutors on the same track to transmitting information, indicating emotions, influencing people, checking for understanding, and drawing attention to the actual language itself. Also, language can act as a way to do something, and can thus be perceived as action. The meaning and the force we use in an utterance can assert, direct, express, declare and commit us to action. As it has been demonstrated, it could be impossible to determine a definite number of functions or uses of language.
No word may have a simple meaning. The context and the use of the word should be considered. Meaning can be recognised as unstable due to how the functional dimensions of language are affected by the message, the addresser, the addressee, the contact, the code, and the context. Therefore, an intended meaning may never really arrive. Although, if you believe that a word or a sentence does have an inherent meaning, then you can liken the relationship between a word and its meaning to a glass with water in it. To communicate then, you must select the right glass or word-container.
As hearers we can play an active role in the act of understanding. We can interpret the clues found in the words. Moreover, as we draw on our own experience, or conceptual framework, to understand the meaning of a message, we can translate the categories of an alien system into the categories of our own language.
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A rational exchange of truth may be an improbability due to the interweaving of our cultural and linguistic practices. Subsequently, the acquisition of language can be perceived to be so much a part of the socialisation process, that the language habits of our community can predispose us to certain choices of action and interpretation.
Human language can be called metaphorical in nature, thus, we can think and act according to metaphor. We apparently attempt to understand abstract concepts in terms of more concrete experiential ones. Also, our choice of metaphors reflects on our individual cultural understanding. It is recommended that in defining a concept one should be concerned with how humans understand it and function in terms of it, rather than simply attempting to characterise the things that are inherent to the concept itself.
Therefore, metaphors can further define a concept.
Language can ground learning and assist in transforming the learner. However, educators possess a limited knowledge of the power of language. It is argued that educators within the context of actor training may be hiding their conceptual framework.
Consequently, students may need to learn about semiotics, recognise that all languages of acting are metaphorical, and if need be, openly problematise the paradigm inherent in a trainer‟s use of language.
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Section Four: The Language of Actor Training
Acting Terminology: describing the indescribable
Pippen with Eden (1997: 27), with reference to Voice trainers involved in actor training, suggest that „they must overcome the difficulty of interfacing of voice work with movement and acting classes‟. Furthermore, they state that „often these teachers may as well be speaking different languages‟ (Pippen with Eden, 1997: 27). Reinforcing this view, Holder (1989: 150) believes that actor training is eclectic to the point of fragmentation. Thereby, she insists that terms are indefinable due to „the fact that virtually every acting teacher re-defines them as needed to fit a personal vision‟ (Holder,
1989: 150). Moreover, Zarrilli (1995: 16) concludes that „given the impossibility of ever fully describing acting, all languages of acting are necessarily inadequate and therefore provisional‟.
Throughout the twentieth century, the languages of acting developed proved diverse, introducing the actor in training to myriad metaphors and by association, ideologies.
Stanislavsky, for example, expressed his approach in terms of action, objectives, emotional memory, given circumstances, ensemble and tempo-rhythm. Inspired by
Stanislavsky, Strasberg spoke of affective memory, while Adler and Meisner expressly denied the role of emotional or affective memory. Meyerhold referred to biomechanics and etudes, and Grotowski made mention of translumination, the holy actor, a poor theatre and via negativa. Barba coined the terms pre-expressive and personal temperature, and borrowed the concepts of flow and control from the theatre
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anthropologist Csikszentmihalyi. Littlewood favoured the German technique with a
French name, siffleuse, and Suzuki speaks of emission and repression. Even Saint-Denis was reported by Peter Hall (in Saint-Denis, 1982: 14) to have favoured the word openness.
In Holder‟s study (1989) of undergraduate actor training processes in America, she attempted to group acting approaches and their respective terminologies into two assumed conceptual bases, namely Stanislavsky-based training and Post-Stanislavsky- based training (Holder, 1989: 45 - 48). While Holder selected the terms or phrases after extensive reading about approaches to acting and the most influential practitioners
(Holder, 1989: 45), she admitted that further research should be conducted in the area of terminology, as her choice of terms proved confusing to the selected colleges and universities involved in the study (Holder, 1989: 156). Nevertheless, to further highlight the manifold languages of acting, it is interesting to note the terminologies she attributed to the conceptual bases she created. The terms or phrases Holder associated with
Stanislavsky-based training included: beats; circles of attention; emotion memory; given circumstances; inner justification; improvisation of scenes; magic if; scene study; sense memory; and units and objectives. Terms or phrases of the Post-Stanislavsky variety included: collaborative creation of texts; corporeals; guided imagery; non-verbal improvisation; meditation; plastiques; sound and movement; theatre games; transformation; and trust exercises (Holder, 1989: 46 - 48).
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More evidence of the various languages of acting can be gleaned by surveying the texts that Aldridge (1993: 38 - 39) found to be the ones most commonly used by teachers in
American undergraduate actor training programs. Cohen, with three textbooks in the top twelve, speaks of relacom, and the basic acting principles: goals; other; tactics; and expectation. Hagen‟s Respect For Acting, in third place, advocates substitution, and in fourth place, Benedetti‟s Actor At Work mentions transformation, spirituality and
Buddhism. Furthermore, Spolin‟s Theatre Games even includes a glossary of sidecoaching phrases such as: “Act! Don‟t react”; “Allow the focus to work for you”; and “Expand that gesture” (Aldridge, 1993).
Australian actor training also provides the actor with a gamut of terms and concepts to comprehend. The “Yat” technique practiced at NIDA by Tony Knight, refers to informing icon, and the six inner attitudes: near; mobile; a dream; stable; awake; and remote. Additionally, what was known as movement psychology evolved into action during the 1980‟s, and is currently recognised by “Yat” teachers as character analysis
(O‟Connor in Watson, 2001: 51 - 59). At VCA, Lindy Davies‟ Impulse Work incorporates the terms or phrases: dropping in; neutral centredness; feeling of connection; sourcing; completion; satisfaction; pathway; fields; abstract; colours; and blueprinting (O‟Connor in Watson, 2001: 53 - 58). Lastly, Meenach at QUT speaks of blocks, splits, analysis of text, choice, choice approach, being states, obligation and irreverence (O‟Connor in Watson, 2001: 52 - 55).
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A Common Vocabulary: an ongoing debate
According to Aldridge (1993: 11) „when asked the degree to which acting instructors within a department attempt to use a common vocabulary when teaching 40.3% marked
“Serious”, 35.6% “Moderate”, 10.2% “Little or No”, and 13.9% did not answer the question‟. Those who wish for a common vocabulary argue that a lack of consistency in the vocabulary of actor training results in confusion (Aldridge, 1993: 197). Professor
Lazier (in Aldridge, 1993: 195 - 196) explains that without a common vocabulary the necessary instruction time is impeded and lengthened, and should thereby be viewed as one of the tremendous problems in actor training. However, as Aldridge (1993: 196) reports that actor trainers are seen as unbelievably independent individuals who, in their training, utilise what they have learnt and developed in their own style, with their own vocabulary, any attempt to institute a common vocabulary would inevitably fail.
Moreover, Professor Nash (in Aldridge, 1993: 196), posits that the context and the subsequent culture of university actor training programs:
...is dominated by issues of integrity and academic freedom and, forgive the cynicism dripping from this, an inherent idea of collegiality. Well, academic freedom in some ways and collegiality are mutually opposed issues. If you are free why should you be collegial except on a social level and that‟s often what the level of cooperation in the department is. There are, without question, departments that might, if they were honest with themselves, argue that an absolute search for a common vocabulary is wrong.
With regards to the ideologies that underpin the languages of actor training today,
McCutcheon (1998: 10) questions whether they are phallocentric and therefore prove
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alienating to a female sense of reality. Furthermore, Pippen with Eden (1997: 60) suggest that even calling subjects “Voice and Body” or “Voice and Movement” may unconsciously reinforce the basic binary distinction of mind / body.
A Free Instrument: what do you mean?
In order to emphasise how apparently simple terms in actor training can subtly change in meaning from one trainer to another, the common terms “instrument” and “free” are examined.
“Instrument” is a term so embedded in the language of acting and training that it would be almost impossible to list all the trainers of Acting, Movement and Voice who use it.
However, as in indication of how widely spread its use is, a review of popular acting textbooks reveals that the Acting trainers Benedetti, Cohen, McGaw, Morris and Saint-
Denis embrace the term, as do the Movement trainers King and Newlove, and the Voice trainers Berry, Lessac, Linklater, McCallion, Storey, Turner, and Thurburn. A deeper inspection of the literature discloses that “instrument” can be defined as: the voice; the body; the human being; or the psycho-physical self. To add to this myriad meanings,
Saint-Denis‟ definition seems to incorporate the actor and the skills of the actor: as mentioned earlier, he aimed to produce artists who were their own instrument (Saint-
Denis, 1960: 108), and he believed that a classical discipline would equip the actor „with sharper instruments with which to penetrate the depths of realism‟ (Saint-Denis, 1960:
108).
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While Saint-Denis‟ wife explains that her husband‟s approach to actor training stressed
„the discipline that produces techniques which free the actor and establish him in the skills of his craft‟ (Saint-Denis, 1982: 11), the term “free” appears to be more frequently employed by Movement or Voice trainers than Acting trainers. From a review of the literature, it is difficult to determine the meaning of this term, except to suggest that
“free” is the opposite of “bound” in Laban‟s terms, and that it is associated with other elusive terms including “relaxed”, “renewed”, “released”, “liberated”, “flow” and
“open”. Moreover, Pippen with Eden (1997: 18) do attempt to describe how Berry and
Linklater engage in “freeing” the voice, however a specific definition of the term can still only be guessed at.
In brief, Zarrilli (1995: 16) asserts that in an age where we cannot make “truth” claims
„we can celebrate the freedom of not having to find a “universal” language once and for all‟. Furthermore, he posits that we can now focus our energies towards searching for acting languages that permit us to actualise performance paradigms in accordance with our particular context and purpose (Zarrilli, 1995: 16). Thus, when reading a quote such as „work on the instrument basically involves freeing or unblocking the impediments that, for whatever reasons, stand in the way of free emotional flow‟ (O‟Connor in
Watson, 2001: 53), it is important to remember that the language of actor training is so diverse that to comprehend the trainer‟s choice of words, one must also appreciate the trainer‟s conceptual or ideological framework.
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Conclusion
As this is an age of emancipation where we have been freed from the confines of a single regime of truth and from the habit of seeing the world in one colour (Denzin and
Lincoln, 2000: 162), this literature review has presented a range of material focusing on actor training, actor training in Australia, languaging, and the language of actor training.
Particular directors have played a significant role in the establishment of institutionalised actor training and the trends in that training. Acting, Movement, and Voice tend to be the subjects included in the training, although no comprehensive system of training is favoured. Issues such as cultural poverty, employment prospects, and employment requirements may be effecting the training environment. Internationalisation is also an area of concern. Additionally, there is currently an interest in training approaches that hope to explore the unconscious.
Australian actor training, exemplified by NIDA, VCA and QUT, seeks to offer the student more than skill acquisition. Internationalising and benchmarking has resulted in the use of methodologies that promote the autonomous actor. Thus, in an age of economic rationalism, an era where the director is still king, the training provides the student with the opportunity to maintain creative control.
Language identifies us as human. It has a diverse number of functions and uses.
Recognised as an action, language also causes us to act. The meaning of a word is
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unstable, therefore the function and the use of a word must be considered carefully. Two interlocutors may, in fact, never be able to “travel on the same track” if they select inappropriate containers or conduits.
In order to understand, hearers draw on their own conceptual framework so as to interpret and translate the clues found in speakers‟ words. Interpretation itself is an act predetermined by the language habits of our particular community. Furthermore, in an attempt to understand complex notions, such as emotions and ideas, we choose to speak in metaphors that reflect on our individual cultural understanding. Moreover, rather than characterising the inherent properties of a word, we may define the concept through the use of metaphor.
Learners can transform through language, yet it is posited that teachers posses a limited knowledge of its power. As some actor trainers‟ discourse may be guilty of “truth” claims, an actor in training is encouraged to become familiar with semiotics, and recognise that languages of acting are metaphoric in nature. An actor in training should also problematise the conceptual framework underlying a trainer‟s discourse, if necessary.
At the dawning of a new century, where actor training is positioned in a postmodern context, a “universal” language or common vocabulary of actor training is simultaneously desired as a tool to efficient training and frowned upon as an affront to
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an individual trainer‟s approach. The use, the function, the action, or the world implied by the terms “instrument” and “free” highlight this languaging dichotomy.
While the literature reviewed frames the study, and specific reference is made to three actor trainers engaged in training at NIDA, VCA and QUT, it may be naive to assume that the other Acting, Movement and Voice trainers at these institutions share the same languaging habits. Thus, the question of how the trainers utilise language in their training context is yet to be fully examined. Using a constructivist grounded theory methodology, to be discussed in the following chapter, the languaging of actors in
Australian training today will be clarified, by offering insight into the conceptual assumptions of the Actor Training Community under investigation, and in turn, by revealing the way in which they approach the common theatrical terms “free” and
“instrument”.
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CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH DESIGN
Introduction
Denzin and Lincoln (2000: 19) call on Bateson‟s work Steps to an Ecology of Mind
(1972: 320) to suggest that all qualitative researchers are philosophers in that universal sense in which all human beings are guided by highly abstract principles. These principles, Denzin and Lincoln (2000: 19) explain, „combine beliefs about our ontology...epistemology...and methodology. These beliefs shape how the qualitative researcher sees the world and acts in it‟. This chapter highlights the basic set of beliefs that guide this research. Consequently, the methods of data collection and the strategies of data analysis employed for an investigation into the languaging of the actor are specified and described.
A constructivist grounded theory is emphasised as a suitable approach to the research task. The interview and the case study are presented as appropriate tools for effectively obtaining information, and the fundamental strategies of grounded theory adopted for the purpose of data analysis are clarified. Furthermore, the weaknesses and strengths of the research design are evaluated. According to Charmaz (2000: 522; 1995a) using a research design of this nature will construct a picture that draws from, reassembles, and renders subjects‟ lives in a way that is more like a painting than a photograph.
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Constructivist Grounded Theory
Constructivism: an awareness of multiple perspectives
It is the opinion of Denzin and Lincoln (2000: 21) that the constructivist paradigm
„assumes a relativist ontology...a subjectivist epistemology...and a naturalistic set of methodological procedures‟. Thus, it can be said that:
Constructivists view people as constructive agents and view the phenomenon of interest (meaning or knowledge) as built instead of passively “received” by people whose ways of knowing, seeing, understanding, and valuing influence what is known, seen, understood, and valued (Spivey, 1997: 3).
Put simply, in the words of Selley (1999: 3):
This construction is an internal, personal and often unconscious process. It consists largely of reinterpreting bits and pieces of knowledge - some obtained from first-hand experience, but some from communication with other people - to build a satisfactory and coherent picture of the world.
Unlike positivism „with its assumptions of an objective, external reality, a neutral observer who discovers data, reductionist inquiry of manageable research problems, and objectivist rendering of data‟ (Charmaz, 2000: 510), constructivism upholds a pluralistic view of knowledge where „very little is absolutely right or wrong, and most is a matter of judgement‟ (Selley, 1999: 93). Moreover, according to Goodman (in Spivey, 1997:
17) „a person operates, not within a single world, but within a multiplicity of worlds, and deals with conflicting truths because what is “true” in one might not be in another‟. To this end Spivey (1997: 26) suggests that:
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The best approach for theory development is not to dismiss or ignore the other perspectives or become so eclectic that intellectual integrity is lost, but, cognisant of other ways of seeing, to give some attention to those factors that might be more apparent if we had the lens focused on the other kinds of agents. By being more aware of other perspectives, we can elaborate our own position and expand the kinds of issues we address and factors we consider.
Constructing Knowledge: a personal account
The knowledge of acting and actor training I possess has predominantly been moulded by encounters with the lecturers, directors and students at QUT, NIDA, and James Cook
University respectively. Thus, it is recognised that the particular views I have on the languaging of actors in the training context, are derived from first hand experiences of actor training as both a student and a trainer at these institutions. Furthermore, from casual communication with lecturers, directors and students from other institutions in
Australia, it is feasible to posit that they have built somewhat different views from mine.
As both of these realisations contradict the realist and objectivist researcher‟s stance, this qualitative study aims to develop awareness of the various perspectives on the issue of languaging in the Australian training context, and consequently generate theory that is not absolute, but expands upon the picture of the world of actor training that I have already constructed.
Grounded Theory: a process of discovery
While Charmaz (2000: 510) borrows the argument of Guba and Lincoln (1994) to suggest that the positions of the originators of grounded theory and co-authors of The
Discovery of Grounded Theory „remain imbued with positivism, with its objectivist
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underpinnings‟, she wishes to suggest a way forward for grounded theory, a way which uses the tools originally prescribed by Glaser and Strauss (1967) but a way devoid of its positivist leanings. Charmaz (2000: 510) advocates the use of what she calls constructivist grounded theory. In agreement with Charmaz, the marriage of constructivism and grounded theory appears useful to this particular study of actor training.
A number of the defining features of grounded theory complements the relativist and subjectivist position of this research, and thus assist in constructing a picture of how languages of acting are used in the contemporary training context. Firstly, rather than posing an hypothesis that can then be verified in the field, theory is generated as the case in the field is discovered. This way, the naturalistic research setting is used to derive theory from data. Characteristic examples of data are subsequently employed to illustrate the theory. Advocated by Glaser and Strauss (1967: 5), this approach is of practical value for the study because „it is a way of arriving at a theory suited to its supposed uses‟ (Glaser and Strauss, 1967: 3). In other words, a theory that has been generated to suggest how actor trainers in Australia use language in today‟s training context, may be able to assist the trainers in their communication with students of acting in the future.
Secondly, having built a knowledge of drama and theatre through the reading of such practitioners as Keith Johnstone (1979), and via the classes of such educationalists as
QUT‟s Brad Haseman during the 1980‟s, I regard the concept of “process” as highly as
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that of “product”. Consequently, the comments of Glaser and Strauss (1967: 32) on notions of process and product in qualitative research seem to align with the way in which I would prefer to view this research task, particularly considering the study is constrained by such elements as time and university publishing requirements:
Our strategy of comparative analysis for generating theory puts an emphasis on theory as process; that is, theory as an ever- developing entity, not as perfected product...To be sure, theory as process can be presented in publications as a momentary product, but it is written with the assumption that it is still developing.
Additionally, Courtney (1997: 57) states that „grounded theory, in its many variations has become increasingly used in recent years for inquiries in arts education‟. He suggests that its popularity has been due to its flexibility and its adaptability to inquiries ranging from: “was one way of teaching creative poetry more effective than another?”; to “did male teachers create more enthusiasm in Dance classes for adolescent boys than female teachers?”; to “do dramatic activities help reduce stuttering amongst Primary students?” (Courtney, 1997: 59, 98). Likewise, Hutchinson (1988: 139) claims that
„education and educators can only benefit from such an approach‟. She explains that:
Because the method forces researchers to focus on theory generation instead of verification, it can contribute theories that explain and predict educational phenomena. Grounded theory permits structured entry to new, different, or unclear problems in education. A good theory proposes a new and relevant way of seeing (Hutchinson, 1988: 138).
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As a researcher in arts education with an inquiry regarding the nature of language usage in actor training, a grounded approach seems appropriate. While it is not possible to determine the absolute truth about the languaging of the actor, a constructivist grounded approach is serviceable to the inquiry in so far as it provides clear strategies for generating theory regarding the phenomena of actor training that fits, works, has relevance and can be modified.
Data Collection
The Research Tools: laying the foundations
Brooks and Greenon Brooks (1995: 3) state that „we search for tools to help us understand our experiences‟. In order to assist in the understanding of the phenomena of languaging in actor training, the interview and the case study were selected as data collection tools. It was decided that the interview would be an efficient method to collect data from those directly involved in the field of actor training. As each of the participants was aware of the researcher‟s position as an actor trainer at QUT, it could be assumed that the relationship within the interview context was one of colleague to colleague. Alternatively, the relationship assumed for the case study, which offered a means to construct an understanding of how one particular trainer languages the actor, was somewhat different: that of teacher to student. Thus, the interview was selected to give the researcher a current overview of the languaging of the actor, and the case study was chosen to grant the researcher first hand experience of being languaged.
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Interviewing the ATC: adapting the grounded approach
As discussed in Chapter Two, the trinity of subjects known as Acting, Movement and
Voice appear to feature in, if not dominate, actor training programs. It seemed logical then to interview the Acting, Movement and Voice trainers within actor training programs. The Acting, Movement and Voice trainers from NIDA, VCA and QUT were targeted for two fairly simple reasons: firstly, I have had the pleasure of being taught or mentored by a number of the trainers at these schools over the past eight years, thereby it was recognised that access to these specialists was highly probable. Secondly, as there were training duties within the actor training program at QUT to be honoured, the prospect of travelling to all the training schools across the country from James Cook
University to the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts seemed unlikely.
Thus, a focus on three schools on the east coast of Australia seemed manageable.
Having requested interviews with each of the trainers via a formal letter, it was possible to confirm their interest and availability with follow up emails, and telephone calls.
While the letter only gave a brief outline of the interview focus, a copy of the formulated questionnaire (see Appendix A) was sent to the trainers once an interview date was confirmed. Each interview, fifteen in total, took place in either the office of the participant, or at a location of their choice. Consequently, all, bar one, of the interviews were conducted within the walls of NIDA, VCA or QUT, during class time in Semester
Two, 2001. The exception was an interview in a participant‟s lounge room late in the semester.
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At the commencement of each interview, the participant was presented with another letter specifying the purpose of the interview, clarifying the confidential nature of the data collected from the interview, and thanking them for their time. The letter also explained that the interview would be audiotaped, for accurate transcription purposes, and that a copy of the transcript would be forwarded to them for correction and approval prior to publishing the analyses. Additionally, this letter restated my contact details and those of the research supervisor. Finally, before tackling the first question, the participants were asked if they had any queries regarding the questionnaire or how the interview was to proceed.
Glaser and Strauss (1967: 75 - 76) suggest that at the beginning of field studies, interviews should be open-ended conversations where the researcher observes the participants and listens to their stories. As the research becomes more directed towards emerging theories, more interviews should be conducted with questions focused towards the researcher‟s conceptual categories. Thus, while the duration of the interviews may decrease, the number of interviews may increase. This way Glaser and Strauss (1967:
76) justify why a researcher „cannot state how long his interviews will take because a new category might emerge at any time‟.
With only a prescribed six-month period in which to collect data from interviews about the languaging of the actor, open-ended conversation was not considered as a viable research tool. However, having worked in actor training for seven years, I had been privy to many conversations that touched upon the phenomena under the microscope.
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Furthermore, throughout this period I had read numerous texts regarding the nature of
Acting, Movement and Voice training. These slices of data from lived experience are viewed by Glaser and Strauss (1967: 67) as the „anecdotal comparison‟ that is particularly useful when commencing research and developing core categories. Hence, the questionnaire was derived from theoretical sampling of an anecdotal nature, and the specific questions posed had some bearing on the categories perceived as emergent at that time. Moreover, while well aware that one round of interviews with a predetermined questionnaire limited the possibilities for ongoing inclusion and multiple comparisons
(Glaser and Strauss, 1967: 46 - 50), theoretical sensitivity was not completely lost as the questionnaire was not locked into a specific preconceived theory.
It was decided that the questions themselves would be divided into five issues: professional billing; acting in Australia; the training aesthetic and / or methodology; terminology; and the training environment. It was hoped that these divisions would shed light on the languaging of the actor in a way that would follow a simple narrative path:
“I call myself”; “I think acting is”; “This is how my past has lead to my present position on actor training”; “These are the words I choose to use”; and “In a perfect world this is what training would be like”. Simultaneously collecting, coding and analysing these
“stories”, the questionnaire was always utilised but additional queries were added at times that could lead to theory development or new categories.
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The Case Study: experiencing the phenomena of languaging
The other tool employed for data collection, the case study, „systematically organises and presents information in the form of a narrative summary about a particular case. It is typically undertaken to elucidate a particular...entity or problem requiring reflection...‟
(Franklin and Jordan, 1998: 102). During Semester Two, 2001, I enrolled in two units of study offered by the QUT Faculty of Creative Industries‟ Continuing Professional
Education program. The units formed part of the Acting Short Course program „which has been developed over the last eleven years, and is itself a distillation of teaching methods and material currently used within the QUT Creative Industries...full-time degree programs‟ (Radvan, 2001: 2). Emotion 2 and Emotion 3 became my case study.
These units were taught by one of the Acting trainers from the full-time acting program, who was also an interview participant.
Attending three-hour classes every Sunday night for ten weeks, I was one of ten students who engaged in all the acting exercises, experimentations and discussions facilitated by the Acting trainer. The experience and expertise in the group ranged from an absolute beginner‟s level to those involved in amateur theatre. Never having observed or participated in any of the trainer‟s classes before, I hoped to gain a fresh, first hand experience of how a first year student may comprehend the acting terminology currently favoured by this trainer.
So as to create a narrative summary of the languaging of the actor in this particular training context, a journal was completed, covering every class in the first unit, using a
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particular format: Section A of the journal described the content of the class and Section
B was a personal reflection on the class. At the close of the first five weeks, the trainer invited me to participate in the six hour intensive Saturday classes he offered, independently of the university, to students who ranged in experience from those already working as professional actors, to those wishing to enter a full-time acting course.
Accepting the offer, journaling ceased, as the rational mind required for an academic study of the training seemed to be blocking the more irrational kinaesthetic nature of the training I was becoming increasingly more engaged in: I was gripped by a need to “do” rather than “write about doing”.
At the close of the semester, having engaged in ten weeks of QUT classes and seven weeks of Studio for Actors classes, I was able to rely on both the mind‟s comprehension and the body‟s memory when writing up a conclusion to the journal. The case study was able to highlight the trainer‟s philosophy, approach and terminology, from the point of view of a student rather than the point of view of an interviewer. Thus, I was privy to the trainer‟s languaging habits in the more “natural” setting of the training context, as opposed to in the somewhat “artificial” setting of the interview context. As the research into languaging is not focused towards the students‟ comprehension of the terminology used in actor training but towards the trainers‟ choice of terminology in the training context, the case study provided an opportunity to collect data around the themes and questions emerging from the interview data.
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Data Analysis
Strategies of Analysis: from Glaser to Charmaz
Not to be confused with data collection methods, Charmaz (2000: 514) asserts that grounded theory methods specify analytic strategies, and while Ekins (1997: 47 - 48) argues that no writer claiming to use the grounded theory methodology has committed to it with the depth and rigour of it‟s originators, Charmaz (1988: 125) explains that researchers who claim to use the grounded theory approach will endorse the fundamental strategies while developing their own variations of technique. Taking the lead from Charmaz, the adopted strategies of grounded theory were a guide to analysis, but in no way did the strategies used for analysis in this study subscribe faithfully to the work of Glaser, or that of the Strauss and Corbin (1994) variety. Moreover, considering that this was my initial foray into the field of theory generation, and taking into account how the time constraints placed on the project limited the simultaneous collection, coding and analysis of data, the strategies employed may not have lead to the production of a conceptually dense theory (Strauss and Corbin, 1994: 278) but they were useful in providing an original way of understanding the languaging of the actor.
Having embraced the fundamental strategies of simultaneous data collection, coding and analysis, a process was embarked upon which included: coding; focused coding; constant comparison; memo writing; theoretical sampling; and integration. During the initial phase of the coding process, which took place in August 2001, I looked for what I could define and discover in the data already collected. As previously stated, the earliest
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data was anecdotal, which assisted in the formulation of the questionnaire. The other data gathered at this time was from interviews with the Acting trainers at QUT.
From the anecdotal data and the initial interview data, it was possible to attend to the general context of actor training, including a consideration of the roles of those involved in training, a construction of specific events in time related to actor training, and the varying viewpoints or issues emphasised by the participants. It was possible to search for the relationships between participants‟ situations and their constructions of experiences. Codes were created, using the line-by-line method, to note what the participants seemed to stress as well as what they appeared to ignore. Additionally, the data was examined for terms used by participants that could become in vivo codes. In the final stage of the initial coding, interview responses were compared to clarify what may have been implied in one set of data but expressed in another (Charmaz, 1988: 113
-115).
Focused coding, the secondary phase of the coding process, consisted of taking the initial codes that tended to reappear, and using them to sift through more data.
Therefore, the codes selected from the data gathered in August were used to filter the data collected from the VCA and NIDA interviews that took place in September and
October 2001 respectively. This phase is perceived by Charmaz (1995b) and Glaser
(1978) as more conceptual, because the researcher must consider which line-by-line codes will make the most analytic sense, and be able to accurately and completely categorise the new slices of data. As more data revealed issues that were implied or
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simply neglected in the initial data, I was forced to return to the early data for further contemplation.
At this stage, a number of comparisons between data, incidents, contexts and concepts had to be made in order to generate conceptual categories from focused coding. Thus, an attempt was made to compare the Acting, Movement and Voice trainers from the three schools, focusing on their differing beliefs, situations, actions and experiences.
Furthermore, categories in the data were compared with other categories (Charmaz,
1995b: 42).
By this stage, memo writing had commenced, so as to break the categories down into their properties. Firstly, ideas of interest that had the potential to be pursued were noted, but eventually I began to elaborate on the codes that seemed to reappear in the data collected. Accepting the advice of Charmaz (1995b: 43), raw data was brought into the memos from the very beginning of the analytic work so as to preserve specific illustrations of the notions uncovered. Including the verbatim material in the memos assisted in making comparisons, and thereby allowed the progression from individual cases to the definition of patterns.
Charmaz (1995b: 45) believes that memo writing „directly leads to theoretical sampling, that is, collecting more data to clarify your ideas and to plan how to fit them together‟.
Thus, in order to gain further insight into the provisional set of relevant categories and ascertain when, how, and to what extent they were pertinent and useful, the case study
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was sampled, as were the NIDA, VCA and QUT 2001 student handbooks. It was at this stage too, that a comprehensive review of the literature regarding actor training and language was completed. Using the comparative method, hidden, or somewhat concealed components of the categories were revealed, as well as the stipulations and the boundaries of their applicability (Charmaz, 2000: 519). In other words, an attempt was made to fill the gaps in the data and between the categories. Once the categories were filled out, they were ordered by sorting the memos that related to them.
Having utilised this abbreviated set of grounded theory‟s fundamental strategies for data analysis, as recommended in the writings of the self professed constructivist grounded theorist Charmaz, the study‟s first draft was finally able to be written.
Design Limitations
As aforementioned, in this endeavour to shed light on the use of acting terminology in the training context, theoretical sensitivity was confined to a select set of subgroups.
This was largely due to the restricted time period available in which to collect and simultaneously analyse data. Additionally, due to the nature of contract employment in public sector institutions, there was the real possibility that by the time the study was completed, the staffs of the respective acting schools may have altered. In light of these limitations and in defence of the research design, I choose to echo the words of Ekins
(1997: 164), who states that „the theorist can only theorise on the basis of intimate appreciation of what s/he has studied and not what s/he might have studied‟. I am of the
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opinion that it has been possible to build an intimate appreciation of what has been studied considering I possess a strong background in the field of actor training, I have had the opportunity to interview and observe a number of those involved in actor training on the east coast of Australia today, I have been able to experience first hand what it may be like for an actor in contemporary training, and I have had access to documentation regarding the training programs and the trainers. Thus, my background and the opportunities that became available for building knowledge have allowed theory on the languaging of the actor to emerge.
Conclusion
Wishing to build upon my understanding of acting and the terminology that is used in the training context, a constructivist stance was adopted to service the study. Such an approach proved useful to the study, as it allowed for a picture of the languaging of the actor to develop that was not defined as the truth, but as my version of the truth. In turn, advocating grounded theory strategies like many other arts education researchers, the theory that has emerged may prove useful to actor trainers and students alike: emerging from the field, it may provide insights into languaging that standard objectivist verification would fail to uncover. Additionally, as the study forms part of an ever evolving process of investigation, rather than a finished product of investigation, it lays the foundation for further inquiries into languaging.
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The research design made use of the interview and the case study as major tools for data collection, and data analysis took place via a version of the simultaneous collection, coding, and analysis strategies espoused by Glaser and Strauss (1967). While theoretical sensitivity was limited by the use of a predetermined questionnaire on a small group of participants who may or may not be involved in actor training by the time the study is complete, my experience of the phenomena and an immersion in the data suggest that the emergent theory fits the Actor Training Community under investigation. Therefore, a constructivist grounded approach was serviceable to this qualitative inquiry, as it did not pretend to offer an objectified answer to the myriad issues involved in the languaging of the actor, but constructed a work in progress reality: a picture of the languaging of the actor in Australia today. Let us now begin to reveal the picture, by identifying what constitutes the Actor Training Community.
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CHAPTER FOUR
THE ACTOR TRAINING COMMUNITY
Introduction
In Andrew Apter‟s 1992 “Open Letter to Theatre Educators” (in Zarrilli, 1995: 322), he asserts that „in this world of crisis, it is increasingly imperative that we teach as well as train‟. This chapter examines so-called theatre educators, by focusing on the Acting,
Movement and Voice trainers working in public sector training institutions in Australia today. Using a constructivist grounded theory methodology a picture of the training community under investigation is painted, prior to embarking on the task of revealing their languaging habits. In this way, the languaging of the actor in training is framed within a context that clarifies the Australian approach to actor training, or teaching, at the dawning of a new century.
The chapter is divided into seven segments. Section One offers an insight into Apter‟s differentiation between what he terms as teaching and training. It is clarified that standard university job titles such as lecturer and tutor are misnomers, and that a teacher in the act of teaching performs a very different function from a trainer in the act of training. In fact, it is asserted that the Actor Training Community under investigation believe that one‟s job title is dependent on one‟s job function, and the context in which this job is performed. Hence, the modes of instruction, recognised in this study as the
Deposit Mode and the Withdrawal Mode, are discussed. These modes of instruction help
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to specify when one is functioning as a teacher, a depositor of theoretical knowledge, and when one is functioning as a trainer, a withdrawer of practical skills.
Section Two consists of the Actor Training Community‟s basic set of beliefs concerning the training of actors. An aesthetic that advocates notions of ensemble, truth, and theatre making emerges. An appreciation of the acting industry, and what is termed as outside of the industry, is also uncovered.
An examination of how the Actor Training Community has been affected by other trainers and methodologies comprises Section Three. It is posited that an affiliation with past acting theory and practice has allowed the Actor Training Community to develop very individual training methodologies, so as to meet the needs of today‟s students.
Thus, via a boutiqueing of theory and practice, the community under investigation deconstruct, transform, and reinterpret acting methodologies. This process from boutique to unique is described in three stages: exposure to a methodology leads to the absorption of useful segments of that methodology, which in turn, leads to the embodiment of a unique methodology.
In Section Four, the training of the trainers is revealed, and the training practices, derived from the Actor Training Community‟s unique methodologies, are discussed.
Having trained internationally and locally, with professional experience predominantly in the field of acting, the Pedagogy of Eclecticism encompasses the community‟s training practices. Yet, three further pedagogies emerge to refine the concept of
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eclecticism. Therefore, the Pedagogy of Investigation, the Pedagogy of Fusion, and the
Pedagogy of Speed are specified. The first pedagogy encourages students to become aware of the myriad possibilities available to them for solving acting problems. It motivates them to examine these possibilities, and consequently, it helps them to expand their understanding, not only of acting, but also of the nature of humanity. The Pedagogy of Fusion involves the blending of occidental and oriental practices. Alternatively, this pedagogy marries the technical and emotional practices inherent in the Western actor training, usually associated with Britain and America. Lastly, the Pedagogy of Speed aims to find and practice the most time efficient ways to train actors in the three year degree program context. This pedagogy thus accepts the time constraints that public sector institutions enforce.
The aims of actor training are revealed in Section Five. It appears that the Actor
Training Community are committed to training actors to cope with the requirements of the industry. By the end of the training, the community hope that the students possess a technique, methodology, or process with which to approach an acting task. Additionally, the community aim to equip the students so as to manage the requirements pertaining to work outside of the industry. In turn, the Actor Training Community expect the students to be able to work independently, without the aid of a director. The community also expect the students to recognise that their work has the power to transform society.
Particular aims concerning the body and the voice are also mentioned. They include the development of physical strength, stamina and flexibility so as to achieve a state of neutrality, and the ability to realise vocal freedom.
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Furthermore in Section Five, the obstacles to the training aims are noted. These obstacles fall into four categories: the Culture of the Institution; the Culture of the
Industry; the Culture of the Student; and Notions of Identity. The Culture of the
Institution covers: the physical obstacles, such as the standard of the facilities available; the managerial constraints, such as timetabling, assessment, and staffing; and the professional blocks, such as the trainers‟ personal disposition, or the extent of the trainers‟ knowledge.
In a discussion regarding the Culture of the Industry, the obstacles that are highlighted relate to the self-esteem issues young acting graduates may experience upon entering the industry, and the notion of actors as disposable commodities. Furthermore, due to the producer driven soap-opera style acting that has been increasingly evident since the deregulation of the Australian industry, the lack of Australian acting role models available to the students is mentioned as an obstacle to the training aims. Moreover, the media‟s insistence on glamorising untrained actors is deemed problematic.
Emphasised in the category known as the Culture of the Student, are the obstacles relating to the era in which the students were born, and the attitude that has evolved from this time. Thus, the 1980‟s materialist mentality is blamed for the student‟ apparent complacency. Also, the fact that primary and secondary schooling in Australia has become outcome oriented is promoted as the reason why students have difficulty adjusting to the manner in which actors are trained. Most significantly, the students‟
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distrust of language in a visual age is posited as a major obstacle to achieving the aims of the training.
The final category in Section Five is Notions of Identity. This category exposes as an obstacle the students‟ ignorance of a distinctly Australian cultural heritage. Additionally, the tall poppy syndrome, still prevalent in Australian society, is accused of being responsible for the students‟ reluctance to develop their physical and vocal skills. The tall poppy syndrome is also seen to potentially limit their work opportunities to the local, rather than the global, industry.
Section Five closes on a positive note however, clarifying how the Actor Training
Community attempt to cope with the apparent limitations. Thus, the Pedagogy of Speed is emphasised as beneficial in dealing with timetabling constraints. The fact that the students gain university degrees is deemed advantageous, as a degree implies exposure to a substantial amount of serviceable knowledge. Additionally, if a student‟s acting career is unsuccessful, the degree is seen to assist the individual in seeking alternative forms of employment. With regards to the Culture of the Industry, though product oriented, the industry is seen as an incentive for some students. Moreover, whilst training, a process of enculturation can take place amongst the students, offering them acting role models in the form of their peers. The Actor Training Community view it as their duty to deconstruct the students‟ preconceptions regarding notions of acting and training. They also believe it is the task of the trainer to engender in the students a love of language. Finally, while the tall poppy syndrome is still in operation, at least
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Australian actors are permitted to use their own accents when working today, which was not the case prior to the 1960‟s. Such a move forward suggests that Australians are developing pride in their own voice.
Section Six offers the Actor Training Community‟s perception of the ideal training environment. Physical and managerial issues that relate to the Culture of the Institution are mentioned. Hence, with reference to the physical, the facilities that offer a total sense of theatre are essential to the ideal environment. These facilities include appropriate theatre spaces and rehearsal rooms. Such facilities should be housed at a location promoting focus and reflection. Managerially, a vocational program, for a limited number of students, with a flexible timetable, is necessary to achieve the status of an ideal environment. A combination of like-minded actor trainers, who would share the training load equally between the subjects of Acting, Movement and Voice, would also be needed to fulfil the managerial ideals. Furthermore, issues relating to the Culture of the Student are mentioned by the Actor Training Community: in an ideal training environment, the students would possess a non-judgemental attitude that would allow for a collaborative trainer / trainee relationship. Moreover, a distinction between the ideals of the three training institutions is discussed in this section. While the Heads of
Acting at NIDA and VCA are content with the physical and managerial aspects of their respective training institutions, QUT‟s new Head of Acting wishes for improved facilities and staffing arrangements.
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Finally, in Section Seven, the Actor Training Community define what is meant by the term acting, as well as what constitutes great acting. The community also specify examples of great acting in the contemporary Australian context. Therefore, acting is found to be a difficult concept to define without the use of a particular language of acting. However, the community is able to suggest that acting is an action in response to, or through, a stimulus that ignites the human faculties. The actions favoured by the community include: revealing; committing; sharing; and transforming. A written or physical text is usually the material stimulus, designed to engage and affect the actor‟s voice, body, intellect, emotions, psychology, spirit and imagination. Whether consciously or unconsciously, when defining acting the community tend to make reference to the stage prior to any mention of other mediums, such as film or television.
According to the Actor Training Community, great acting occurs when an actor experiences a selfless immersion in the imaginary stimulus. It can also take place when an audience is able to enter and share the imaginary world, or when the audience is transformed in some way by what they are witness to. The Heads of Acting at the training institutions under investigation offer three alternative criteria for judging great acting. They include: the range of theatre roles an actor has played; the sustained ability to transform; and the balanced combination of ingredients, such as the production team, the role, the space, the time, and the audience. While a number of names are mentioned with regards to examples of great acting, only Judy Davis, Robyn Nevin and Bille
Brown are appreciated by Acting, Movement and Voice staff alike.
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The constructivist grounded approach employed to identify the Actor Training
Community does not seek to judge or scientifically verify their beliefs or behaviour.
Thus, conceptual categories have been generated to fit this particular group of actor trainers. Additionally, as a constructivist, it has only been possible to interpret the interview data collected and translate it into what I perceive as the thing-meant.
Consequently, this chapter does not propose an objective theory regarding the truth about the Actor Training Community‟s job titles, aesthetic, methodology, pedagogy, aims, obstacles, and ideals. Alternatively, it offers theory pertaining to the issues mentioned that has emerged from the data placed in the hands of a fellow community member.
Throughout the chapter, the Actor Training Community will be referred to by the abbreviation ATC. Furthermore, when job titles are specified by members of the ATC, they will appear in bold print, ie: trainer.
Section One: The Search for an Appropriate Job Title
Lecturer and Tutor: the great misnomers
Public sector educational institutions tend to employ titles such as lecturer and tutor to specify the duties of staff members. As NIDA, VCA and QUT are public sector training institutions, one could assume that these titles are embraced and employed to determine the role of each member of staff. However, while such titles may be found in student handbooks next to the names of staff members, the ATC tend to reject such titles
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preferring to bill themselves as coaches, director-industry professionals, facilitators, teachers, and teacher-trainers. Their duties seem to spread across a range of activities and consequently, the traditional public sector institutional titles are incapable of clearly defining the specific role of each ATC member. In an attempt to clarify the varied job titles embraced by the ATC, it is useful to distinguish between two modes of instruction, namely the Deposit Mode and the Withdrawal Mode. These modes specify the role, or the function of the training, and the particular context in which the training occurs.
Whether the institutions could ever select an appropriate title for an individual involved in the training of actors is unlikely, as the members of the ATC tend to hold diverse opinions on the definition and suitability of the various titles in existence. For example,
Gerstle (Acting, VCA) states:
When I have anything to do with Melbourne University I‟m a lecturer, that‟s a misnomer though because one immediately images someone standing in front of a hall of a thousand people talking, so of course that doesn‟t connect. I think of myself, not as a coach or a trainer because that brings up images, for me, of sport and I think of acting training quite differently to the training of the body, just a body. Teacher is something that is always a problem because that harks back to childhood and high school teaching, the “teacher”, the beleaguered teacher, so I never use that. I have used tutor a lot, I refer to myself as tutor. At VCA I am called either a lecturer or teacher...I think of myself more as a theatre practitioner, because of the twenty years of working within a performance framework...So I would always use the terminology theatre practitioner, which is what I prefer, which is how I would describe myself (personal interview, 20 September 2001: 4 - 25).
Like Gerstle (Acting, VCA), who recognises lecturer purely as a formal title, Bain
(Movement, NIDA) explains that he is content to use lecturer on formal documentation
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such as a passport. Unlike Gerstle however, he is content to call himself a teacher, if he needs to explain the capacity in which he is employed to a layperson. However, he believes that neither of the titles accurately describes the diverse roles of an actor trainer.
He posits:
...I don‟t feel like either of them are terribly satisfactory because each of us is so many things. A teacher sounds as though you‟re pushing things into people, you‟re telling them what to do and what means what, but teaching is nearly the opposite, it‟s what you can draw out, what you can make the person discover for themselves rather than you teach them. Lecturer sounds like someone who stands behind a lectern and doesn‟t ask for questions or discussion but prepares something and delivers it. Coach, I think, is a very specific job, I think. A coach works in a one to one situation with somebody who has a particular problem to be solved: how do you act in front of a camera, how do you act in an opera, how do you move if you‟re wearing corsets and bustle and high heel shoes and a wig three feet high. I mean, you could coach somebody and you could help the individual, so though I coach, I don‟t feel that that‟s an appropriate name for me. I hate the word pedagogue, it‟s one of the ugliest words I‟ve ever come across. It‟s hard to spell, it‟s hard to say and sounds pretentious and dull really. So it is a hard one. There‟s got to be a word and I haven‟t found it yet, but if you find it, you let me know (personal interview, 4 October 2001: 93 - 110).
What the majority of ATC members agree on though, is that they assume a different title with every different function they fulfil within the training context. Cotton (Movement,
NIDA) suggests:
Well I guess there‟s lots of different labels for different functions, sometimes it‟s teacher, sometimes it‟s a coach, sometimes it is purely as a choreographer coming in and teaching a dance or movement sequence, and if I‟m working with a group of students devising work then I‟ll usually call myself a facilitator, or devisor / director. I mean there‟s all sorts
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of titles and I guess I would say it varies with the job. Like taking a class is different to working in a rehearsal of a specific play or, devising work, that‟s a different story again, so each of those requires, I think, a different title (personal interview, 2 October 2001: 3 - 10).
Thus, titles such as coach, director-industry professional, facilitator, teacher, and teacher-trainer are not defined according to standard dictionary definitions but in accordance with each member‟s subjective notions of the titles. These titles are also defined in accordance with how ATC members would like their individual contributions to a student‟s learning to be perceived.
Job Titles: a relationship between job function and job context
With reference to the Australian Macquarie Dictionary (Macquarie Library: 1994), each of the above mentioned job titles relates to the notion of instruction. However, the ATC relate a job title to the particular mode of instruction they perceive to be inherent in the function of a job. For example, Treadgold (Voice, QUT) implies that a teacher functions in a different way from a coach, when she explains that the teacher imparts knowledge while the coach builds on knowledge:
I‟m a teacher...there‟s an old saying, if the cap fits, you know, that‟s what I do...I look at myself as being a teacher, as an imparter of knowledge...When you‟re coaching, it is not, you‟re not defining as much, you‟re not sort of coming out with as many sort of definitions...Teaching you are, it‟s a constant explanation, whereas, coaching you‟re building on the strengths and the skills they already have... (personal interview, 7 November 2001: 3 - 7, 13 - 17).
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Imparting and building reflect the emergent modes of instruction recognised by the
ATC: the Deposit Mode; and the Withdrawal Mode. These instruction modes specify the job function associated with each job title.
The ATC also associate job titles with different contexts. Challis (Acting, QUT) for example, specifies job contexts when identifying job titles for himself: „teacher meaning teaching in classrooms and coaching as in coaching or facilitating a performance, for film and television and for theatre‟ (personal interview, 20 August 2001: 3 - 4). Three specific contexts are identified by the ATC: the classroom; the rehearsal; and the private tutorial. These job contexts further assist in ascertaining the appropriate job title.
Overall, what is apparent is a relationship between: a job title; a job function which is classified according to the two modes of instruction known as the Deposit Mode and the
Withdrawal Mode; and a job context. Therefore, ATC members will select an appropriate job title according to the perceived job function and the job context.
The Modes of Instruction: to deposit or withdraw
The Deposit Mode of instruction is directly related to the ATC‟s conception of the teacher as someone who is involved in the oral disclosure of knowledge. Via the spoken word, the teacher divulges facts and theory to the students, and in doing so, reinforces the practical aspects of their training. Subsequently, teaching is aligned with theory as opposed to practice, as students are required to engage in intellectual analysis rather than physical activity when being taught. Moreover, teaching is associated with teacher
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output rather than student input. This notion suggests that the action of teaching is analogous with the action of depositing: the teacher deposits knowledge into the students. The students learn because information has been deposited into them. It is recommended that this depositing is done within the formal setting of the classroom.
Alternatively, the Withdrawal Mode is associated with the ATC‟s conceptions of coaching, directing, facilitating, and training. Such activities build upon the students‟ existing theoretical knowledge and practical skills. This mode advocates practice rather than theory, and hence, encourages the students to make their own discoveries via physical activity. Additionally, students‟ individual problems, in relation to skills or particular performance obligations, are addressed through this mode of instruction.
Coaching, directing, facilitating and training require practical in-the-moment involvement from the students, thus their input is a necessity. The action that the coach, director, facilitator, and trainer is engaged in is similar to the notion of a withdrawal: the
ATC member draws skill, talent or a performance out of the students. The students learn because something has been withdrawn from them. Such a withdrawal can be done in the rehearsal context or the private tutorial context.
Meenach (Acting, QUT), clarifies the job function of the teacher as a Depositor, and the job function of the coach as a Withdrawer, by emphasising the difference between these two modes of instruction. He states:
...what we‟re really doing here is you can‟t teach it, you can only coach it and, um...even though there is some teaching involved, I think the real stuff is more like a coach...when you‟re a coach
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you‟re observing and then you‟re responding...it‟s a doing thing, and the more that you‟re allowing the student to do it, and then you‟re coaching what they‟re doing, the more you‟re getting stuff done, rather than sitting back and just critiqueing or teaching “This is beats, and the actions” and stuff like that. The real work to me comes when you‟re getting down to it and saying “Go for that, go get it, go, do that, no that”, you know, “Work harder there, go”, you know, and you‟re inspiring and you‟re pushing and you‟re cajoling and you‟re manipulating and you‟re doing whatever you can to get them to perform better, because ultimately acting is closer to sport than it is, say, um, economics...I mean since there is a pedagogy, um, acting now, there is a history, there‟s terms and languages and techniques that have to be communicated intellectually, have to be, um, taught in a way, I mean, it‟s important for an actor to understand the terminology, if nothing else, they need to understand the difference between beats and actions and what people mean by that, and you know, characterisation and what is meant by that in the conventional sense, or in my sense, and so there is teaching involved in those areas, um, which is really important but it‟s not the core, I mean really developing as an actor goes back again and gets down into the actual doing (personal interview, 29 August 2001: 13 - 16, 18 - 28, 32 - 40).
As indicated earlier in the chapter, Bain (NIDA, Movement) argues that teaching can encompass the notions of both Depositing and Withdrawal. Cook (Voice, VCA) supports this view by suggesting that:
...my relationship about being the teacher is that I have certain knowledge to impart and certain skills I can teach them but I am really keen on them to actually engage in how that effects them and to engage in dialogue with me. So it‟s not just about output from me, it‟s about receptivity from them. And I just see the teaching process as a far greater two way process I suppose (personal interview, 24 September 2001: 14 - 19).
Moreover, the Acting staff at NIDA, who make up two of the four ATC members who regard themselves primarily as teachers, believe that the two modes of instruction are
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employed simultaneously. Furthermore, they believe it is the duty of the teacher to take on other job functions, and consequently job titles, apart from those related to pedagogical outcomes. Knight (Acting, NIDA) states:
I think with any of us in this situation, with the position that we have, there is also counsellor, that comes into play, nurse, comforter. I mean one of the interesting issues just recently which did have a major impact was on the eleventh of September, and the following day of course was just, the students were devastated. Which was something I didn‟t necessarily, I was surprised by it. And we spent most of the day counselling and comforting, as I know it happened up at the university as well. So you had to, it was really doing a lot, a lot of reassurance. And that, and so work kind of went out the window a little bit, or you tried to bring them in to focus on the work, “Come on focus, it‟s going to be alright”. But that, I know it happened over at the university as well, and reacted very quickly, so those things happen. So you‟re a number, you‟re a bit of everything really, and you‟ve just got to stay aware of things (personal interview, 28 October 2001: 6 - 19).
Billing: the title, function and context relationship in action
While particular members of the ATC may recognise the constant meshing of the
Deposit Mode and the Withdrawal Mode so as to promote student learning, the majority of ATC members align themselves with one instruction mode or the other, according to the context. Hence, the job function is dependent upon the job context. In turn, when
ATC members are functioning in a particular context, a particular title will be assumed.
In this way, job title is dependent upon job context. Consequently as aforementioned, the
ATC assume a particular job title according to the job function and the job context.
This emergent pattern can be clarified thus: if the job title assumed is teacher, the job function is to Deposit, and the context is the classroom. The job titles of facilitator and
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director call on the Withdrawal Mode in the context of the rehearsal. Lastly, the job title coach adheres to the job function advocated by the Withdrawal Mode within the private tutorial context.
Teacher-trainer is a noteworthy job title, as it suggests that both the Deposit Mode and the Withdrawal Mode function within the classroom context, in a learning process that is sequential in nature: one mode of instruction is followed by the other. Williams (Voice,
NIDA) posits:
...I can‟t separate those two...Because when I‟m teaching somebody I then have to train them to be able to do it efficiently and with ease...I think the teacher is the person who, as I say, stands up in the class and says “Okay, today we‟re going to do”, let‟s say, “some jaw work, we‟re going to free our jaws, alright. Why do we need to free our jaws?”. I see no point in teaching anything unless the actor, or the person concerned, can see “What do I need to do this for?”, then, after I‟ve said that, I‟ve then got to train them to be able to do it. That‟s how I see the difference between the two (personal interview, 2 October 2001: 3 - 14).
Director-industry professional is also a job title of note, as it suggests that the Deposit
Mode must function inside of the Withdrawal Mode, in the rehearsal context. Gerstle
(Acting, VCA) asserts:
When I‟m directing them in a show, I‟m an artist making a piece of work and that‟s the way that I relate to them, but at the same time I‟ve got my pedagogical hat on because in order to try and get them to do what I need them to do I have to teach them at the same time (personal interview, 20 September 2001: 39 - 43).
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Old Favourites and New Ideas: the job title search continues
80% of the ATC recognise the job title teacher, and 53.4% are able to indicate the other job titles they choose to combine with that of teacher. As few as 20% of the ATC identify themselves specifically as director-teachers. ATC members involved with the subjects of Acting and Movement are more likely to use such a job title, while those involved with the subject of Voice prefer the job titles teacher, teacher-trainer, facilitator and coach.
Only 46.7% of the ATC recognise the job title coach in combination with other job titles. While 6.7% embrace the job title exclusively, 20% reject coach as a job title due to its association with sport.
As the ATC overwhelmingly dismiss the job titles of lecturer and tutor, the public sector institutions that house the training schools may need to identify alternative titles to embrace all the functions and contexts that constitute the work of the ATC. Bain
(Movement, NIDA) suggests a title that could meet this need:
Animateur is a good word, someone who animates someone, who inspires, who excites. That‟s a good word but nobody knows what it means...But that‟s a good word, that‟s a good word, because it does imply that it‟s not just facts that you‟re teaching. It‟s feel and experience and belief and unself- consciousness and impulse. It means all of those nice things (personal interview, 4 October 2001: 119 - 121, 127 - 129).
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While the search for the appropriate job title continues, at the beginning of the twenty- first century the ATC consider themselves predominantly as coaches, director-industry professionals, facilitators, teachers, and teacher-trainers. The modes of instruction, the Deposit Mode and the Withdrawal Mode, assist in matching the suitable job title with the job function to be accomplished, in the training contexts recognised as the classroom, the rehearsal and the private tutorial. Regardless of the diverse preferences the ATC have for job titles, they do agree on certain issues regarding a training aesthetic.
Section Two: The ATC Training Aesthetic
An Aesthetic?: “oui mais non”
The ATC may not be training actors to engage in any one field, form or style of activity, yet they do uphold certain notions that may affect the way in which the training is conducted. Using the term aesthetic in a very loose manner, as a philosophy or a set of beliefs regarding actor training, the ATC are training according to an aesthetic that endorses ensemble, notions of truth, and theatre making, in the contexts of the industry and outside of the industry.
Ensemble: relinquishing the ego as a career strategy
Recognised as an anti-hierarchical, collaborative art form requiring team players that are willing to surrender their egos to the group and the work, the concept of ensemble is advocated by 66.7% of the ATC, and is particularly popular amongst those involved with the subject of Acting. O‟Hare (Acting, QUT) offers not only an insight into what
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ensemble means to the ATC, but gives an indication as to what is meant by the context known as the industry. He states:
I believe that an actor needs to be a team player, an ensemble player... and I would tend to cast actors, as do the style of director that is now working in the industry, we tend to, you know, Neil Armfield for instance who‟s another great director and Gale Edwards who are my professional and personal associates, Adam Cook, Maeliosa Stafford, um, a style of directing that is happening in Australia, Simon Philips is another one, um, requires actors that are team players, are ensemble players, and we tend to cast those types of actors and we‟re looking for those types of actors, and we actually talk to each other, we recommend actors to each other, that‟s the industry as far as the theatre is concerned. So...we want team players, ensemble players, we all agree on that and the same actors keep cropping up, and in the Australian industry, the same actors keep cropping up in film, as they do on stage, you know, Jeremy Sims and I cast Sacha Horler in Hamlet, she‟s also doing most of the film work in this town. Susie Porter, um, Cate Blanchett before she went overseas, um, are examples, Rachel Griffiths, are examples of the people that, you know, I‟ve worked with, we‟ve all worked with together and they‟ve also got film and television careers. Geoffrey Rush, um, Dan Riley, Richard Roxbrough, David Wenham, um, David Wenham and Richard Roxbrough worked with me with O‟Punskys and Maeliosa and Patrick Dickson, um, Max Cullen, Jacqueline Mackenzie, they‟re the kind of actors that we‟re looking at, they‟re quintessentially Australian actors that are versatile, that can move between stage and screen without a hiccup...we want those quintessentially, or we‟re moving in that direction, and directors are directing in that style in film and television as well, um, Arnie Nemee, Andrew Lewis, um, Kate Woods, you know, film directors and television directors, um, and all the film directors that I know, we all speak the same language and we‟re all looking for the same kind of actors, that quintessential Australian actor that‟s actually taken the world by storm (personal interview, 23 August 2001: 265 - 288, 293 - 299).
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Dunphy (Movement, QUT) offers an insight into the promotion of ensemble in the training context. She also highlights how a focus on ensemble may enhance the work of the industry in the future. She posits:
...I‟ve been in the industry where I‟ve felt there is just too many egos flying around and that through doing physical exercise or... addressing...the honesty in the body and working very hard, um, actually exhausts your mind and exhausts the ego out of your system and drops it into your body. So that‟s one big thing I‟ve been addressing, ego, that I don‟t want these people...through not working hard enough they tend, will tend to sort of develop an ego...Or it gets encouraged, which it shouldn‟t. So, I think the ensemble is crucial, the ensemble, addressing the ego and working, you know, working away from the sort of rising chatter and rising thoughts that come in...because we all know how difficult it is just to stand onstage and do nothing...I feel that it‟s come from my journey, and my sort of shying away from the industry in a funny kind of way, and wanting to teach, you know, because I felt...I can‟t exist in, I don‟t want to exist in an industry that is um, and I think you grow out of that, some people do, but I just sort of thought, we can‟t be giving the industry a bad name here, you know, we have to take this industry seriously for the future of Australian theatre... (personal interview, 9 November 2001: 222 - 232, 234 - 247)
Notions of Truth: believability and embodiment
With regards to whether VCA train actors according to a particular aesthetic, Davies
(Acting, VCA) states „if one says that truth is an aesthetic, yes that‟s the aesthetic, but not any style or form, so that hopefully people trained by us will be able to work in any style and any form and any possibility‟ (personal interview, 26 September 2001: 81 -
84). Whilst the notion of truth may be perceived differently by different people, this study posits that the two words “truth” and “believability” contain similar thoughts, ideas and feelings. The notion of truth, or believability, suggests the ability to confidently communicate to an audience in a convincing manner, that some members of
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the ATC even define as “not acting”. Thus, when Meenach (Acting, QUT) discusses the aesthetic of believability, he is embracing the all-encompassing category of truth. He asserts:
...the only aesthetic I have is that it‟s believable...Believability is really this, ultimately the suspension of belief in the audience...You know, what the audience wants to do is they want to suspend their belief, they want to forget about where they are and they want to enter this imaginary world, so that‟s the key (personal interview, 29 August 2001: 141 - 142, 151 - 152, 160 - 163).
Furthermore, when Cook (Voice, VCA) speaks of embodiment, she is expanding on the meaning of truth, offering a relationship between an elusive concept and what students can aim for in the area of vocal truth. She explains:
...what‟s important is that, for me, the voice is embodied and that it can move across any range, emotional, physical, that is required of it at any given time. And that takes particular training, but in terms of wanting a particular sound, maybe that‟s more: no. What I‟m interested in though is that whatever sound is made um, that the students, the actors training, find the form and shape and resonance of that, so that informs them about the vibration of that sound, how that can connect to a deeper emotional meaning...it‟s about making sure that any sound is distinctive and has it‟s own shape, it‟s own form, it‟s own resonance...That the vibration of the sound is very much coming from within the body, rather than having a sense of what it sounds like outside and listening to oneself...If I have a sense of “It should sound like this” then I‟m stepping outside of my body, the sensation that I allow myself to experience would sound in my body. So that would be, I suppose, the major factor (personal interview, 24 September 2001: 193 - 200, 203 - 204, 210 - 215).
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Thus, while the ATC do not advocate a particular theatrical style or form, such as realism or absurdism for example, an actor‟s ability to find and sustain truth in their work is crucial. No matter how elusive believability or embodiment may be, at least half the ATC demand such notions of truth from the actor. Consequently, the majority of the
ATC train actors for the possibility of truth in their work, whether that work is the interpretation of material in existence or the making of new work.
Theatre Making: signs of independence and integrity
In favour of an actor‟s involvement in theatre making rather than working solely as an interpreter of other people‟s work, Cotton (Movement, NIDA) explains:
...one of the things I try to do in the process of teaching the students is to give them the confidence and belief that they can create and do things themselves. Again, it‟s not up to somebody else to come along and offer them a role, you can create your own work, and I think that‟s empowering for them (personal interview, 2 October 2001: 119 - 123).
Additionally, Knight (Acting, NIDA) confirms the ATC‟s view regarding theatre making, in light of the context known as the industry. He posits:
...you are also involved in a business, so don‟t, you can‟t lose sight of the fact that you are also associated with a business, and hence, that should be taken a lot more seriously than I think it is. Yes, it‟s this issue of independence, “Don‟t wait for the phone call, go and do it yourself”. So I think it gets back to this independent aesthetic. And trust, believe that you‟ve got something to say (personal interview, 28 September 2001: 416 - 421).
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Theatre making is thus a way for actors to become empowered and demonstrate signs of independence within the context of the industry. It is also seen by the ATC as a tool for individual creative expression that can benefit the community. In this statement, Gerstle
(Acting, VCA) reinforces the ATC‟s opinion regarding the significance of theatre making. Additionally, she differentiates between the context of the industry, and the context recognised as outside of the industry, when she explains:
I‟ve had various experiences of flirting with the industry, or the profession in different ways, main stream theatrical work or industry experiences, but it‟s not really an interest that I personally have, that world nor that culture. That‟s probably why I feel more compelled to teach because I‟m more interested in trying to expose young people‟s minds to other possibilities. It may keep them poor but it may also give them a way to live their life as an artist rather than be driven by the idea of an industry, which is about disposability and commodities, and what you look like, and I think that is soul destroying for a talented person. If you happen to get on the roller coaster at the right time and the right place and it takes you for a ride I think you‟re very lucky and it can be a great experience but I think most of the talented young people who want to create, or want to act, are looking for the expression of their creativity and there‟s a great need out there for grass roots making of work. There‟s a huge need for people to go out into communities and keep theatre alive, keep performance alive, and to have a morality behind it. To have an attitude of not doing this for the money. Not doing this for the fame, doing this because they love to do it. I feel very strongly that to work in theatre is a calling and if you don‟t have that kind of drive, if there‟s anything else you could do, rather than that, I would say do it, because it‟s a hard life. Not hard comparatively and relatively, but I‟m saying it‟s a hard life emotionally and psychologically. Most people give up early on because it‟s hard to stay in there. I think if you see it as a calling and have that kind of integrity, then it‟s about the quality of what you make, regardless of the context, regardless of where you are and what you‟re being paid. Only then can you keep creating work with integrity (personal interview, 20 September 2001: 123 - 148).
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Consequently, while the ATC do not perceive the training of actors as an exercise that offers skills in creation, independence and artistic integrity, exclusively for the purpose of theatre making, 60% of the ATC do recognise that the training should expose students to the artistic and financial benefits of theatre making. ATC members based at VCA are particularly committed to the theatre making aesthetic. Such a commitment may enrich the realm recognised as outside of the industry. Alternatively, it may have the power to transform current notions of the industry.
The Industry: notions of inside and outside
From the wisdom of the tribe already cited, it is possible to offer some guide as to how the ATC distinguish the industry from the notion of outside of the industry. The first context relates to the global theatre, film and television industry, within which an actor can forge a monetarily profitable career. Actors can become marketable commodities in the hands of directors and producers within this context. The second context can still encompass the same mediums, but rather than towards personal profit, the focus of the work is geared towards the social and political education / nourishment / transformation of the Australian community. A degree of actor autonomy from the likes of producers is assured within this context, and it offers actors a way to live their life as artists as opposed to commodities.
While 80% of the ATC are training actors for the possibilities provided by the industry aesthetic, such as commercial theatre, film and television roles, 53.4% of the ATC also recognise that they are training actors for the possibilities found outside of this industry
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aesthetic. This section of the ATC are thus encouraging the development of new theatrical aesthetics rather than simply reinforcing the contemporary industry aesthetic.
Further ramifications of these two distinct yet inextricably linked contexts will be discussed later in the chapter (see Section Five).
Section Three: The ATC Training Methodology
Transforming the Past: unique or boutique
Half the ATC admit to aligning themselves with particular actor trainers and training methodologies, however they do not believe that there is any absolute methodology of training. The other half do not admit to aligning themselves with particular actor trainers and training methodologies, yet hold the opinion that the diverse methodologies available to actor trainers can be helpful to draw on in their training context. Thus, it could be said that the ATC are aware of the training methodologies that have evolved throughout the twentieth century in particular, but choose to trust their own methodological instincts in the training context. In this way, a boutiqueing of methodological processes available to the ATC, culminates in unique training methodologies.
Downes (Movement, QUT) states „I think when you‟re working artistically, you find yourself gravitating towards particular ideas, um, not necessarily people, and it‟s the people that are attached to those ideas that you tend to sort of say “Oh this person‟s my
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influence”...‟ (personal interview, 17 September and 16 November 2001: 238 - 241).
Furthermore, Bain (Movement, NIDA) suggests:
I‟m a bit frightened about theories...I‟ll follow everybody and anybody if they‟ve got something to say that helps me, and that helps me help others, I think people like Laban are just miracle men, to make those discoveries after all those centuries of nobody really having found the building blocks of movement until this century, you know, and then to have found such words, and to have found such theoretical things, I think it‟s just wonderful. But I don‟t, for a minute, think that by teaching say, the Laban theory that I can help an actor better through that way than a whole lot of eclectic things. I‟m a great eclectic one, you know. And we shouldn‟t all teach the same way. We should have our own flavours, and we get them not by just borrowing them off Feldenkrais and Alexander and so forth. If they help you use them. It is important that you - and your students - know that they exist, but to base my course of teaching on one particular theory is not my way (personal interview, 4 October 2001: 72 - 86).
ATC members based at VCA subscribe to a methodology that fosters the autonomous actor. While this is not unusual in itself, as NIDA and QUT also foster notions of autonomy and independence, unlike the other schools, the VCA student handbook explains this methodology very specifically. Such concepts as the fundamental principles of the training, the values inherent in the course structure and content, the particular teaching methods, and a glossary of terms, are outlined clearly for the student.
In speaking with the Acting and Voice staff, their use of the methodology‟s terminology confirms their alignment with this distinctive methodology of autonomy: they tend to employ terms or phrases that are evident in the student handbook (2001: 5, 8) such as
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„fluency‟, „unconditional positive regard‟ and „atmosphere of permission‟ in their conversation.
However, the evolution of this methodology did not take place in isolation. Strube
(2001: 52) states:
Lindy Davies‟ approach to the craft of acting synthesises effective elements from past practice whilst extending present boundaries for creative practice. Her processual work discloses a skilful analysis and reorganisation of acting theory, culminating in a framework that stimulates the actor‟s acquisition of knowledge for performance.
The pioneer of this methodology is comfortable with the methodology being described as derivative of past acting practice and theory, as she supports the way in which Strube
(2001) articulates the methodology. Davies (Acting, VCA) explains that „it‟s a beautiful article she‟s written...I think she writes really well, I think she sort of captured it‟
(personal interview, 26 September 2001: 63, 67 - 68).
Yet again then, it is possible to suggest that members of the ATC are aligned with past ideas, people and methodologies, but they deconstruct, transform and reinterpret conceptions of acting and training to suit the needs of their particular training context: a process of boutiqueing provides the foundation for a unique approach to the training of actors in Australia today.
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Methodological Alignment Patterns: similarity in diversity
The ATC align themselves with such diverse trainers and methodologies that it is difficult to suggest any significant pattern of alignment. No more than 40% of the ATC share an association with any particular trainer or methodology. However, it is interesting to report the trainers and methodologies that the ATC align themselves with, or at least admire, so as to gain a clearer picture of this particular training community.
Thus, what follows is a list of all the trainers or methodologies mentioned, in order of prevalence: Grotowski (40%); Stanislavsky (34.4%); Berry, methods for tapping into the unconscious, Morris (26.7%); Adler, Benedetti, Meisner, spiritual paradigms, Strasberg
(20%); ATC colleagues, Brook, Chekhov, Hagen, Laban, Linklater, Meyerhold, other art forms such as music, Rodenburg, Suzuki (13.4%); Rowena Balos, Barba, Bodenwieser,
Bogart, Cohen, Colson, Contact Improvisation, Roy Hart, Heathcote, Lecoq, Lessac,
Littlewood, Malmgren, the psychologists Jung and Rogers, Spolin, and Iris Warren
(6.7%).
In search of patterns, it emerges that the QUT Acting staff mention both Grotowski and
Stanislavsky, while the Acting staff of VCA favour Grotowski exclusively, and the
NIDA Acting staff favour Stanislavsky exclusively. The Acting staff at QUT all align themselves with Grotowski, Stanislavsky, Morris and Benedetti; while the Acting staff at VCA align with Grotowski, Brook, spiritual paradigms and methods for tapping into the unconscious; and again, the NIDA Acting staff align with Stanislavsky.
Additionally, the QUT Movement staff acknowledge the Suzuki methodology. Not surprisingly, the Acting staffs of each school associate themselves with the
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methodologies they experienced as undergraduate students or as industry professionals.
Similarly, the members of the ATC involved in the subjects of Movement and Voice also tend to affiliate themselves with their own trainers.
Meenach (Acting, QUT) believes:
...there is no really acting technique except Stanislavsky, there‟s Delsarte, but you know we threw that out a long time ago and in the States there is, people will say they‟re new, you know, Eric (Morris, my italics) will say he‟s new and they‟re not really, it‟s new ways of talking about the same thing (personal interview, 29 September 2001: 247 - 250).
While other ATC members may not necessarily share the view that seemingly diverse methodologies are in fact similar in nature, Meenach‟s statement reinforces the notion that actor trainers have the ability to deconstruct, transform and reinterpret the acting theory and practice they have been exposed to, so as to meet the requirements of their own training context.
Boutique to Unique: the embodiment of methodology
With regards to the ATC‟s alignment with particular trainers or methodologies, a pattern of behaviour emerges that suggests that a process of exposure, absorption and embodiment leads to the formation of a unique methodology of actor training. This pattern of behaviour can be explained in stages. To begin, once the ATC is exposed to a trainer or a training methodology, the information that the ATC considers useful to the training of actors is absorbed. The information absorbed subtly informs the training processes employed by the ATC. At some point this information becomes so much a
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part of the manner in which the ATC trains actors that it ceases to be the work of another and becomes second nature to the ATC. It is at this stage that the information becomes embodied. This state of methodological embodiment allows the ATC to train actors as if by intuition, rather than via an alignment with someone else‟s work.
This pattern of behaviour strengthens the boutique to unique theory, which posits that the ATC collect or select appropriate methodological training tools from diverse sources, and deconstruct, transform and reinterpret them in accordance with the needs of their specific training context. It also offers a three step guide as to how the ATC make the transition from deconstruction, to transformation, to the reinterpretation of past methodologies.
Stage One: exposure
Downes (Movement, QUT) illustrates the first stage of the process towards the embodiment of a unique methodology: the exposure stage. The ATC member is exposed to acting theory and practice that she considers useful to her training context. Her work consequently becomes informed by this process of exposure:
I have very much adopted um things that have been said to me or lessons that have been taught to me in the past because they were clear and understandable and accessible and I could use them immediately and I didn‟t feel like I had to go and read the entire library to understand them (personal interview, 17 September 2001 and 16 November 2001: 191 - 194).
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Stage Two: absorption
The progression from the exposure stage to the absorption stage is represented by
Gerstle (Acting, VCA). Here we see that the methods of others are not only informing her work, but she has absorbed them to the point whereby she is able to transform these methods to suit her training needs. Thus, she has been exposed to information and she has satisfactorily absorbed that information. Gerstle states:
I‟ve worked with a lot of people as an actor and used a lot of their work transforming that on the floor and expanding it, and changing it, as you do as a teacher. You start developing your own work on the floor continually, but it always comes from somewhere. I‟ve always worked with a lot of different notions from a lot of different people. Some have written it up, so it exists in book form, but there‟s a lot of people who haven‟t ever got to that, who were just teaching on the floor, that I was lucky enough to be exposed to, whose work I enjoyed, and I took that on. I think really the kind of work that I do is often very eclectic and I use many different tools from many different types of training and people in order to really just move and shake the person who is on the floor...a lot of Grotowski work, from a physical perspective that I‟ve taken on and that now you wouldn‟t recognise on the floor as that. Roy Hart voice and movement work, Contact Improvisation, but you might not recognise that either. The Secret Art of the Performer edited by Eugenio Barba, I love a lot of the work that‟s in there and his experimentation with occidental and oriental performance forms, so whether that translates onto the floor or not I don‟t know, but that‟s where my head is often theoretically. I worked in 1989 with an extraordinary man at the Whitney Museum, he is a jazz musician and invented a sign language to conduct improvising musicians...I observed his work and that‟s where I started to build a whole vocabulary of working with actors, improvising on the floor for performance improvisation. As I was working with him, observing him all the time I was translating / how can I do this with actors? That‟s the origin of the work that I do, which I call Pulse... (personal interview, 20 September 2001: 335 - 346, 351 - 366)
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Stage Three: embodiment
The final stage of the process of methodological embodiment is expressed by Cook
(Voice, VCA). Exposure and absorption are complete. Thus, embodiment can take place: the information gleaned from others combines with her own experiences training actors to form a methodology of training that is unique. Cook states:
...it feels, I can‟t imagine what else, how else one would teach this...and that‟s not written down, that‟s in your body memory isn‟t it? That‟s what I carry in my body, so um, that experience is very much in my body. And I suppose only in the last five years have I really started to want to articulate it for some reason. I did a Masters too, and looking at actor training but from a different perspective um, and I started to have to think about well, so what is it, I mean, when you‟re sitting in a rehearsal room, you know, am I imitating these people, am I, but I think what it is it‟s just these waves and waves of physical experiences that you have, that for me, then when I‟m working with students on the floor that‟s what I‟m using. You know, there‟s no turn to page thirty to find this exercise, I don‟t know where it is. But I do know at certain times in their performance experience and in their training experience, I‟ll need to take them on a particular path, and that‟s intuitive and that‟s experience (personal interview, 24 September 2001: 263 - 264, 268 - 280).
On the journey from boutique to unique the ATC follow a path that leads from exposure to trainers and methodologies, to the absorption of the useful segments of their work, to the embodiment of a methodology that meets the needs of today‟s students. Though the influences over the ATC may be diverse, this process of reinterpretation of past acting theory and practice is common to all members of the community. Such a process results in training practices that can be considered eclectic.
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Section Four: The Training Practices of the ATC
Pedagogic Histories: the past creates the pedagogic present
In light of the pattern of behaviour that suggests the ATC deconstruct, transform and reinterpret established acting theories and practices so as to create unique training methodologies to meet their training context, it is no surprise to find that the ATC overwhelmingly regard their pedagogic practices as eclectic. However, when examining the road the ATC have travelled, from students to practicing artists to actor trainers, other pedagogies emerge from this eclecticism. The pedagogies evident amongst members of the ATC are categorised as the Pedagogies of Investigation, Fusion and
Speed.
Training the Trainers: an international pilgrimage
At least 73.4% of the ATC trained in the subjects of Acting, Movement and Voice overseas. 46.7% of the ATC sought Acting and Voice tutelage in the UK. Only 26.7% admit to Acting and Voice tutelage in the US. While it is unknown what subjects were studied, 13.4% of the ATC make reference to training in Europe. Additionally, while
6.7% studied in Japan, it is unclear whether the other 26.7% who admit to exposure to
Asian methods actually travelled to Asia for tutelage. Lastly, 60% of the ATC studied formally at Australian public sector institutions.
It may be of interest to note that the Acting staff at NIDA trained there, two of the QUT
Acting staff trained at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, and two of
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the VCA Acting staff admit to seeking out masters of the craft rather than training formally. Three out of the four Voice staff interviewed trained with Cicely Berry. While the training of the Movement staff provides no dominant pattern, it ranges from classical ballet at the Australian Ballet School, to Viewpoints training with Anne Bogart at the
Saratoga International Theatre Institute. Furthermore, while 26.7% of the ATC admit to working professionally as directors, 86.7% have experience as professional actors in
Australia and overseas.
The ATC‟s initial training, whether it was of a formal nature or took the form of pilgrimages to masters, drove the ATC on to such activities as professional acting, theatre directing, theatre laboratory experimentations and further tuition. From this training history, four training pedagogies have evolved. While the Pedagogy of
Eclecticism could summarise the training practices of the ATC, the practices of particular members refine this pedagogy. What emerges from this refinement is the
Pedagogy of Investigation, the Pedagogy of Fusion, and the Pedagogy of Speed.
The Pedagogy of Investigation: be aware, examine and expand
Knight (Acting, NIDA) is able to clarify the nature of an eclectic pedagogy in explaining his approach to training at NIDA. Additionally, his derision of dogmatic training approaches highlights the need for an awareness of the myriad ways to solve a creative problem. Fostering such awareness amongst the students is an essential element in the
Pedagogy of Investigation. Knight posits:
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I think one of the things about training at NIDA, also, is that it‟s eclectic. I‟m not dogmatic about anything, the idea is actually to encourage the students to develop a technique that is appropriate to themselves, rather than the teacher. So I kind of think, look, if a bit of Uta Hagen works for you, great, what about, think about all the other things, and you find something that works for you...to take a dogmatic approach to all the various different plays that you‟re in, well you very quickly discover that, say for example, Stanislavsky‟s system doesn‟t necessarily always work with Shakespeare, because sometimes the...what is more important is the image rather than the action...Also when it comes to simply to, like working in musical theatre for example, yes, we can apply the actions objective work, yes we do apply all that but every now and then you hit something and it doesn‟t apply, and you‟ve got to go “Well, we‟ve got to go to another technique in order to solve this”. So that‟s what I encourage the actors, don‟t be dogmatic, be flexible, there‟s lots of solutions to lots of problems, you‟ve just got to be aware of them (personal interview, 28 September 2001: 521 - 527, 529 - 533, 539 - 545).
In an unpublished paper entitled Wind on the Wire, Davies (Acting, VCA) specifies how her life experiences have shaped her sensibility. The importance of curiosity, and the power it can have over one‟s perspective is observed. Her discussion of curiosity, and the acceptance of the state of not knowing, a state whereby one is open to new ideas without preconceived prejudices, highlights another essential element of the Pedagogy of Investigation. Davies not only summarises the approach to training endorsed at VCA, but also emphasises the fostering of examination in the training context. She states:
All of the above experiences had one thing in common I was amazed They were also distinguished by a distinctive blend of a sense of awe, and an intellectual or visceral engagement They also engendered profound curiosity or compassion They also challenged my assumptions about the world. And provoked
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a change of perspective ...What all of these experiences have in common is the fact that we were working from the premise of not knowing and continuing to test the boundaries of our art form in order to find out. We were engaged with ideas and a passion for investigation. We were in dialogue with each other and collaboratively engaged in a continual critique of our work (2001: 8 - 9).
Challis (Acting, QUT) emphasises the final essential element of the Pedagogy of
Investigation: expansion. Thus, through a process of awareness and examination, students are able to constantly expand their understanding of life and acting. He explains:
...my pedagogy is synonymous with some kind of personal philosophy and I think the two are very closely linked, especially to do with the subject of acting because acting is about life. I feel actors have a responsibility to continually expand their awareness and understanding of life. To expand their spiritual horizons and I would say that‟s the job of an actor. It‟s the same thing to be constantly expanding an awareness of the human condition of life, of one‟s self. So the pedagogy, if you like, is inextricably linked with that kind of philosophical position (personal interview, 20 August 2001: 332 - 340).
The Pedagogy of Fusion: occidental meetings
A number of ATC members admit to blending training practices from one culture, or school of thought, with another so as to train actors. The most popular fusions seem firstly, to be between occidental and oriental training practices, and secondly, between what can be described as technical and psycho-emotional approaches to acting.
Consequently, the Pedagogies of Fusion bring together Eastern and Western practices, or marry two Western practices: the so-called British and the American schools of acting.
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What is interesting to note however, is that the Eastern influence may not be derived directly from exposure to Eastern trainers but from Western trainers interested in Eastern forms. Thus, a fusion of Eastern and Western practices has evolved through a European sensibility. Whereas, those who fuse the technical and psycho-emotional approaches do so after direct exposure to British and American actor training practices.
Gerstle‟s (Acting, VCA) use of occidental and oriental performance forms inspired by
Barba has already been noted in this chapter, and Davies (Acting, VCA) reinforces this
Pedagogy of Fusion when she states:
The strongest influence on me has been Buddhism, that‟s where I‟d say that Buddhism has been the source of my work. But I‟d say the thing that‟s interesting about our school, if you‟re looking at where people are influenced by, we haven‟t been influenced by England, we haven‟t been influenced by America, we‟ve been influenced by Europe, so it‟s the Brook, Grotowski, Lecoq model. But most particularly it‟s the Brook Lecoq combination that, Lecoq is a very important part of our teaching...I wasn‟t affected at all by the American stream of thought because I couldn‟t connect with it and I can only work with what I can connect with. And essentially I think the thing that interests me is the trance state, and that‟s where I work from, not that the students even ever hear that word. But I‟m not interested in the psychological, I‟m interested in the transformative and the trance state, the psychological inevitably becomes part of it and those questions are used but I do see that they are two different modes. One, which I‟d say is Lecoq / Asian trance mode, and American psychological mode (personal interview, 26 September 2001: 139 - 146, 158 - 166).
Jackson (Acting, NIDA) illustrates the West meets West Pedagogy of Fusion in his discussion of the so-called English and American schools:
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...when I came to NIDA, I guess the training that we had here was, my head of course was Alexander Hay, one of the great actors‟ teachers of Australia, with the industry, and then John Bell for a year, so the training was very English, it was very technical in the sense of how to speak and how to move, but my inspiration to work was, this American thing. So then after training here...I went to America, to the American Conservatory Theatre, where I then was introduced to, I guess, a rehash of the Stanislavsky system, slash Strasberg, slash the American...So what I teach to an actor is a combination of my own experience of the technical balance of the English approach, which is cool headed, and the emotional wallowing of the method or the American Strasberg / Stanislavsky system, and pulling the two things together so that there‟s a striking up, trying to get the actor to strike a balance between those two approaches, which is essentially English cool headed and American emotional. They‟re both gross generalisations but at their worst that‟s what they are: cool and wallowing. At their best they‟re the same. So what I try to teach is a combination of my experience in two schools (personal interview, 4 October 2001: 66 - 71, 75 - 86).
The Pedagogy of Speed: making the most of three years
As the actor training courses offered by the public sector in Australia are all three years in duration, the question of what to cover in a relatively short period of time must be addressed by the trainers. Gerstle (Acting, VCA) describes such a short training period as:
...just a little glip in their journey and an interesting glip, and it‟s time for them to sort out how they want to live, what they consider themselves to be, whether they‟re a maker, whether they‟re an interpreter or, whether they‟re really an actor at all, maybe they‟re a director (personal interview, 26 September 2001: 208 - 211).
Meenach (Acting, QUT) chooses to address this little glip in a manner that is somewhat different to the majority of ATC members. Rather than suggesting the possibility of
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extending the training time to four years, so as to deepen the students‟ knowledge and experience of acting, he embraces a Pedagogy of Speed. He posits:
...the only reason here that I think we‟re relying so much on the Morris, there‟s only really one reason, and that is time. Eric‟s got a really nice, the thing he does better than anybody really around is he has a real nice way of working right on the actor‟s instrument right away. You know a series of exercises that help the actor explore that instrument. And if you‟ve only got three years, then you need something like that because in order to try to do it conventionally working through scene work only takes much more time. And that‟s the way Stanislavsky worked, basically, was through the scene, through the play, and that just takes so much time and we don‟t have that much time. We could spend all three years doing that. So there has to be a way to get the actor comfortable with his instrument faster. That‟s why everybody is pigeon-holing me there, because in the first year especially that‟s where we need to concentrate, it‟s going to be getting that instrument into some sort of shape and range that, you know, getting the actor outside of themselves basically, fast. It‟s too fast, it should be at least four years, you know, and I‟m sure all the voice and movement teachers are struggling to find faster, better ways because of the constraints that they‟re under. And that‟s all we‟re doing. So the Morris work definitely works best for that. I challenge anybody to come in here and show me something that works faster. And almost every acting teacher that comes into my class and sees it, takes it and does something with it, you know, so I know it works faster. And you can come in and talk about, you know, just scene work all day long but, you know, that takes a long time to train the actor that way, I was trained that way. I was trained in, you know, very Stanislavsky, and working on Chekhov, you know, working scenes, working scenes, but I went to school for nine years so that‟s a lot different from three (personal interview, 29 August 2001: 265 - 290).
The Pedagogies of Eclecticism are a direct result of the ATC‟s exposure to local and international actor training. Advocating investigation, fusion and speed, the pedagogies
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of the ATC are focused towards achieving the aims of the training at their respective training schools.
Section Five: Training Aims and Obstacles
Training Aims: an independent process for survival and change
The unique methodologies that underlie an aesthetic based on ensemble, truth and theatre making in the context of the industry or outside of the industry, are expressed by the ATC to the students, through pedagogies of eclecticism such as investigation, fusion and speed. While each member of the ATC will train actors according to what they have embodied so as to meet the needs of their particular training context, a number of dominant training aims have emerged. By the end of the three years of training, 86.7% of the ATC believe that the students should have the ability to cope with the requirements of the industry. 73.4% think that the students should possess a technique / methodology / process that they can use when approaching an acting task. 66.7% of the
ATC are of the opinion that the students should have the ability to cope with the requirements pertaining to outside of the industry. Furthermore, at the close of the three years training, 60% of the ATC believe that the students should possess the know-how to work independently, without the aid of a director. Lastly, 53.4% hope that the students recognise that their work can transform societal beliefs and values.
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75% of the Movement staff is committed to assisting the students build their physical strength, stamina and flexibility; and to acquire the notion of neutrality. Also, 75% of the
Voice staff hope to assist the students in gaining the notion of freedom.
The major obstacles to achieving these aims are related to four emergent categories derived from in vivo codes: the Culture of the Institution; the Culture of the Industry; the
Culture of the Student; and Notions of Identity. What follows is an exposition of these categories, so as to highlight what may be obstructing the training of actors in Australia today.
The Culture of the Institution: physical, managerial and professional blocks
The Culture of the Institution can be sub-divided into the actor training obstacles that take on a physical nature; a managerial nature; and a professional nature. The first of these, the physical obstacles, relate to the facilities available to the ATC. While NIDA and VCA staff do not seem to identify physical obstacles to the training, QUT staff focus on the need for such things as sprung wooden floors, mirrors, spaces with adequate temperature control, and appropriate rehearsal and performance spaces.
Downes (Movement, QUT) states:
I think a sprung wood floor is absolutely necessary, um. I get very frustrated by the fact that I‟m working on cement, because it does such damage to your body, um, and that goes for not only teaching, you know, movement or whatever, but any kind of rehearsal space needs an environment that‟s going to support the body, um. I think, air-conditioned, or some kind of controlled environment, where the temperature is at a good level, you know, it can be adjusted...I think we need to understand that um, rapid changes of temperature can actually make actors sick and
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therefore, you know, also things that are too hot or too cold make people, their energy, um, leave them...I think that an environment, a training or a rehearsal environment must instil in the people in the room a sense of discipline and commitment to the space, and a sense of reverence to the space as well, which I think is extremely important. And the moment where the room starts getting trashed and there‟s posters on the wall and the carpet‟s ripped up, is the moment that the actor stops respecting the space, and in effect stops respecting their body (personal interview, 17 September and 16 November 2001: 362 - 368, 371 - 374, 394 - 400).
Obstacles of a managerial nature relate to the administration of the training courses.
While NIDA staff do not seem to identify such obstacles, VCA and QUT staff identify the timetabling and academic assessment procedures set down by their respective universities as obstacles to the training of actors. Cook (Voice, VCA) says:
...I think training in an institution is a problem. You are bound by timetables, you‟re bound by um external requirements. Now I‟m not saying they‟re all bad things, I don‟t want you to feel that I think that‟s all negative, I don‟t, but that context, or that framework can create obstacles. And because we are now part of Melbourne University and along with Accounting 1 and Accounting 2 and Law and Medicine um, they get their degrees like those students do, I think that inherent in that are obstacles for us, because time is a very important factor in actor training, very very important, and sometimes it would be great to say “You need to go away for a year or two years, and come back and we‟ll carry on the training” but we can‟t do that...Because of the um conditions of deferral, the conditions of um of how many years it takes to get a degree, conditions of um whether a student is taking a HECS place up, or whether, you know, it‟s all to do with funding, it‟s not simple (personal interview, 24 September 2001: 168 - 178, 181 - 184).
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Consequently, it can also be said that the training aims may not be met due to budgeting constraints. However, only QUT staff relate budgeting limitations to staffing dilemmas.
O‟Hare (Acting, QUT) explains:
Of course if I had more money I‟d, you know, the program would be very different. You know I believe that a course like this, to truly be on a par, and to truly be honestly preparing actors for the industry, you need a full-time movement person on staff, a full-time voice person on staff, as well as our one full-time acting person on staff and full-time artistic director-come- administrator stroke teacher as well. You know we‟ve only got one full-time staff member on the faculty and that‟s Leonard Meenach the acting teacher and myself as, you know, the Head, plugging up the gaps and the rest are part-time staff. And because of budget constraints, you know, trying to get...a voice person, the movement person, to commit a time and the energy that is required in a three year course to see actors from the beginning through the course to the end, at least a three year timeline, is very very difficult, you know, very difficult to get people to commit, you know, for that term. And they need it, an actor needs that kind of consistency otherwise they get, a student actor needs that consistency otherwise they get bits and pieces of everything from different people...they can get more confused than aware, you know, and I don‟t think that serves anybody in the long run (personal interview, 23 August 2001: 239 - 256).
Professional obstacles occur when a trainer‟s lack of knowledge, personal assumptions, or ego manifestations, block the training process. The staffs of NIDA, VCA and QUT all recognise such a training problem. Treadgold (Voice, QUT) says:
You‟re up against yourself too. You‟re up against, sometimes, your ignorance. You‟ll come across a problem and you‟ll think “I don‟t know what to do about that...I really don‟t know what to do”, and you literally have to go back to your books and you have to discuss it with your colleagues, you say “Look I‟ve got this problem and I don‟t know what to do with it”. So, you‟ve got yourself, you can be an obstacle. Sometimes also, we as
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teachers, we can be obstacles in that we can be closed minded. That‟s something we have to guard against at all times, um. I feel very strongly in the teaching of voice, I say to the students “I‟m very pleased you‟ve got other voice teachers because I don‟t believe any one teacher has all the answers, and it‟s up to you to sift through all the information that‟s thrown at you and work out what works for you”. So that‟s why, that‟s an obstacle I think, that as a teacher we have ourselves, that of course we don‟t have all the answers, and ah we come across problems which are very difficult to overcome (personal interview, 7 November 2001: 181 - 195).
The Culture of the Industry: as a paradigm, deregulation and the media
While the staff of the three training institutions is concerned with the criticism or personal judgement that young graduates may incur upon entering the industry, VCA staff find the Culture of the Industry particularly troublesome to the training of actors.
These members of the ATC seem to perceive the industry as a paradigm that embraces actors as disposable commodities, where one‟s look is more important than one‟s talent, and where profit and international fame outweigh any artistic, social or political contribution to the community. Gerstle (Acting, VCA) states:
I think when they come out of school they get lost in the terrible maize of rejection, “Someone wants me but someone else doesn‟t want me”, and it closes down on one‟s self-esteem. The result of that is to give up and go and find something else to do with your life, which is a shame because there‟s a lot of talented people who can‟t fit into that kind of cultural / professional paradigm (personal interview, 20 September 2001: 148 - 153).
Furthermore, with the deregulation of the Australian film and television industry, VCA staff believe that the students are less likely to be exposed to high quality Australian film
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or television content. Thus, the students‟ notion of what constitutes good acting in
Australia is questionable: if students are unaware of the quality of acting possible, they may reject the training opportunities offered them, in favour of reinforcing a producer driven soap opera acting style. Davies (Acting, VCA) posits:
...it seems to me that the quality of acting has just dissolved really. And that‟s because of the power of the industry, and soap opera acting, that sort of stuff you see on television where it‟s about just being...when actors just speak as themselves, and essentially what happens is that the banality of it is overwhelming, and your view of the world isn‟t expanded at all, your prejudices are reinforced. It seems to me that this banality and triviality creates a sort of servitude, and we become victims to some producer somewhere, their view of the world. I think it‟s essentially ageist, sexist, racist, and is bound up with a whole lot of prejudice. But unfortunately, at the moment, that‟s the major thing that‟s happening on the television, that‟s what we‟re seeing most of the time. And unfortunately, because most of the people coming in here have not seen the great performances, they don‟t actually know what acting is, or what they can aspire to, because they haven‟t had the chance to see it (personal interview, 26 September 2001: 18 - 21, 29 - 39).
Lastly, staff at both VCA and QUT are concerned that the media‟s insistence on glamorising so-called untrained actors can be an obstacle to training. Such a lack of respect for the craft of acting in the media can lead students to question why they should train at all. Gerstle (Acting, VCA) explains:
Their notions of what an actor is comes with them when they come in here. This culture is very bound by the industry. They are consistently exposed to articles about famous people who never trained. I think generally in this culture there is a lack of respect for the craft of acting because there‟s a general feeling that anybody can do it, if you can walk and talk you can do it. There‟s not an understanding of the complexity of what it is. In other cultures that I have worked in, there‟s a very different
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attitude toward actors. In many countries in Europe there‟s no way someone would say they were an actor to anybody unless they‟d been to a four year drama school. I think there are pros and cons to that. The freedom of this culture, is that you make yourself what you want to be, but at the same time it does have draw backs, and I think one of them is the lack of respect for training, and the lack of seeing the necessity for training (personal interview, 20 September 2001: 189 - 202).
The Culture of the Student: generational attitude and learning
Yet again, it is the VCA staff that highlights the fact that the majority of students training presently are products of the 1980‟s. Therefore, these members of the ATC believe that the students have been raised in a conservative era where greed was good. It is suggested that such a materialist background may have laid the foundations for a generation of students, who are recognised by the majority of ATC members, as a group prone to complacency and a lack of self-discipline. Consequently, the students‟ attitude can obstruct the students‟ training. Davies (Acting, VCA) is of the opinion that:
...a lot of them come from very strong product orientated, and materialistic (backgrounds), most of them were formed by the eighties, so there‟s an obstacle to begin with. So that you‟ve got people who have been formed in a time when product orientation and society values, that are essentially conservative, have been drummed in. And essentially, what we are dealing with here is trying to not look at things in a hierarchical way. We are trying to get people to work collaboratively, and that is very challenging because if you work collaboratively you have to take responsibility for your behaviour. And a lot of people are used to working in a hierarchical way, and that, you know, someone‟s the boss so therefore it‟s someone else‟s fault, and that is the thing that makes the difference, I think, in terms of what we‟re doing. That‟s the only challenge, but, and that‟s the hard thing because a lot of them have been used to blaming someone else, and to ask them to take responsibility for their behaviour at the age of twenty-two or twenty-four, I think that‟s a huge ask (personal interview, 26 September 2001: 111 - 125).
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Also, the manner in which the students have been educated is an obstacle to the training, according to the ATC. In primary and secondary school, this generation has been exposed to outcome oriented learning and assessment, where every learning experience has been unitised. Such a system, so says the ATC, promotes endgaming instead of investigation, and a distrust of repetition in class activities. Thus, the schooling system negates the approach to actor training advocated by the ATC, making it difficult for the students to adjust to the training. Cook (Voice, VCA) explains:
I think that one of the difficulties that I find teaching now is that we have generations of young people who are coming up through a particular way of learning that in some ways mitigates against the way we work, we train, let‟s say. So for example, everything in the school system is outcome oriented now, everything is unitised, everything is semester bound, so the notion of layering, of having to repeat things, not repeat in order to get it right but repeat in order to investigate where one can go with it, is hard. It‟s really hard for them to understand. So, with the voice, that‟s particularly difficult because it doesn‟t matter how many times we do breath work it‟s always an investigation. But I can sense, and this is something you really have to dialogue with in first year, I can sense their responses are “I did this last week, it‟s another breath exercise”. So I‟d say that how they learn in secondary school and primary school, and I‟m looking at it as someone who also has teenage daughters, who can see how learning goes on in schools, I suppose it‟s a lot less integrated and a lot less process orientated, um compared to what I was used to. So, and I think that also comes with maturity and, you know, patience and all those sorts of things. But um, the need to get things right and the need to um yes, have it outcome bound is a struggle. And the need to say “I actually don‟t know” I think is something that a lot of students face with great trepidation, to say “I actually don‟t know what is going to happen if I just do this” or “Walk across the room and...” whatever, just stay with the thought “I don‟t know” (personal interview, 24 September 2001: 137 - 158).
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Most significantly, this generation of students suffers from a distrust of language.
According to the ATC, while the students are visually erudite in an age of film and computer technology, reading is perceived as a chore. Considering actors may work with written texts, it is crucial for students to be able to learn how to read and analyse texts.
Hence, the students‟ fear of words obstructs the training, and requires the trainers to address an area of education that used to be handled in primary and secondary school
English classrooms. Knight (Acting, NIDA) states:
...one of the things with this current generation is language. Is they look upon words as the enemy...the idea of reading a book is like horrific to people, it‟s not that they can‟t read but the idea, they just don‟t read. And I think that that‟s a danger, with this current generation, where they are very brilliantly visually orientated and so in dealing with imagery, visual imagery, and it‟s a computer generation as well, there‟s no problem whatsoever, but when coming to, being able to articulate in words what they are wanting to say, that becomes, or write it down, that‟s hard. That‟s very difficult because they‟re just not practiced with it. So hence, when you actually are dealing with an actor and you simply say “Try emphasising the adjective here or the verb, or da-da-da” and they don‟t even know what that is (personal interview, 28 September 2001: 269 - 270, 275 - 284).
Notions of Identity: still the cultural cringe?
Members of the ATC still believe that the Arts has such a low profile in Australia that the students are unaware of their cultural heritage. Additionally, with a history of imitating international productions, it is difficult for the students to recognise the difference between national and derivative theatrical work. In such an environment, students may simply allow themselves to be consumed by the American industry and fail to recognise the worth of nurturing the cultural wealth of this country. Cook (Voice,
VCA) posits:
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...young people have an incredible, um in Australia, have an incredible amount to resist in terms of American television and film. And it is so easy with the Australian nature and temperament and history and culture to be able to just copy that, or imitate that, or, I think Australians are fantastic at imitating things, and they are really good. I mean it‟s the beginning of theatre history here when, you know, when the nineteenth century plays came from England and they were put on in the theatres, in the early theatres of Ballarat and Melbourne and Sydney and Hobart, they were um, they had the scripts and all the stage management directions and all the directorial instructions in the script, um. And I think, you know, the musicals that you see put on here are fantastic, they‟re so good at being able to just imitate that. But I think there‟s always a fine balance because of the danger of that being um being what we perceive as Australian, whereas it‟s actually derivative (personal interview, 24 September 2001: 90 - 103).
Additionally, the tall poppy syndrome can obstruct the aims of actor training. As the
ATC recognise that students may be criticised by friends and family for the way in which the training transforms their physicality and vocality, they concede that dedication to the subjects of Movement and Voice can be daunting for the students. Williams
(Voice, NIDA) states:
I think we‟re fairly suspicious of anybody who uses their voice and is articulate. I‟m not saying in certain rarefied circles, you won‟t find that, but I think out there we play it close to the chest and we don‟t want to appear different. It‟s all that old Australian thing of being a tall poppy. And you know the kids here will say “Oh when I got home did I get teased about the way I spoke”. I think we can make people feel uneasy and we don‟t want to do that, and I do think a lot of it‟s a tall poppy syndrome with us (personal interview, 5 October 2001: 201 - 208).
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Finally, the students‟ own community may attempt to dampen the students‟ ambitions of acting beyond the local area, confining the students‟ dreams, and consequently making the training process just that little bit harder. O‟Hare (Acting, QUT) posits:
The industry is a global industry, we can‟t be parochial anymore, and I get very frustrated with people that, you know, claim an institution, you know, like Perth acting community or theatre community claims WAAPA and gets very upset that, you know, the young actors, the fledglings want to fly, you know scoot the roost if you like, and they have to, you have to, it‟s a global industry, and an actor is a vagabond, you know, is a traveller, always has been, you know, time in memoriam actors have moved through from town to town, you know, now we move country to country (personal interview, 23 August 2001: 313 - 320).
Working Within the Limitations: overcoming the obstacles
Challis (Acting, QUT) states „...there are limitations, but then everywhere you look in life there‟s limitations so you work within the limitations you‟ve got‟ (personal interview, 20 August 2001: 254 - 256). In view of this statement, the ATC offer some ways in which they cope, practically or philosophically, with the obstacles to achieving the aims of actor training.
As mentioned previously, Meenach (Acting, QUT) advocates a Pedagogy of Speed so as to combat the managerial obstacle of time, inherent in the Culture of the Institution.
Furthermore, Treadgold (Voice, QUT) is able to defend the constraint that the Culture of the Institution imposes by demanding academic assessment procedures. She explains:
...I support wholeheartedly the three year course at university and I think that‟s in very good hands, the fact that it‟s a tertiary course, um, because there‟s so much for them to learn, there‟s so very much for them to learn, and also I think it‟s very useful for
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them to have a degree because, let‟s be frank, if after ten years they really can‟t make a fist of it, or fifteen years or twenty years, they‟ve got that degree and they can do something with it (personal interview, 7 November 2001: 158 - 163).
With regards to the Culture of the Industry, Davies (Acting, VCA) says „...I think the industry frame and the sort of powerlessness of the industry could be an obstacle but it can also be an incentive‟ (personal interview, 26 September 2001: 108 - 110).
Furthermore, she is of the opinion that although the students may not have many positive
Australian role models, through the training:
...what starts to happen, which is really good, is that a process of enculturation happens, so when they start to see the work of the third years they start to see what the possibility is, and they get very inspired by them (personal interview, 26 September 2001: 102 - 105).
Moreover, so as to combat the students‟ preconceived notions of acting, Gerstle (Acting,
VCA) believes that one of the jobs of the trainer is „... to introduce, in a way to deconstruct, previous held thoughts of acting...‟ (personal interview, 20 September 2001:
181 - 182).
As the distrust of words dominates the Culture of the Student, Knight (Acting, NIDA) believes:
...they shouldn‟t be denigrated for it and I think that‟s one of the purposes of our training is to realise that the education system hasn‟t operated that way for a long long time, and to try and actually...coerce, it‟s not, it sounds harder, we coax them to appreciate, the words are not the enemy, words are what we use
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to express feelings, ideas, everything, sensing, sensations. And that is one of the big things we have to deal with... (personal interview, 28 September 2001: 284 - 290).
While the tall poppy syndrome, which forms part of the Notions of Identity, may still be obstructing the training, Williams (Voice, NIDA) admits that at least as a nation
Australia is becoming more comfortable with itself. She states:
...I think it is great that now Australians are using their own voices, because when I first started working here in radio, and I‟m talking way back in 1950, 1949, I couldn‟t believe that all the actors had English accents. And I think it‟s wonderful now that we‟ve got our own voice, and we‟re proud of it (personal interview, 2 October 2001: 208 - 212).
Additionally, as the obstacles relating to the Notions of Identity can cruel the students‟ development and career aspirations, Knight (Acting, NIDA) posits that it is the duty of the trainer „...to actually broaden their experiences as well as deepen it, so to make them realise...there‟s a bigger world out there‟ (personal interview, 28 September 2001: 207 -
208).
In today‟s training environment actor training aims that endorse survival and change can be thwarted by obstacles relating to the Culture of the Institution, the Culture of the
Industry, the Culture of the Student, and Notions of Identity. However, the ATC are confident in their attempts to work within their limitations, and in doing so, further challenge the student‟s notions of acting. In an ideal training environment such categories as the Institution and the Student in particular would be transformed.
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Section Six: The Ideal Training Environment
Constituting the Ideal: the institution and the student
In identifying what constitutes an ideal training environment, the ATC note a range of necessities that directly relate to the Culture of the Institution and the Culture of the
Student. Thus, physical, managerial and professional requirements are proposed, and students‟ attitudinal requirements are suggested.
With regards to the first aspect of the Culture of the Institution, the physical necessities for an ideal training environment include a studio theatre, a director‟s theatre, a film studio and rehearsal rooms. A complex where a theatrical atmosphere can be achieved is desired by the ATC. Therefore, not only actors should be trained there, but also all those related to the theatrical arts, such as designers and technicians. It is also suggested that the training school should be housed somewhere relatively isolated. Bain (Movement,
NIDA) states:
Something like NIDA I must say, where it‟s as close to the real thing as possible you know, where the atmosphere is theatrical. You know what I mean by theatrical, not phoney, but whatever the elements are inside a theatre...where there is a total sense of theatre. I love it here because it‟s not just actors. It‟s everybody who contributes to the theatre. To begin with, the respect for the designer and all the other ingredients for theatre-making. By the end of the actors‟ course, they see how hard other people work (personal interview, 4 October 2001: 494 - 497, 499 - 503).
Additionally, Downes (Movement, QUT) posits:
I think I agree with Tadashi Suzuki when he isolates his company, puts them in the mountains and you know, he basically makes the training about the training and about having an
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experience of being in the ensemble. And I think that actors, particularly actors who are actor training, could benefit from that isolation in a sense...just the sense of ah collective um, ensemble, holistic um commitment to your body that you can achieve by just being in the one place, and just spending time socially, physically, you know, in the training room, outside the training room with one group of people, you start to see yourself in a completely different way. The distractions of the world aren‟t there, no telephone, no television, um and I think it‟s something that actors should do as part of their training. I think that they should learn how to just focus on themselves and their craft and their training. And so, I guess for me, if I was going to set up an ideal training room, I would probably put it in the mountains and I would probably, you know, make it a necessary thing for the actors to come up and just be there for a certain period of time (personal interview, 17 September and 16 November 2001: 451 - 455, 458 - 469).
With reference to the second aspect of the Culture of the Institution, the managerial necessities for an ideal training environment include a more flexible timetable, and smaller class sizes. The training program should be designed to cater for students with an acting vocation rather than a purely theoretical interest in acting. Also, the program should offer the students a width and depth of experience, including an exposure to literature that expands their understanding of the world. A balance between the subjects of Acting, Movement and Voice is required, and the Voice and Movement staff would like to become an integral part of the rehearsal process. Cotton (Movement, NIDA) explains:
...I suppose, a certain number of people you‟d want to be working with. Not too many, not too few. And, oh what else? What sort of...I think realistic, sort of, time frame, because time is always a tricky one, you know, either you‟re kind of stretching and trying to fill the time in or you haven‟t got enough time, so I don‟t know what the ideal amount of time would be. And it
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would depend on what the project was, or whatever it was you were working on (personal interview, 2 October 2001: 250 - 256)
Moreover, Williams (Voice, NIDA) says:
I like to work in a vocational school, where that‟s what they‟re here for, that‟s what they love, that‟s what they need to do. That is an ideal starting point. I‟ve got twenty odd students who‟ve only one passion and that is to be the best actor, and not a star...Overall I would like to think they are doing plays that are worthwhile, and when I say worthwhile that‟s only my interpretation. When I say worthwhile I mean they learn something about humanity, they learn something about the world, another person‟s culture, another person‟s ideas. That to me is such a big part of an ideal training environment. That they are aware that theatre is and can be a great force for change. I would also like, in my ideal training environment, a place where performance was not the most important thing...Not where the objective is “We‟re going to get up on that stage in six week‟s time and we are going to give a performance”. I would love to think that a school is not so performance orientated that kids stop learning at a certain point because they‟re gearing themselves up to get in there and look good, rather than “I‟ve still got an awful lot more here I need to dig out of this character”. I would like to feel that not so much emphasis is given on performance so there‟s more time to develop their skill work. In this place it does happen and I think it‟s vitally important. An integral part of the training, is that the skill work is taken over into the rehearsal process, so there‟s always voice teachers or movement teachers working with the young actors on the particular play that they‟re rehearsing. In this way they are beginning to connect with what they do in voice class to the acting process and discovering their vocal strengths and weaknesses. I think it‟s very important to have skills teachers working on plays, but I think they‟ve got to be careful that it‟s linked to the creative process (personal interview, 2 October 2001: 435 - 438, 451 - 458, 460 - 474).
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In relation to the third aspect of the Culture of the Institution, the professional necessity suggested for an ideal training environment is the formation of a community of colleagues, with different areas of expertise, who share a similar training ethos. It is recommended that this ensemble of trainers should also continue their artistic practice, and therefore still be associated with the industry in some way. Challis (Acting, QUT) explains:
It would be getting a group of teachers together that shared a philosophy; they would have specific areas of expertise, in both the instrument side of the work and the craft side of the work. It would be where the work was rigorous and joyous...a good combination of passionate, committed, dedicated teachers, teachers that are connected to the industry, not divorced completely from it, that are somehow still involved, so their awareness is expanding and changing as the industries for which the people they‟re training changes, and to give people as much experience as possible (personal interview, 20 August 2001: 603 - 606, 619 - 624).
The students‟ attitude, which is recognised as one aspect of the Culture of the Student, is mentioned with regards to the creation of an ideal training environment. Thus, the students engaged in training in the ideal environment should be non-judgemental and collaborative in their approach to their trainers, the work and themselves. In turn, the trainers need to reciprocate in their behaviour towards the students, so as to maintain such a positive trainer / trainee relationship. Costan (Voice, VCA) suggests:
...it would be a place where facilitators worked without judgement, where both students and the facilitators practised unconditional positive regard for each other, and that everyone had a balanced positive regard for themselves and for others... (personal interview, 24 September 2001: 207 - 210).
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Distinctions Between the Schools: institutional considerations
Both the Head of Acting at NIDA and the Head of Acting at VCA believe that the training environment in which they work is already ideal. Knight (Acting, NIDA) emphasises the facilities in suggesting that NIDA is ideal for the training of actors. He states:
...I know this sounds arrogant a little bit, but I mean I think what John (Clark, my italics) and Elizabeth (Butcher, my italics) have created here is pretty good. And having been able to compare other drama schools, this really is one of the best in the world. Just in it‟s facilities alone, it‟s extraordinary. I mean this thing that‟s coming at us, I mean, no other drama school really in the world has this...and it‟s a brilliant theatre, and a film studio and another little director‟s theatre, and the rehearsal rooms (personal interview, 28 September 2001: 929 - 933, 935 - 936).
Thus, the physical aspect of the Culture of the Institution assists in making NIDA an ideal training environment.
Davies (Acting, VCA) on the other hand, emphasises her colleagues when proposing that VCA is ideal for the training of actors. She explains:
I‟m blessed with extraordinary teachers, very very lucky. So that‟s a community of colleagues who collaborate in a very provocative way together, where we‟re constantly challenging the assumptions of what we‟re doing. But we are obsessed about learning (personal interview, 26 September 2001: 210 - 213).
Hence, the managerial aspect of the Culture of the Institution aids in identifying VCA as an ideal training environment.
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Both Knight and Davies have been established in their positions at their respective schools for a number of years, unlike O‟Hare (Acting, QUT) who is very new to the position of Head of Acting at QUT. When O‟Hare suggests what would constitute an ideal training environment he calls on the elements that the other schools apparently possess. He says:
...quintessentially it would be about the team. The team of people working together with a common goal. Of course we all come from different aesthetics and different backgrounds but, you know, if generically we are connected and united and we‟re working as an ensemble, if we‟re working together with the same aim, to serve the actors, to serve the students, to give them the best possible training and experience, life experience too, in their three years here, that would be my, my ideal situation. I believe that, you know, we need a studio theatre, for instance, that‟s one thing we haven‟t got here, that is for the acting department. That we service the, we service the course and run as an ensemble company virtually, that we try and create a truly professional...system within the system, within the institution, so we sort of break away from, you know, the university style form of education and it truly becomes a conservatorium type training with a performance wing, with a theatre, a small performance space, it doesn‟t have to be big... (personal interview, 23 August 2001: 486 - 500).
Though he does not have the ideal facilities or staffing in this early stage of his appointment at QUT, like the other two Heads of Acting he recognises that the facilities and the staffing are key features of an ideal training environment.
Therefore, in accordance with these members of the ATC, it is possible to posit that the physical and the managerial aspects of the Culture of the Institution are vital to the creation of an ideal training environment. While NIDA and VCA may confirm their
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control over these aspects, QUT aspires to more appropriate facilities and more permanent staffing arrangements.
Section Seven: ATC Definitions of Acting
What About Acting?: the missing ingredient
Thus far, the way in which the ATC bill themselves, and the training aesthetic the ATC may advocate has been noted. How the members align themselves methodologically has been investigated, and the pedagogies that have evolved from such alignments have been stated. Furthermore, the aims of the actor training, and the obstacles to achieving those training aims, have been clarified. The ATC‟s ideal training environment has also been examined. What has not been covered however, is what the ATC actually mean when they refer to the concept of acting. Consequently, a discussion of acting and the nature of great acting in the Australian context ensues so as to offer the broadest possible understanding of the ATC under investigation. The ATC‟s bias towards stage acting is evident, and notions of revelation, commitment, sharing and transformation emerge as important to the ATC‟s understanding of acting. Additionally, selfless immersion, as well as the role of the audience is perceived by the ATC as imperative to a comprehension of great acting.
A Definition of Acting: what language should I use?
53.4% of the ATC admit that trying to define what acting means is a difficult task.
Moreover, 93.4% of the ATC preface their definitions so as to clarify that their
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definition of acting is subjective. In fact, even the manner in which ATC members chose to define such a notion is very individual: some prefer to offer ideas about acting rather than commit to a standard dictionary definition; others share anecdotes in preference to offering a list of acting‟s possible inherent properties. The emergence of such idiosyncratic behaviours when attempting to define acting suggests how elusive the concept of acing actually is, and how reliant the ATC must be on the established languages of acting. Gerstle (Acting, VCA) illustrates the dilemma of defining acting when she states: „I think that‟s so difficult because I think there are different kinds of acting, different kinds of performance. What terminologies do you use?‟ (personal interview, 20 September 2001: 47 - 48).
The ATC may address the task of defining acting in myriad ways, however one particular element relating to the notion of acting continues to resurface: while 53.4% make reference to the mediums of film, television or radio, 80% of the ATC make reference to the stage when defining acting. Thus, it appears that the ATC initially relate acting to something that is accomplished in real time, in view of an audience, in a designated space. It is unclear as to whether this inclination towards the stage is conscious or unconscious. Take for example how Williams (Voice, NIDA), when clarifying what she means by acting, refers to the stage:
Well the word acting, I suppose, actually means to do. If you look it up in the dictionary it says to act is to do. Which is exactly, of course, what an actor has to do, he has to act upon the information he‟s got in his text, he‟s got to be able to make me believe totally in what he‟s doing up there on the stage (personal interview, 2 October 2001: 37 - 41).
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Acting: an action relating to an imaginary stimulus
A number of actions are identified by the ATC as having bearing on the concept of acting. These actions categorised as revealing, committing, sharing, and transforming, are the responsibility of the actor to carry out. Yet, these actions seem to be executed in response to external elements, namely written texts or physical texts. Such stimulus is designed to engage the actor‟s voice, body, intellect, emotions, psychology, spirit and imagination. Consequently, the ATC essentially define acting as action in response to, or through, a stimulus that ignites the human faculties.
60% of the ATC agree with Davies (Acting, VCA), when she offers some insight into the notion of acting as revealing:
I think acting is the ability to become another, the ability to reveal meaning on a metaphoric level so that people experience humanity. So for me, acting is bound up with the ability to provide an insight, a compassionate insight into humanity. So through acting, I suppose, what one does is reveal different ways of seeing. And for me, an actor is someone who reveals and becomes another (personal interview, 26 September 2001: 7 - 12).
Jackson (Acting, NIDA) furthers the concept of revelation by suggesting that:
...acting is about revealing yourself, your inner soul, so to do that it‟s not just necessary, it‟s very easy to reveal those parts of you that you want to reveal, but in playing Macbeth I‟m going to reveal that part of me that I really don‟t want to show the world, that I‟m actually capable of murdering you on the other side of that table (personal interview, 4 October 2001: 224 - 228).
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To clarify the notion of acting as committing to an imaginary stimulus, Challis (Acting,
QUT) explains:
...the ability to jump in the water and get wet...As an actor I want to be an experiencer, okay, so when I commit to the experience, the commitment is one without self-criticism, self-judgement, it‟s one without result obligation. It‟s the ability, to work from what I call a place of readiness, or a true creative consciousness that isn‟t dealing with concerns about how one‟s performance is being received at the time, or whether or not the way I‟m speaking now is sounding this or that way...I must immerse myself in the imaginal world. I must commit to the experience, albeit imaginatively (personal interview, 20 August 2001: 18, 27 - 33, 38 - 39).
53.4% of the ATC are in accordance with this definition of acting.
Cook (Voice, VCA) is able to explain what is meant by the notion of acting as sharing the imaginary world. Representing 46.7% of the ATC she states:
For me, I think acting is the ability for someone to share the words of another, for someone to share the world of another, um, and that may be a physical world, it may be a verbal world, it may be any kind of world. But their ability to be able to share that with me unconditionally, um, and to allow me to enter into that world as an audience. Now the other, another, I‟d say the words of another, and one might presume I‟m talking about text but I think the words of another can also be collaborative, so if an actor‟s working on collaborative work that they‟ve, they‟re using the words of another all the time. They might be using their own words, which they‟ve contributed, but if we were improvising, I might use some of your words and you might use some of mine. I think that that feeds into my notion of the other or another (personal interview, 24 September 2001: 22 - 33).
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Finally, presenting the view of 40% of the ATC, Davies (Acting, VCA) clarifies the notion of acting as a transformation through an imaginary stimulus. She posits:
...with transformation you have a process whereby you are transformed, either by language or by some other stimulus, whether it be a mask, or a wig, or a coat you bring in. That basic process of becoming, where you yield and in an egoless state are transformed by your environment (personal interview, 26 September 2001: 13 - 17).
Moreover, Gerstle (Acting, VCA) asserts that this transformation „creates an illusion for an audience‟ (personal interview, 20 September 2001: 75).
Great Acting: the loss of ego for the sake of the audience
26.7% of the ATC believe that great acting is dependent upon the actor‟s immersion in the imaginary world. 40% advocate an absence of the ego. Also, another 26.7% demand vocal and physical dexterity. According to the ATC these elements are added to the actions of revealing, committing, sharing and transforming, to create great acting.
Categorised as a selfless immersion in the imaginary stimulus, Gerstle (Acting, VCA) is able to summarise such a notion of great acting. She explains:
...if you could free up the body to be as flexible as it could possibly be to be available for anything you would want to do, if you could free up the voice for it to be totally available within its capacity to do whatever it is that you wanted to do with it, if you could free yourself emotionally, make yourself so emotionally available that if you needed to cry at the drop of a hat laugh and then be somewhere else and switch into those states, if you could free yourself up in a sense spiritually so that the ego disappears, so that you‟re like an empty vessel where inspiration flows through you and out, where you‟re not consciously working for a place and technique but that the body and the voice and every other aspect of your instrument has been so practised in being in
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that state, that‟s when I think great acting conceptually takes place (personal interview, 20 September 2001: 571 - 583).
Additionally, 40% of the ATC believe that great acting occurs when the audience is able to enter the story and share the imaginary world with the actors. Challis (Acting, QUT) posits:
I love the kind of work that draws me in, when an actor draws me in to the story, to what they‟re doing I want to embrace them and say thankyou for telling me a story and not trying to tell me how good you are at story telling. When we cease to think about how an actor is acting, and we cease to think about their pretty costumes or the lovely set, we cease to be removed from the work that‟s going on...We experience the art and do not think about the craft until well after the story has been told. You know, great acting draws us in, we cease to process it through some sort of intellectual filter and we start to experience the act of acting, or we start to experience the story or what the character is going through. So, it‟s whatever that is, it‟s whatever that bridge is that takes us, if you like, from our left to our right brain, or takes us from the observing arm‟s length analysis of what‟s going on, into being caught up in the story. Great acting and the definition of acting and the question, what is great acting, can be thought of as that which draws us in, that which can attract us, effect us, enable us to have some kind of experience (personal interview, 20 August 2001: 45 - 50, 52 - 62).
Furthermore, 26.7% of ATC members are of the opinion that great acting takes place when the audience is transformed. Jackson (Acting, NIDA) is able to describe this transformation:
...when I think of great acting I think of performances that move me, that take me to experiences or a knowledge of myself and my place in the universe...my first remembered experience of
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great acting is the Royal Shakespeare Company‟s A Winter’s Tale, when I was probably at NIDA, first or second year, the Royal Shakespeare Company came to the old Theatre Royal in Sydney and I remember sitting in the gods on the wooden boxes at the back and suddenly realising that “Oh, right, I‟m only a part of the universe”. So this group of actors, which included Judi Dench and John Donald Sinden and people like that, who gave me a conception that that was what art was, that it was able to transform me into some sense of, a knowledge of not just myself, but of me being part of a whole world. That‟s what I think great acting does, it makes me shift in my perspective of viewing my situation, or the world‟s situation and my place in it... (personal interview, 4 October 2001: 14 - 27).
Great Acting in Australia Today: alternative criteria
While the Heads of Acting at the three schools under investigation agree on the revelatory nature of acting, they approach the task of identifying great acting in
Australia somewhat differently. It is interesting to note the differences in the criteria they employ to measure greatness, as it may offer some guide as to the acting role models the students at the respective schools may aspire to.
Knight (Acting, NIDA) explains:
...part of the problem of the danger within the twentieth century of film and television is that traditional path that we acknowledge as being great acting, a lot of actors don‟t go down that path anymore. Like people talk about Judy Davis, relating to Australia, as being a great actress, once again I think Judy has greatness in her, but because the last time she appeared, in Sydney anyway, in the theatre was doing Hedda Gabler and it was great, I saw that performance, it was an extraordinary performance, but because that hasn‟t continued in the traditional path of then going on to doing Juliet, and all the other great roles in our great theatrical cannon, one will never know. And it is actually going back to the stage. Whereas, somebody like Meryl Streep does go back to the theatre continually, she‟s just played Arkadina in Seagull in New York, so she‟s interesting in the
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sense that she will go back to the theatre to take on the...And I think that‟s the only way you can actually measure what‟s great, if someone‟s going to be a great actor or not (personal interview, 28 September 2001: 152 - 166).
Thus, Knight‟s criterion for great acting is dependent on the range of roles an actor attempts in the theatre. Without measuring oneself against the roles in the theatrical cannon, Knight believes an actor cannot achieve greatness.
Davies (Acting, VCA) on the other hand, is of the opinion that if the students:
...see Cate work, Cate Blanchett, they see great acting. If they see Robyn Nevin work they see great acting. If they see Geoffrey (Rush, my italics) work they see great acting. And one of the things those three people have in common is that they transform, they become another person, they change their state. They‟re mercurial, you never know what they‟re going to do next (personal interview, 26 September 2001: 40 - 45).
Therefore, Davies‟ criterion does not make distinctions between the mediums an actor may chose to work in. Whether it is theatre, film or television, to achieve great acting she expects a mercurial transformation on behalf of the actor.
The Head of Acting at QUT possesses another view on great acting in Australia, as he specifies alternative criteria to ascertain whether a performance can be considered great.
O‟Hare (Acting, QUT) posits:
In the Australian context, we have many great actors and I think, it often is about the particular production, a particular performance, an actor playing a part which he is born or she is born to play for whatever reason, a combination of, um, the director, the assistor, the person who assists the performance, that relationship being free flowing, the audience, a given night,
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um, the audience are responding to the actor or the clown or the performer in some way, ah where there is complícité, there‟s a shared experience, that, is, that makes a great performance happen. I don‟t think a great performance happens every night. I think a great performance happens on a given night due to so many ingredients, you know, the nature of the space, you know, I‟ve seen...I saw Maeliosa Stafford, who is an Australian actor and director and also Irish actor and director, um, in The Lonesome West, Martin Macdonald‟s Lonesome West, in an intimate space, and then I saw it again at the Seymour Centre, and that great performance was no longer a great performance, it didn‟t work in that particular space. Um, because of the relationship with the audience. We couldn‟t share the experience, there was no complícité, there was no connection. So what he was doing, in essence, was the same, you know, he was involved in the character, he was playing the character, he knew the character, he‟d been performing this role for, for two years, ah Valene in The Lonesome West, but the ingredients weren‟t, all the essential weren‟t there, or one of the ingredients weren‟t there, or because of the space, therefore, more than one ingredient wasn‟t there (personal interview, 23 August 2001: 61 - 83).
This statement suggests that when O‟Hare is judging whether he is witness to great acting, he takes more into consideration than the choice of role and the manner in which the role is played. His criteria are dependent upon a number of ingredients that may change from one performance to the next. Thus, in the view of O‟Hare, great acting is dependent upon a balance between ingredients such as the production team, the space, the time, and the relationship with the audience.
Australia’s Great Actors: the choice of the ATC
While over twenty actors are mentioned by the ATC as having achieved greatness in particular stage or screen performances, a collection of eight names are referred to between two and four times by the ATC. Members of the Acting, Movement and Voice
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staff alike appreciate Judy Davis, Robyn Nevin and Bille Brown. Jeremy Sims is recognised by Acting staff exclusively, while Movement staff see John Gaden as a great actor. Acting and Movement staff promote the talents of Cate Blanchett. Additionally,
Acting and Voice staff admire Geoffrey Rush and John Howard.
This list of names should only be used as a guide to the types of actors that the ATC view as noteworthy in Australia today. While it offers no clear indication of the personal tastes of the ATC members, it hopes to further the understanding of the ATC aesthetic.
Thus, not only has a picture of the ATC‟s training aesthetic been painted, but also a taste of the ATC‟s acting aesthetic has been offered.
Conclusion
This chapter has painted a picture of the Actor Training Community that clarifies the members‟ position on actor training at the beginning of the twenty-first century. While
Apter, in his letter to theatre educators, may suggest the need to teach as well as train actors, it has been posited that the members of the ATC view themselves as more than just teachers or trainers. The ATC‟s training aesthetic has been presented, and the manner in which the members develop unique training methodologies has been discussed. Training pedagogies advocated by the ATC have been explained, as have the training aims and obstacles. Also, the ideal training environment espoused by the ATC has been specified. The ATC has defined what is meant by the term acting, and the conditions required for great acting have been detailed. Additionally, the ATC have
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offered examples of great acting in the contemporary Australian context. By painting this picture of the ATC, the languaging behaviours of this group, to be discussed in the following chapter, may be more fully appreciated.
Choosing not to abide by the standard university job titles of lecturer or tutor, and finding the job titles of teacher or trainer somewhat limiting, the ATC bill themselves as coaches, director-industry professionals, and facilitators, as well as teachers or teacher-trainers. The job title an ATC member embraces is dependent upon the job function and the particular job context. Thus, if a member is functioning within the context of the classroom, the member assumes the title of teacher; if in the rehearsal context, the title of director or facilitator is employed; and in the private tutorial context, the title of coach is used. Apter‟s notions of teaching and training have therefore been refined to suggest that there is a relationship between a job title, a job function and a job context.
Moreover, the concept of a job function has been refined to suggest that there are two major modes of instruction endorsed by the ATC. The Deposit Mode of instruction takes place in the context of the classroom and pertains to the output of theoretical knowledge on behalf of the teacher. Alternatively, the Withdrawal Mode of instruction requires the coach, director, facilitator or trainer to draw work out of the students. This mode of instruction is utilised in the rehearsal or the private tutorial context. Of course, when assuming job titles such as teacher-trainer or director-industry professional, ATC
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members combine the Deposit and the Withdrawal Modes of instruction in certain ways, to suit their purposes in the classroom or the rehearsal context.
The basic set of beliefs that guide the ATC‟s training practices is comprised of five assumptions that have emerged from coding, comparing and sampling various statements made by individual members throughout the interviews. The importance of ensemble, or the need for students to become team players in a collaborative art form, is the first of these assumptions. Secondly, the ATC advocate notions of truth, regardless of the style or form the students come to work in. This truth can be expressed as believability or embodiment, depending upon the language of acting endorsed by the
ATC member. Theatre making, rather than simply interpreting the work of another, is condoned by the ATC. Furthermore, the industry aesthetic, which suggests notions of commercial theatre, film, television and profit margins is recognised by the ATC. The aesthetic of outside of the industry, which pertains to work of a more community minded nature, and a way to live the life of an artist, is also endorsed.
While the ATC do not align themselves with one trainer or methodology in particular, by collecting acting theory and practice throughout their life experiences, known as the boutiqueing of methodologies, the ATC have developed unique training methodologies.
It is posited that this deconstruction, transformation and reinterpretation of past theory and practice takes place through a process of exposure, absorption and embodiment. In this way, once ATC members are exposed to an acting theory or practice, they will absorb what is deemed as useful for their particular training context. At some point,
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what has been absorbed will become so much a part of the way in which the members approach the training context, that the source of the approach will be forgotten, and the unique methodology will become embodied.
Consequently, it is possible to assert that the members‟ own training in Australia and internationally, combined with their professional acting experience, has informed their training methodology. Not surprisingly then, the ATC regard their teaching practices as eclectic. This Pedagogy of Eclecticism can be subdivided into the Pedagogies of
Investigation, Fusion and Speed. The first encourages the students to become aware, examine and expand their knowledge, the second blends occidental and oriental practices, or marries the technical and emotional practices associated with the British and American schools of acting. Thirdly, the Pedagogy of Speed is committed to using practices that accelerate the students‟ learning process, so that the training aims are met within the confines of the three year degree program.
Such training aims include the development of: an ability to cope with the requirements of the industry; a technique, methodology, or process to use when approaching acting tasks; an ability to cope with the requirements associated with outside of the industry; an ability to work independently of a director; an understanding of the transformative power of acting; physical strength, stamina, flexibility, and neutrality; and vocal freedom.
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The obstacles to achieving these aims are divided into four categories, known as the
Culture of the Institution, the Culture of the Industry, the Culture of the Student, and
Notions of Identity. The physical, managerial, and professional obstacles that constitute the Culture of the Institution include: the standard of the available facilities; timetabling, assessment and staffing difficulties; and the disposition of the training school‟s staff.
Personal criticism, the notion of actors as commodities, a lack of Australian acting role models, and the effect of the media, are regarded as the obstacles associated with the
Culture of the Industry. Furthermore, with regards to the Culture of the Student, it is posited that the students are a product of their time: the materialism of the 1980‟s has made them complacent; an outcome oriented schooling system has made it difficult for them to adjust to training as actors; and while they may be visually erudite, they view words as the enemy. An ignorance of Australia‟s cultural heritage, and the prevalence of the tall poppy syndrome, are the obstacles to training related to the category entitled
Notions of Identity.
These obstacles to the training aims can be overcome though. Timetabling constraints can be contested with the Pedagogy of Speed. A degree program can be viewed as advantageous, as it exposes the students to a broad range of knowledge. In turn, the degree itself may assist students in seeking alternative forms of employment if necessary. The drawbacks of the industry can serve as an incentive to some students.
Also, even though there may be a lack of Australian role models present in the industry, a process of enculturation within the training context can offer students positive role models, in the form of their peers. Moreover, the ATC accept the challenge to
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deconstruct the students‟ preconceptions regarding acting, training and language.
Finally, while the students may be reticent to develop their physical and vocal skills, for fear of falling victim to the tall poppy syndrome, the ATC see it as a step in the right direction that Australians are now able to use their own accents when acting, which was not the case in the Australian industry prior to the 1960‟s.
An ideal training environment, according to the ATC, is comprised of physical and managerial elements relating to the Culture of the Institution. Thus, the facilities, the program, and the staffing are considered essential to achieving the ideal. Additionally, in accordance with the category known as the Culture of the Student, in an ideal training environment the students‟ attitude would be one of positive regard, that assisted in the nurturing of a collaborative trainer / trainee relationship. Furthermore, while the Heads of Acting at NIDA and VCA are satisfied with their training environment, the newly appointed Head of Acting at QUT hopes for more ideal physical and managerial arrangements in the future.
It has been posited that the ATC find it difficult to define acting without betraying their languaging preferences, or indeed their preference for stage acting. Nevertheless, in broad terms, acting is an action in response to, or through, a stimulus that ignites the human faculties. In other words, actors reveal, commit, share, or transform, according to the written or physical material that engages and effects their voice, body, intellect, emotions, psychology, spirit and imagination. An actor‟s selfless immersion in the imaginary stimulus constitutes great acting, as does the audience‟s ability to enter, share,
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or be transformed by the imaginary world. The Heads of Acting at the three training schools under investigation offer three specific criteria for judging great acting: the range of roles played by the actor; the ability to consistently transform; and the balance of performative ingredients including the production team, the role, the space, the time, and the audience. Many actors were rated as reaching moments of greatness, but Judy
Davis, Robyn Nevin and Bille Brown were mentioned by a combination of Acting,
Movement and Voice staff.
The ATC has been identified using a constructivist grounded methodology. What the members call themselves, their training aesthetic, and the process they undergo to develop a unique training methodology, has been exposed. The pedagogies the members endorse have been discussed, as well as the training aims and obstacles. A view of the
ATC‟s ideal training environment has been offered. Also, the ATC‟s definitions of acting and great acting have been given, and examples of great acting in the contemporary Australian context have been listed. With such a knowledge of the community, it is now possible to direct the focus of the study towards the manner in which the ATC use language in the training context. Therefore, in the following chapter, the languaging habits of the Actor Training Community are examined.
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CHAPTER FIVE
THE LANGUAGING HABITS OF THE ATC
Introduction
Bain (Movement, NIDA) posits:
...I often hear people use words like essence, “Find the essence”. I hardly dare use a word like that, I worry how others will interpret it. Centre, there‟s a tricky word: how many centres have we got? Is it the vertical centre, is it the gravitational centre, is it the emotional centre, is there only one centre?...So it makes one cautious, when you deal with multi-meaning words...spirit, soul, essence, you know. I‟m frightened of those words because I can‟t control the meanings. I would find it very hard to be positive about those words in relationship to myself, let alone expect that I can hand them out to a sixteen year old, or an eighteen year old or a twenty-five year old and have them understand intimately, exactly what I‟m talking about. So um, so I love words, I love words and I love the many meanings that they possess, much more than defining one single thing with a word (personal interview, 4 October 2001: 43 - 47, 49 - 50, 53 - 59)
Like essence, centre, spirit and soul, the terms “free” and “instrument” possess multi- meanings for the ATC. This chapter investigates the languages of acting the ATC utilise in the training context, with particular reference to the employment or rejection of the terms “free” and “instrument”. Focussing on the answers to Question Four of the questionnaire (see Appendix A), the dominant languaging habits are revealed. The manner in which the ATC define the terms “free” and “instrument” is examined, and the pedagogic appropriateness of the terms is determined. Also, the dominant communication functions, acts and elements are analysed to demonstrate how the ATC apply the terms “free” and “instrument” in the training context. Conceptual categories
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such as authentic vernacular, notes and range are discussed throughout. To clarify the definitions of such categories, please refer to the Glossary of Terms (Appendix B).
Consequently, the ATC‟s selection of acting language according to what feels personally appropriate is discussed and thus, the notion of an authentic vernacular is introduced
(see Appendix B). Only a small majority of members of the ATC acknowledge the effect of their backgrounds, training, or experience, in the evolution of their authentic vernacular. It is suggested then, that the ATC may believe an authentic vernacular stems from a process of pedagogic glossolalia, whereby the individual creates a unique language of acting. However, the process of vertical transmission, in which language is passed from trainer to trainee, or boutiqueing, which sees the individual select language from various sources to make up an authentic vernacular is not underestimated.
Secondly, the use of metaphor is identified as the ATC‟s dominant languaging habit. It is posited that the words the ATC select to use as part of an authentic vernacular are derived from a personal inventory or inner storehouse of terms and phrases. These terms and phrases encapsulate ideas and thoughts that are metaphorical in nature. The terms and phrases are therefore recognised as word-containers, as a word like “free” or
“instrument” can contain metaphorical concepts such as: the body is a river which can be dammed up with rocks; or the body is a container that allows substances to move in and out.
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Patterns of definition emerge pertaining to “free” and “instrument”. To clarify these patterns, the notions of notes and range are introduced. The notes constitute the properties inherent in “free” or “instrument”, and the range clarifies meaning by referring to the opposite of the term as well as the most perfect example of the term.
Thus, a relationship between the notes, the range, and the word-containers offers an approach to understanding what is meant by “free” and “instrument” according to the
ATC.
Each member of the ATC acknowledges “free” and “instrument” but not all view the terms as part of their authentic vernacular. It is proposed that while the terms must surely be in their inner storehouse if they recognise them, an ATC member will only make the terms part of their authentic vernacular if they are deemed pedagogically appropriate by the individual. When viewed as appropriate, the terms become high order terms. If the terms are rejected in favour of analogous terms, or are dismissed due to binary distinctions and metaphorical concepts perceived as problematic, the terms become low order within the member‟s inner storehouse. Hence, a high order term within one‟s inner storehouse will become part of one‟s authentic vernacular, and is subsequently used as a pedagogic tool. A low order term exists in one‟s inner storehouse but is consciously not selected for inclusion in one‟s authentic vernacular as it fails to possess pedagogic value.
Lastly, in keeping with Jakobson‟s total act of communication, as discussed in Chapter
Two, a balancing act is evident between: the language functions that transmit
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information; the speech acts that assert, direct and declare; and the dominant elements recognised as the addressee and the context. Therefore, when employing the terms
“free” or “instrument”, the ATC communicates in a fashion that is directed specifically towards the students, in the context of the classroom / rehearsal / private tutorial, or with reference to the context of the stage. Furthermore, these terms, or other analogous word- containers deemed pedagogically appropriate by the ATC, are employed so as to influence and motivate vocal, physical, emotional, psychological, or even spiritual, change in the student.
Using a constructivist grounded methodology, this chapter does not seek to judge or scientifically verify the languaging habits of the ATC, but offer an account of a perceived pattern of languaging behaviour. Hence, theory has been generated that fits this particular Actor Training Community. Additionally, as an interpreter of other people‟s words, it is only possible to take the clues found within the ATC‟s interview data and attempt to determine the thing-meant according to what Foley calls my Native language. Thus, instead of pretending to propose an objective theory revealing the truth about the languaging habits of the ATC, this chapter suggests theory that has emerged from data translated by a member of the ATC, whose own authentic vernacular displays a bias towards certain notes, range and word-containers.
Italics, quotation marks, bold print, and capital letters are utilised throughout the chapter to highlight the differences between: the categories developed to account for the patterns of languaging behaviour; the terms under scrutiny; the terms favoured by individual
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members of the ATC; and the metaphorical schemas favoured by the ATC. Hence, categories like authentic vernacular are identified in italics; the terms “free” and
“instrument” are clearly distinguished by quotation marks; ATC terms such as open or released are recognised by the use of bold print; and metaphorical schemas like
HUMAN AS AN ENTITY are detected by the capital letters.
ATC Awareness of Languaging Habits
Authentic Vernaculars: the words that work for me
In reference to the significance of words in the training context, Bain (Movement,
NIDA) states:
...not always is the teacher in control of the significance that the word has to somebody else. And I‟ve used words, you‟ve got to use words, and I‟ve used words that I thought were wonderful words, helpful words, early in my career but I‟ve tossed a lot of them away. I‟ve found new significance to old words and words that I didn‟t use much at all until recently, when suddenly I‟m finding they‟re the most revealing and exciting thing. Sometimes, when I throw a word in with great confidence and a certainty that everybody will understand, I see a question mark sitting right over the top of somebody‟s head or a little frown or something, and you think “Woops”, they either don‟t understand or they think they understand but their understanding and mine are at war with one another. And I‟ve become very careful now, very very very careful with words. The most exciting thing in many ways for me in teaching is, not just to see somebody get better, but to see the way in which I can express something better. A better image, a better use of the word, a better concept, finding a word that goes right into their brain, right into their heart, right into their memory, you know? (personal interview, 4 October 2001: 2 - 18)
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Like Bain, the majority of ATC members admit to some degree of awareness of the languages of acting they use in the training context. However, only a handful of ATC members actually make reference to the potential power their choice of language may have over their students‟ capacity to learn. What tends to determine the ATC‟s preference of language in the training context is dependent on what seems authentic to them. Jackson (Acting, NIDA) for example, explains: „my vernacular is something authentic to me‟. Thus, if a word holds no meaning, significance or „ring of authenticity‟ for Jackson he will not use it (personal interview, 4 October 2001: 214 - 216). Likewise,
Cook (Voice, VCA) posits that while she would not dissuade students from using a particular term if it seemed to make sense to them, she would feel uncomfortable utilising language that was not „idiosyncratic‟ to her (personal interview, 24 September
2001: 291 - 296).
Consequently, the ATC admit to employing or dismissing acting terminology according to their authentic vernacular, yet only 66.7% of the ATC associate this languaging behaviour with their background, training or experience. With such a small majority of members hypothesising that their authentic vernacular evolved due to past teachers, exposure to relevant literature, or the people with whom they have been associated, the assumption that the ATC have created their own unique language, seems to be as feasible as the notions of vertical transmission or boutiqueing. Thus, the transference of language from trainer to trainee, or the selecting of language from various sources, only just outweighs the process recognised in this study as pedagogic glossolalia.
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The Inner Storehouse of Word-Containers: what’s in a word?
In accordance with Zarrilli (1995) who suggests that all languages of acting are metaphoric, the dominant languaging habit of the training community is its‟ use of metaphor. O‟Hare (Acting, QUT), for example states:
...if you want a river to flow freely you‟ve got to remove the rocks and, you know, the fallen debris, you know, you‟ve got to unplug it, you know, let the water flow. And that‟s what we‟re trying to do, we‟re trying to create the channel, a free flow of energy, a free flow of spirit... (personal interview, 23 August 2001: 458 - 462).
Furthermore, Knight (Acting, NIDA) explains: „... you need to have the issue of light free or strong free simply to be able to say “I love you”, which is the freedom of expression and it comes pouring out...‟ (personal interview, 28 September 2001: 728 -
730). Moreover, Williams (Voice, NIDA) asserts: „...there‟s nothing getting in the way,
I‟m an open person, and my voice can get out, I‟m not damming it up in my throat, I‟m not damming it up with my jaw...‟ (personal interview, 2 October 2001: 391 - 393).
Each ATC member illustrated here favours a language of acting that calls on metaphor.
In an attempt to summarise their thoughts, one can posit that an actor is a river, or a channel of water, that can be dammed up by rocks or fallen debris. If the rocks and debris are removed, the water will pour out. Metaphorically then, the actor is an
ENTITY: a river. The actor must also be a CONTAINER OBJECT, considering the in - out orientation implied by the phrases „getting in the way‟ and „pouring out‟.
Additionally, the activities of unplugging, flowing, damming and pouring can be viewed as metaphorical SUBSTANCES in the CONTAINER OBJECT.
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Unlike the rest of the community, Challis (Acting, QUT) admits to utilising metaphor as a pedagogic tool. For example, with reference to questions pertaining to acting, seeking clarification he asks „I‟m talking in metaphors; do you want me to be a bit more scientific?‟, and again when discussing the term “instrument” Challis states „I talk about it through the metaphor...‟ (personal interview, 20 August 2001: 18 - 20, 432 - 433). It could be argued that the ATC fail to admit to their use of metaphor due to their assumption that as an ATC member myself, I understand the metaphorical concepts inherent in their authentic vernacular. Borrowing Saussure‟s notion of one‟s available inventory or inner storehouse of language, the trainers may assume that I am familiar with the metaphorical concepts drawn from the inner storehouse of terms that constitute their authentic vernacular. Moreover, throughout the body of the interviews, ATC members do show evidence of prefacing their viewpoints with phrases such as I think or
I believe, therefore, they may presume that when speaking metaphorically, I understand that the schemas they employ signify their personal truth rather than the truth absolute.
Alternatively, it could be conceived that one‟s inner storehouse is so inextricably linked to one‟s understanding of acting, that in the training context, the ATC may not deem it necessary to make students aware that the set of words selected contains the trainer‟s particular metaphorical conceptions of acting. In this situation the trainer may take for granted the metaphorical complexities of his/her authentic vernacular, with the view that there is simply no other way to discuss acting.
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Take, for example, the rocks and fallen debris referred to by O‟Hare (Acting, QUT),
(personal interview, 23 August 2001: 458 - 462). These terms are what Johnson calls word-containers for notions relating to fear, self-consciousness, inhibitions, ego problems and a lack of confidence. The word-containers metaphorically translate these notions into solid entities that can be quantified. They persuade us to conceive of emotional or psychological states as bearing weight and texture. These word-containers also impel us to view such states as forms of rubbish that have been dropped on us, and in turn, can be lifted off us and disposed of. Rocks and fallen debris are part of a language of acting authentic to O‟Hare (Acting, QUT). These word-containers, drawn from his inner storehouse of language, are pedagogic tools that make sense to him, therefore he may not find reason to justify his choice of language to students, or consider it necessary to seek a way of expressing himself that is devoid of such metaphors.
The Relationship Between an Authentic Vernacular, an Inner Storehouse and Word-
Containers
So as to further clarify the relationship between an authentic vernacular, an inner storehouse and word-containers, let us examine an excerpt from the interview with
Dunphy (Movement, QUT):
I felt something enter me which, although the performance lost my interest about three quarters of the way through, I was still swimming around in it because I couldn‟t quite forget, and they had carved and etched inside, they had made that impression so strongly in me at that moment that, you know, I could have sat
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there just swimming around that forever, and I was quite happy not to get off the seat. So it took me out of my mind...but I really did sink, I felt like, you know, my whole body just released into the seat... (personal interview, 9 November 2001: 164 – 170, 173 - 174).
Firstly, in her attempt to explain something, she must access words. While this may seem obvious, this point is crucial, as she will only access the words that she has available to her. The words she has available to her are the words that constitute her inner storehouse. Furthermore, the words that constitute her inner storehouse will only be those that have particular significance for her. It follows then that these words make up her authentic vernacular. For example, by accessing and uttering the words swimming around in, etched inside and released into we can assume that these words hold particular significance for her and that is why they are available to her. Thus, they form part of her authentic vernacular because they are found in her inner storehouse
(see Figure 1).
Relationship betweenAuthentic Authentic Vernacular and Inner Storeho Inner Vernacular Storehouse
Figure 1 - Relationship between Authentic Vernacular and Inner Storehouse
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Moreover, if one can picture a word as a container filled with ideas and thoughts, when
Dunphy selects such words as etched, swimming and released we can assume that the words are filled with specific ideas, thoughts, or metaphorical conceptions, that make sense to her. Hence, if we empty these particular word-containers we may discover a conceptual system favouring an in - out orientation and a CONTAINER schema in which activities are perceived as SUBSTANCES (see Figure 2).
Relationship between Authentic Vernacular and Inner Storeho
Authentic Vernacular Inner Storehouse Word-Containers
Figure 2 - Relationship between Authentic Vernacular, Inner Storehouse and Word- Containers
Dunphy (Movement, QUT), like all ATC members, has an authentic vernacular derived from an inner storehouse of word-containers that are steeped in metaphorical concepts.
As Dunphy recognises me as a member of the training community, she may have thought it unnecessary to stress her reliance on metaphor in answering the questions posed. However, as a representative of the ATC, Dunphy‟s languaging habits could suggest that ATC members are somewhat unaware of just how rich, or heavily laden, with metaphor the languages of actor training actually are.
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Free and Instrument
Patterns of Definition: notes, range and the relationship with word-containers
The ATC tend to define the terms “free” and “instrument” in a manner that goes beyond a standard listing of inherent properties. A pattern of definition emerges that incorporates notes and range derived from the ATC‟s inner storehouse of word- containers.
The category recognised in this study as notes has been developed to highlight the various components that constitute the meaning of a word, by bridging the gap between the use of concrete objects and the use of abstract notions in the definition of a word.
Thus, notes are similar to a set of inherent properties, except the properties may be somewhat metaphorical in nature. Borrowing from Saussure and Bain (Movement,
NIDA), the category known in this study as range emphasises that the meaning of a word is dependent upon absence, opposition, and differentiation. As Bain suggests
„...instead of squeezing words down to mean precise things...always go looking for the range, and when you‟ve got the range, from the most perfect example of something to the opposite...then you get an accuracy not just a generalisation‟ (personal interview, 4
October 2001: 64 - 68).
When defining the term “free”, the ATC follows a pattern of definition that commences with range, which then relates to word-containers suggestive of a specific metaphorical
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schema, which in turn relates to notes. Thus, “free” can mean anything along a continuum between free and bound, free and control, available and unavailable, or unself-conscious and self-conscious; words such as open, release and flowing are used to imply that the concept of “free” is part of a CONTAINER schema; and physical tension, habitual behaviour and personal idiosyncrasies are just some of the properties identified with the notion of “free”, or an absence thereof. Meenach (Acting,
QUT) illustrates this pattern of definition when he explains what “free” means to him:
It means that we‟re inhibited, you know, to expression, since we were a child basically, we‟ve learned how to inhibit ourselves in expression, in our emotional expression especially, and so we‟re learning to break through in the inhibitions, or the demons as we call it, but all the inhibitions that make us hide, you know, make what‟s inside us hard to get out, um, so we have to have exercises that get us, you know, comfortable in the expression of ourselves (personal interview, 29 August 2001: 320 - 326).
Thus, firstly the range of “free” is indicated by Meenach‟s use of the word inhibited: this term can be understood along the continuum between inhibited and uninhibited.
Secondly, to break through suggests an action to attain the notion of “free” that is conceptualised as a CONTAINER. Lastly, the demons is the note that gives further meaning to the term “free” by clarifying a property that prevents the notion of “free”.
In an attempt to define the term “instrument”, the ATC follows a pattern of definition that commences with notes, moves to word-containers suggestive of a specific metaphorical schema, and then range is included. Therefore, the properties of
“instrument” include the voice, the body, the emotional self, the psychological self, and
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the spiritual self; the consistent allusion to musicianship via such words as tuning or practising, and phrases like ‘you wouldn’t leave a Stradivarius out in the rain’ suggests that the concept of “instrument” is part of a musical schema whereby the
HUMAN IS AN ENTITY; and the term can mean anything along a continuum between the actor and the mechanism, the entire being and the apparatus, the package and the vessel, or the vehicle and the channel. Davies (Acting, VCA) exemplifies this pattern:
Well I suppose instrument implies the fact that you are training something to a certain point, and I think that‟s why it is a useful word, because I think vocal, emotional and physical fluency is very very important, and as an actor that is our instrument, you know, we are the oboe, so I think that‟s a useful way. I tend not to use it probably because I tend not to talk in class...I don‟t like the term, it doesn‟t mean I don‟t think it should be used, but I don‟t like the term. It‟s too sterile for me whereas vessel isn‟t, but vessel doesn‟t imply that there‟s rigour required, that‟s why instrument‟s a good word to use because rigour is required (personal interview, 26 September 2001: 177 - 182, 185 - 187).
Consequently, the notes of the “instrument” can be recognised as the voice, the emotions and the body. The notion of fluency, as well as the reference to the musical instrument known as the oboe, reveal metaphorical conceptions: the former subscribing to the CONTAINER schema and the latter to the HUMAN AS AN ENTITY. Lastly, the range of the term moves along the continuum from instrument to vessel: something to be tuned or played, to something that is to be emptied or filled.
Interrelationships: binary distinctions, negativity and metaphors
The notes of the “instrument” cover the standard binary distinctions relating to the human being, and are consequently interrelated with the notion of range. For instance,
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the voice can be viewed by ATC members as distinct from the body, so we could place the note known as voice at the opposite end of the continuum from the note identified as body. In contrast, while the notes of “free” are interrelated with the notion of range, the community only offers a set of properties that distinguish the opposite of “free”. Thus, these notes only refer to one end of the continuum. The “free” notes such as the demons, previously mentioned by Meenach (Acting, QUT), baggage, barriers, blocks, encumbrances, locks and obstacles could be known then as bum-notes. Borrowing from the UK Voice trainer Rodenburg (1992: 12), this category emphasises the negative emotional tone the ATC use when the inherent properties that constitute the meaning of
“free” are mentioned. To highlight this negativity O‟Hare (Acting, QUT) states: „...actor training can be perceived as being negative because it seems that we try to remove obstacles, or blocks all the time...‟(personal interview, 23 August 2001: 456 - 457).
It is also feasible to posit that the metaphorical schemas of “free” and “instrument” tend to interrelate. Evident amongst ATC members are notions of the “instrument” as a channel befitting the actions of entering, exiting and passing through. The
“instrument” is also perceived as an empty vessel to be filled. These notions seem to echo conceptions of “free” as an energy befitting the actions of breaking through, letting go, getting out of the way, and flowing; or as something to be opened or closed.
Hence, the ENTITY schema and the CONTAINER schema can be viewed as common to both “free” and “instrument”.
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Pedagogic Appropriateness: high order and low order terms
Although the ATC recognises the term “free” and an overwhelming majority of members admits to using the term in the training context at some point in their careers, only half the community believe that the term is part of their authentic vernacular.
Those who may have the term in their inner storehouse but who only use it occasionally or advisedly, prefer to use analogous terms in the training context. Williams (Voice,
NIDA) states:
I do use free but I use open. I looked the two words up in the dictionary over the weekend and they virtually mean the same thing...But I think I use open more than I use free. Because I always remember, kids will often jib at that, “Well what does that mean, free, free up your voice?”. Whether that affected me I don‟t know, but I certainly use the word “Now you‟re lovely and open”, I don‟t say “Now you‟re free”, I say “Now you‟re open, you‟re available”, that‟s what openness is “I am available”. It‟s like opening a door, you know, I make the room available (personal interview, 2 October 2001: 388 - 389, 395 - 401).
Hence, the analogous terms, open and available, constitute high order terms within
William‟s inner storehouse while “free” is relegated to a low order term. Jackson
(Acting, NIDA) who identifies openness as well as relaxation, vulnerability, and revelatory as high order terms within his inner storehouse suggests that „an ice cream is free, I get into the movies for free but I don‟t know whether I act free‟ ( personal interview, 4 October 2001: 206 - 209, 216 - 217). Moreover, Cook (Voice, VCA) explains:
No, never use the term free...Again, it‟s to do with how you, you know, how you understand language. I mean to me, I mean, what is being free? I just don‟t see myself being free, so to ask someone to be free with their voice, when all kinds of things are operating, psychologically, emotionally, physically, culturally,
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socially, in that moment in time. I think, you know, if I were to use the term free I could use it in two contexts: one in the middle of summer on an Australian beach lying, you know, floating on the water, and the other is when my children cried as babies, because they need to have that freedom in order for me to feed them (personal interview, 24 September 2001: 305 - 314).
Therefore, it is possible to suggest that “free” exists within the inner storehouse of all community members, however those who do not perceive it as part of their authentic vernacular fail to view “free” as an appropriate pedagogic tool. “Free” consequently becomes low order in the classroom context (see Figure 3).
Authentic Vernacular Inner Relationship between AuthenticStorehouse Vernacular and Inner Storeho High Order Inner Terms Storehouse Low Order Word-Containers Terms
Figure 3 - Relationship between Authentic Vernacular, Inner Storehouse of High Order and Low Order Terms, and Word-Containers
It is interesting to note that while Movement staff are comfortable with “free” as part of their authentic vernacular, other ATC members assume the term is best suited to the context of a Voice class. In contrast, the term “instrument” is favoured by Acting staff
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and generally rejected by Voice staff. The term features in the authentic vernacular of those who subscribe to at least one of the various binary distinctions of the human being that constitutes the notes of the “instrument” (voice, body, emotions, psychology, spirit). While the dominant binary distinction evident is that of voice and body, ATC members who distinguish between the person and the actor also justify “instrument” as a high order term within the training context. Cotton (Movement, NIDA) who subscribes to both major binary distinctions posits:
There has to be a certain, not separation but an understanding that while you as a person live inside your body, you also have to separate that person from the actor, who also lives inside that body... but it‟s also important to be able to almost separate yourself as the person from yourself as the actor. I mean there‟s a constant both of you, but otherwise criticism, if you take it personally, is going to be very very hard, and particularly when your body is your instrument, if somebody says “That doesn‟t look good” or “That doesn‟t look right” then the person can tend to feel inadequate or not good enough, whereas saying “It‟s my body, my instrument is not in the right shape”, you can be more objective...you can be a terrific person but you just can‟t bend over and touch your toes. I do think there‟s a need to be able to be objective about your instrument so that you can train it without getting all caught up emotionally in what‟s happening (personal interview, 2 October 2001: 169 - 171, 179 - 186, 191 - 194).
Those who regard “instrument” as a low order term within their inner storehouse fail to claim it as part of their authentic vernacular due to the binary distinctions implied by the term, and the objectifying nature of the term. Thus, for this section of the ATC,
“instrument” as a word-container is filled with troublesome or perplexing thoughts and ideas that do not match with their conceptual system. However, while 75% of Voice staff fit into this section of the ATC, they are guilty of what could be considered an
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unconscious binary distinction: collectively disapproving of the separation of the voice from the body, or the person from the actor, in conversation they actually associate the term “instrument” purely with the voice. For example, Costan (Voice, VCA) states that an “instrument” is:
...a thing used in an action, it‟s a tool or a bloody implement, you know, and the voice is not that. The voice is something that you communicate with, and the voice is something that responds to a stimulus and a need...and so it‟s not something that is ah inanimate, or it‟s not something that is divorced from the body...it‟s a holistic part of your communication process (personal interview, 24 September 2001: 150 - 155).
Likewise, Williams (Voice, NIDA) explains:
I talk about their voices, your voice, I don‟t actually talk about your instrument. I suppose the word instrument to me has a separation feeling. Whereas what I want them to think is: your voice is part of you and who you are...So, no I don‟t actually use the word. I am inclined to think of an instrument as something that‟s out there, that I have got to gain, but it‟s not part of me (personal interview, 2 October 2001: 373 - 376, 380 - 382).
Re-evaluating the Voice staff‟s relationship with the term “instrument”, it is feasible to posit that they consider it to be a low order term within their inner storehouse. It is a word-container for one note, the voice; its range spans from a subjectivist notion of me / mine to the objectivist notion of an implement; and in an attempt to reject the HUMAN
AS A MACHINE metaphorical schema, “instrument” is not deemed as an appropriate pedagogic tool.
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ATC members who admit concern regarding the objectivist and clinical nature of the term, yet still maintain “instrument” as part of their authentic vernacular, tend to do so due to their commitment to the HUMAN AS A (MUSICAL) ENTITY metaphor.
Downes (Movement, QUT) states:
...by using the word instrument...I know it can be a negative thing, but it suggests that you need to practise and you need to understand how it works... I‟ve heard the word instrument used negatively, like “Your vocal instrument”, “Your physical instrument”, like they‟re two separate things and um, yes, like it just suggests to me that it‟s something that can be switched off and put away, or packed up, and not necessarily something that you have to own or live in...I just think because the word instrument to me, although some people might think surgical, I always think musical, and I always think in terms of the fact that musicians play their instrument, because I live next door to a flautist so I can hear him every day practising for three hours a day, and the fact that he knows that instrument so well and knows exactly every nuance and every possible combination of um fingering and embouchure that he could work with on his flute, um that‟s the level that I think actors need to know their bodies. And you know, because you can‟t, how can you possibly perform, how can you possibly get out onstage and trust that you can be, that you will be specific enough in those moments of great acting, if you don‟t know what your body‟s doing? (personal interview, 17 September and 16 November 2001: 284 - 286, 292 - 297, 301 - 311).
Asserting the Vernacular: the act of transforming the student
In order to shed some light on, what Jakobson would deem, the community‟s total act of communication, the functions, acts and elements of language can be considered. By investigating how the ATC employ the terms “free” and “instrument”, or dismiss them in favour of other word-containers from their inner storehouse, it is possible to gain some insight into how the ATC may access acting terminology so as to communicate with students. It appears that the cognitive and conative functions are favoured by the
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ATC and the speech acts preferred are asserting, directing and declaring. Additionally, the dominant elements tend to be the context and the addressee. So as to illustrate, let us examine two excerpts from the interview with Gerstle (Acting, VCA). “Instrument” will be referred first. This term is part of her authentic vernacular. “Free” is viewed as a low order term by Gerstle and will thus be dealt with subsequently.
With reference to “instrument” she states:
...when I talk about it, I talk about you having to maintain and train and investigate and understand every aspect of your instrument, which means psychological, psychic, spiritual, emotional, vocal, physical, all those different aspects an actor has to delve into and train because if all of them are fluent then they are all needed to be in-the-moment on the stage, congruent (personal interview, 20 September 2001: 462 - 467).
When Gerstle uses the term, the cognitive function is favoured so as to transmit information to the students. By explaining to the addressees that they „have to‟ she is asserting how things are. As she lists the actions of maintaining, training, investigating and understanding, Gerstle is attempting to direct the students towards doing things that will ultimately bring about “instrumental” changes. Also, the context of the classroom / rehearsal / private tutorial is implied, and the context of the stage is emphasised.
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With reference to the term “free”, Gerstle posits:
We‟ve learnt to, hold breath, hold body, hold voice, hold back, hold emotion, hold, hold, hold, hold. A lot of training is about getting people to stop holding, controlling. You do exercises where you want them to just let go, and abandon themselves, so that there‟s a free flow of breath and a free flow of body, or a free flow of voice...whenever you come up against some kind of a holding or a block or a controlling, the concept of free would come in in order to get around it, flow under it, break it down, possibly...Free in relation to the other aspects of the instrument, I probably wouldn‟t use the word free but it would relate to something like the busyness of the head, and the inner critic, that goes on (personal interview, 20 September 2001: 516 - 523, 524 - 526).
As aforementioned, Gerstle (Acting, VCA) does not recognise the term as part of her authentic vernacular, however she does recognise its usefulness when attempting to influence the students‟ use of breath, body and voice. Therefore, the conative function is employed. It is feasible to infer that by using terms relating to the concept of “free”
Gerstle would be able to help the students change their holding / controlling patterns.
One could assume that the declarative speech act would be utilised in such a case.
Making reference to the training and exercises, she makes it clear that the context is the rehearsal / private tutorial, and the focus is the addressees.
While ATC members may or may not accept “free” or “instrument” as part of their authentic vernacular, in the training context or in reference to the context of the stage, the ATC seek appropriate word-containers so as to transfer information to the students that will influence them and cause changes in them vocally, physically, emotionally, psychologically, and at times, spiritually. The above examples suggest that the ATC
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emphasise their authentic vernacular in the training context in order to convey information to the students that should encourage transformation.
Conclusion
Unlike Davies (Acting, VCA) who believes that due to the influence of Japanese teachers she does not talk much in class, and thereby does not use the terms “free” and
“instrument” (personal interview, 26 September 2001: 182 - 183, 206), the rest of the
ATC embrace the use of words in their training contexts. An ATC member‟s authentic vernacular is made up of high order terms from an inner storehouse of word-containers believed to carry pedagogic value for him / her. 66.7% of the ATC believe that their authentic vernacular has been influenced by their background, training or experience.
Thus, vertical transmission and boutiqueing may be the dominant modes for acquiring a language of acting, yet the prospect of pedagogic glossolalia may also be feasible in the opinion of the ATC.
In defining the terms “free” and “instrument”, the ATC list inherent properties, and through a process of differentiation and the use of metaphor, the ATC are able to make meaning. While the terms signify different things to different ATC members, particular patterns reveal how the ATC approach the process of defining. “Free” is usually defined according to differentiation first, then metaphors are employed, and finally, inherent properties are listed. Hence, the range leads to word-containers of metaphorical significance, and the notes conclude the definition. With only two members of the ATC
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completely rejecting the term, “free” can mean anything between free and bound, free and control, available and unavailable, inhibited and uninhibited, or self-conscious and unself-conscious; the CONTAINER metaphor is implied by actions such as opening, releasing and flowing; and tension, habits and idiosyncrasies are the properties that restrict or negate the notion of “free”.
“Instrument”, on the other hand, is defined through the listing of properties first, metaphors are then suggested, and lastly, differentiation is used. This pattern moves from the notes, to metaphorically meaningful word-containers, to range. With only three
ATC members rejecting the term, “instrument” consists of the voice, the body, the emotions, the psychological self and the spiritual self: the “instrument” is the entire being. Metaphorically, the “instrument” is musical, emphasising the HUMAN AS AN
ENTITY schema. “Instrument” can also mean anything between the actor and the mechanism, the package and the vessel, or the vehicle and the channel. The notes and the range of each term interrelate, and the ENTITY and CONTAINER metaphorical schemas are common to both “free” and “instrument”.
“Free” and “instrument” exist within the inner storehouse of each ATC member.
Analogous terms to “free”, however, such as open, release and control are preferred as high order terms by 53.4% of the ATC. “Instrument” is out rightly rejected by 75% of the Voice staff. This rejection is due to the binary distinction that separates the person from the actor, and the metaphorical construct that suggests that the voice / body is a
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MACHINE. Hence, “instrument” is a word-container filled with problematic ideas for the majority of Voice staff.
The 60% of the ATC who do accept “instrument” as part of their authentic vernacular welcome the above mentioned binary distinction, as it prevents the student from taking criticism too personally. The HUMAN AS A MACHINE metaphor is not recognised by this section of the ATC: the metaphorical conception of the HUMAN AS A
(MUSICAL) ENTITY, namely a violin, encapsulates the ATC‟s comprehension of this word-container. It is a high order term for this section of the ATC, as pedagogically, it alludes to the actions of understanding, practicing and tuning, which are perceived as essential to the actor training process.
One particular metaphorical schema shared by all ATC members is that of the
CONTAINER metaphor, which suggests an in - out orientation. It is questionable as to whether the ATC are completely aware of their orientations toward particular metaphorical conceptualisations. However, by prefacing their opinions with phrases such as I think or I believe, 93.4% of the ATC may be aware that the way they communicate their ideas does not direct us towards some absolute truth but to their version of the truth.
Alluding to the total act of communication, “free” and “instrument” are terms used by the ATC so as to transmit information to students in the training context, or with reference to the stage. These word-containers assist in influencing the students, and are
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employed to encourage vocal, physical emotional, psychological, or spiritual change in the students. Therefore, the cognitive and conative language functions, the assertive, directive and declarative speech acts, and the elements of context and addressee are favoured when using the terms “free” or “instrument”.
Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, the languaging habits of the ATC have been presented. Not wishing to judge or scientifically verify, an account of a perceived pattern of languaging behaviour has been suggested that fits this Actor Training
Community. Interpreted by a practicing member of the ATC, with an individual authentic vernacular, the emerging theory can only be expressed through the conceptual system of my Native language.
In view of this, when examining the use of the terms “free” and “instrument”, it is possible to posit that while the terms exist in the inner storehouse of the ATC, such word-containers only become high order terms if the individual recognises their pedagogic worth. “Free” and “instrument” are both found in the inner storehouse due, predominantly, to the vertical transmission and the boutiqueing of language. The ATC tend to define meaning via a combination of notes and range, as well as through
CONTAINER and HUMAN AS AN ENTITY metaphorical schemas. As opposed to
Diderot‟s mind / body binary distinction, the voice / body distinction is evident in the languaging habits of the ATC, as is the actor / person distinction. Lastly, in order to transmit information to the students in the training context, ATC members select word- containers that will influence the students and motivate them to change. “Free” and
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“instrument”, like other popular acting terms such as essence, centre, spirit and soul, possess multi-meanings, rich in metaphorical conceptualisations. An investigation into how the ATC approach these two common theatrical terms has offered some understanding of the languaging of the actor evident in contemporary actor training.
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CHAPTER SIX
CONCLUSION
According to Denzin and Lincoln (2000: 4) „the researcher...may be seen as a bricoleur, as a maker of quilts, or, as in filmmaking, a person who assembles images into montages‟. This research has patched together pieces of the quilt to offer an understanding of the use of terminology in contemporary Australian actor training.
Assembling images of the Actor Training Community, a montage has been created, that not only identifies this group, but also clarifies their position on the common theatrical terms “free” and “instrument”. In this chapter then, the constructivist grounded theory is summarised, so as to assess the influence of last century‟s acting theorists and practitioners on Australian actor training, and to ascertain the possibility of a distinctly
Australian language of acting.
Firstly, the job titles the ATC accept are listed. The ATC‟s training aesthetic, methodology and pedagogy are then delineated, along with their training aims and obstacles. Their ideal training environment is outlined, and the ATC‟s definitions of acting and great acting are given. Secondly, the ATC‟s authentic vernacular, consisting of high order and low order terms from their inner storehouse of word-containers is reviewed, with particular reference to the terms “free” and “instrument”. At this point, the conceptual framework of the ATC is compared and contrasted with the conceptual framework of the twentieth century actor trainers, discussed in Chapter Two of this study. The past, the present and the future of actor training and its relationship with
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acting terminology in Australia are consequently highlighted. Finally, further areas of interest and investigation are proposed.
The Actor Training Community
Referring to themselves as coaches, director-industry professionals, facilitators, teachers and teacher-trainers, depending on the job function and the job context, the
ATC endorse notions of ensemble, truth, and theatre making, within the context of the industry or, what they term as, outside of the industry. While reticent to admit to alignment with any one trainer or methodology, the ATC have created unique training methodologies via a process of exposure, absorption and embodiment. In this way, international boutiqueing has lead to a process that allows for the deconstruction, transformation, and reinterpretation of past acting theory and practice, so as to meet the needs of today‟s students. While the Pedagogy of Eclecticism could describe the ATC‟s training practices, the Pedagogies of Investigation, Fusion and Speed refine the ATC‟s approach to actor training.
The ATC aim to develop in the student the ability to: cope with the demands of the industry; employ a technique, methodology or process when approaching acting tasks; cope with the demands pertaining to outside of the industry; work independently from a director; understand the transformative power of acting; achieve physical strength, stamina, flexibility and neutrality; and find vocal freedom. Obstacles in the way of achieving such aims can be divided into four categories. They include: the Culture of the
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Institution, which covers physical, managerial and professional obstacles; the Culture of the Industry; the Culture of the Student; and Notions of Identity. Such obstacles can be overcome though, and some are perceived by the ATC to be part of the challenge of being involved in the training process.
An ideal training environment, according to the ATC, comprises of physical and managerial elements related to the Culture of the Institution, as well as specific elements associated with the Culture of the Student. While the Heads of Acting at NIDA and
VCA believe they possess either the ideal physical or managerial elements, the newly appointed Head of Acting at QUT implies that the Culture of the Institution at QUT is somewhat lacking.
Admitting that defining acting and great acting is difficult and subjective, overall the
ATC perceive acting to be an action in response to, or through, a stimulus that ignites the human faculties. Great acting is possible when an actor reaches a state of selfless immersion in the imaginary stimulus, or when an audience is able to enter, share or be transformed by the imaginary world they are witness to. Such actors as Judy Davis,
Robyn Nevin and Bille Brown are actors who have achieved moments of greatness.
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The Languaging Habits of the Actor Training Community
Every ATC member possesses an authentic vernacular. It is made up of high order terms perceived to have pedagogic value, and low order terms that are not perceived to have pedagogic value. These terms reside in the member‟s inner storehouse of language.
Additionally, these terms are word-containers for ideas and thoughts of a metaphorical nature. The ATC‟s authentic vernacular is mainly derived from the language acquisition processes known as vertical transmission and boutiqueing. However, as 33.7% of the
ATC do not seem to recognise these two language acquisition processes, the process of pedagogic glossolalia, whereby one creates a unique language of acting, must be considered as a manner in which the ATC believe an authentic vernacular can be formulated.
In relation to the common theatrical term “free”, it is possible to assert that the ATC define it via: its range of meanings; the metaphorical concepts contained in the term; and the notes that make up the term, or in the case of “free”, the bum notes that prevent students from achieving the states associated with “free”. Thus, the term means anything from: free to bound; free to control; available to unavailable; or unself-conscious to self-conscious. The term is associated with the CONTAINER metaphorical schema with an in - out orientation. Lastly, the inherent properties related to a prevention of the notion of “free” include: physical tension; habitual behaviour; and personal idiosyncrasies. While existing in the ATC‟s collective inner storehouse, it is considered
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a low order term. ATC members prefer to utilise analogous terms such as open, release and control, all of which, like “free”, pertain to the CONTAINER metaphor.
The common theatrical term “instrument” is usually defined by the ATC according to: the notes that constitute its inherent properties; the metaphorical conceptions contained in this term; and the range of its meaning. Hence, the voice, the body, the emotional self, the psychological self, and the spiritual self, constitute the properties of the
“instrument”. It is associated with both the HUMAN AS AN ENTITY and the HUMAN
AS A MACHINE metaphors. Finally, the term can mean anything from: the actor to the mechanism; the entire being to the apparatus; the package to the vessel; or the vehicle to the channel. “Instrument” is part of the collective inner storehouse of the
ATC. It is a high order term in the authentic vernacular of Acting and Movement staff, as the concept of the actor as a musical ENTITY in need of understanding, training and tuning seems appropriate to their pedagogic needs. However, Voice staff tend to reject the term. It is a low order term for this section of the ATC, since they disapprove of how it can objectify the voice, in particular, as an implement or a MACHINE. This distinction between the actor and the “instrument” poses pedagogical problems for
Voice staff.
Both “free” and “instrument” are used by the ATC in order to convey information to the students in the context of the classroom / rehearsal / private tutorial, or with reference to the context of the stage, so as to assist in changing, or transforming them in some way.
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A Comparative Analysis of Conceptual Frameworks
Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Training: the similarities
Although members of the ATC may not wholly embrace the languaging habits of Saint-
Denis, his influence over the twenty-first century actor training aims, the training aesthetic, and the environmental issues relating to the Culture of the Institution, cannot be underestimated. It is of particular interest to note that Saint-Denis‟ desire to assist an actor in becoming independent of a director has been embraced to the point whereby techniques, methodologies, or processes to empower the actor, have been forged by today‟s trainers. In fact, the only manner in which today‟s training seems to stray from his vision, is with regards to the contemporary emphasis placed on the need to cope with the demands relating to outside of the industry, in tandem with those relating directly to the industry. This training aesthetic and aim, while always a concern of VCA, is now recognised by NIDA and QUT.
Like the trainers of the late twentieth century, there is no motivation to systemise the training. The Pedagogies of Eclecticism, particularly those of Investigation and Fusion, suggest that today‟s trainers, like their twentieth century counterparts, are still engaged with the reinterpretation of the methods proposed by acting pioneers, and are still discovering ways to marry Eastern and Western practices. A stage bias is still in existence albeit unconsciously, and the Culture of the Student and the Culture of the
Industry are still obstacles to the training. Additionally, the concerns the Head of NIDA expressed in the early 1970‟s, regarding issues relating to the Culture of the Institution,
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are now the concerns of the Head of Acting at QUT. Thus, QUT continues to benchmark
NIDA, and by association, Saint-Denis‟ vision of an independently managed ensemble company attached to the training school.
What is referred to in Chapter Two as Stanislavsky and Post-Stanislavsky-based training terminology is employed by the ATC today in various ways, forming part of their authentic vernacular. The languages of acting the ATC utilise are as reliant on metaphorical conceptions as they were in the last century. Moreover, the notes, the range, and the metaphors contained within the words “free” and “instrument” today, bear a strong resemblance to the inherent properties, the forms of differentiation implied, and the metaphors used to define “free” and “instrument” during the twentieth century.
Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Training: the differences
While Diderot‟s mind / body distinction may still be a source of investigation today, the
ATC only mention the voice / body binary distinction in conversation. Furthermore, while many of those involved in actor training seem to have been referred to as director- teachers throughout the twentieth century, today very few members associate with this title. Presently, the ATC prefer to assume job titles in accordance with particular job functions and job contexts. Additionally, unlike the Australia of the 1950‟s, today‟s students do not need to travel overseas in order to seek appropriate professional actor training. The degree of internationalisation amongst Australian trainers is now so great, that as Barba suggests in Chapter Two, the students can develop a professional identity
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according to those they have trained with and the diverse techniques they have been exposed to, rather than being limited by the country they live in.
In opposition to Stanislavsky and Post-Stanislavsky-based actor training of the twentieth century, the Pedagogy of Speed is a training approach that endorses ensemble without time. Such a pedagogy seems to have been born out of a twenty-first century need: the obligation to cope with the constraints enforced by the Culture of the Institution. It is feasible to posit, however, that the timetabling rejected by QUT, under the reign of
Trukan in the 1970‟s, is now the timetabling desired by the ATC.
The obstacles categorised under the title Notions of Identity appear to be distinctly
Australian, and inextricably linked to the repercussions of the past twenty years in particular. When combined with obstacles associated with the Culture of the Industry and the Culture of the Student, it seems that the ATC may encounter a number of training challenges that their twentieth century counterparts may not have had to face.
Thus, when soap opera style acting is the standard of acting the average Australian student is exposed to, the complacency of the Australian student is reinforced: there seems to be no apparent need for students to develop physical or vocal skills that will enable them to transform when the dominant style of acting is about, what Davies
(Acting, VCA) refers to as, being.
As the ATC preface their views on acting by admitting to subjectivity, Zarrilli‟s belief that trainers do not leave themselves open to question may be rebutted. Of course, while
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this study cannot prove how each member of the ATC relates directly to the students, the sanctioning of the Pedagogy of Investigation suggests that the ATC encourage the students to question the conceptual frameworks underlying their languages of acting.
Implications for Contemporary Training
Australian Eclecticism: empowerment rather than dilution
In 2001, actor training in Australia is well established. Unlike Linklater, who at the dawning of the new century complains that boutiqueing is diluting the training, the ATC would argue that such Pedagogies of Eclecticism allow for the empowerment of the actor: the Pedagogies of Investigation and Fusion in particular, can assist the student in the development of a technique, methodology, or process for artistic independence.
Consequently, as the students are exposed to the unique methodologies and the authentic vernaculars of the ATC, they are exposed to diverse solutions to the acting problems they may encounter throughout their lives as actors. In turn, such approaches to training, and the language of training, may have the power to forge new performance paradigms.
Methodology and Vernacular: the marriage of ways and words
There is a direct relationship between the ATC‟s unique methodology and their authentic vernacular. This theory is in agreement with Zarrilli, who suggests that a language of acting betrays a particular conceptual framework of acting. When the ATC experience the stages of exposure, absorption and embodiment, so as to develop a unique methodology, their authentic vernacular naturally evolves. Thus, as the ATC are
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exposed to acting theory and practice, theatrical terms, or word-containers, will enter their inner storehouse. Subsequently, the ATC‟s inner storehouse of word-containers will grow in size. As the ATC absorb the theory and practice, thereby transforming, in the training context, the useful information gleaned, terms will be relegated to high order and low order depending on how pedagogically helpful they appear to the needs of the students. It is during this stage that the ATC attempt to translate alien language systems into a Native system, matching concepts from the foreign acting / languaging systems exposed to, with concepts of a familiar nature. When the ATC are able to reinterpret past acting theory and practice in such a way that it feels intuitive rather than derivative, the methodology will become embodied, and the language used to express the methodology will become authentic.
This natural fusion between a unique methodology and an authentic vernacular should allay Grotowski‟s concerns regarding internationalisation, as discussed in Chapter Two.
The absorption stage of methodological embodiment should prevent a physical and verbal imitation of exotic methods: as the ATC do not feel comfortable utilising anything that does not feel authentic or idiosyncratic, through trial and error they will transform the unfamiliar forms or techniques. To this end, they will seek a way to use and articulate the foreign material in a manner that suits them, their students and the training context. As Chaikin suggests, the ATC take clues from other forms and techniques, but the ATC members‟ culture, sensitivity and aesthetic remake such training approaches.
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Moreover, just as the ATC assume a different job title according to the job function and the job context, the ATC may modify their methodology and authentic vernacular according to their function and context. For example, the high order terms a member uses at QUT, as a withdrawer of practical skills, may not be appropriate to the context of
NIDA, when functioning as a depositor of theoretical knowledge. Consequently, the
ATC‟s unique methodology and authentic vernacular continues to evolve in order to serve the students and the context.
While it could be argued that the evolution of a unique methodology in tandem with an authentic vernacular just produces a new way to talk about the same thing, if the ATC are unable to make personal sense of the acting theory and practice they have gleaned, they are unable to relay such a rich cultural heritage to their students. Just like their trainers before them, the students‟ understanding of acting will come, in part, through the process of vertical transmission. Therefore, it is in the best interest of the students that the ATC continue to refine their ways and their words.
Deconstructing Conceptual Frameworks: actively listening
The ATC‟s authentic vernacular offers the listener clues as to the acting / languaging communities the members have been exposed to. Additionally, the ATC‟s choice of high order or low order terms provides the listener with clues regarding the pedagogies the members endorse. While the processes of methodological embodiment and vernacular authenticity are constantly in a state of evolution, if a listener takes heed of the clues, an
ATC member‟s conceptual framework can become apparent. Consequently, if the
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students are unable to enrol in a course of semiotics so as to assist in the deconstruction of their trainers‟ belief systems, as proposed by Zarrilli, it is feasible to posit that providing the students keep abreast of the manner in which practicing artists and theorists communicate about acting, they should be able to recognise the clues and thus, begin to unravel their trainers‟ conceptual frameworks. In this way, rather than perceiving the students as passive victims to the hidden agendas of their trainers, they can be perceived as taking an active role in the training process.
A Common Vocabulary: the ATC’s truth denied
In the search to find terminology that translates to something actable, it is posited that not only actors can be likened to empty vessels. As coaches, director-industry professionals, facilitators, teachers and teacher-trainers, the ATC allow themselves, often unconsciously, to be filled with word-containers that can be drawn upon to help inform the students about the dramatic process. To argue for a common vocabulary amongst actor trainers would potentially negate this search. Furthermore, notions of truth pertain to the ATC as well as to the students: while the students‟ training may appear fragmented due to the subtle variations of language usage amongst trainers, it seems that if the ATC were not permitted to employ their own authentic vernacular, they would lose their sense of truth within the training context. In other words, if unable to utilise the words that they embody, the ATC would not feel believable in revealing the world of acting to their students.
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Additionally, a common vocabulary could prevent the possibility of new performance paradigms. For example, the glossary of terms evident in the VCA student handbook suggests a way of working as an actor that could encourage students to approach theatre making in a new and innovative manner. If the Acting, Movement and Voice staff of this training school were no longer able to develop their distinctive language of acting and training, the students may only be encouraged to repeat the performance modes already in existence. In this way, the concept and the construction of the actor‟s role within the dramatic process could stagnate.
The Future Languaging of Actor Training
Universities or Conservatories: the job title controversy
While NIDA, VCA, and QUT offer training for the industry that fosters methodologies of autonomy, and a recognition of the social and political power of acting, in an age of economic rationalism, the schools do seem to possess, what Lancaster terms, their own particular edge. Thus, it appears that NIDA is still predominantly focussed on training for the industry, while VCA cultivates theatre making, and QUT offers a Pedagogy of
Speed. In the realm of the university, the ATC are lecturers and tutors, yet this study has suggested that the ATC regard such terms as low order terms in their inner storehouse of word-containers as they fail to express the pedagogic value of the ATC‟s functions within the training context. The languaging habits of the Culture of the Institution therefore require consideration. It is possible to assert that if schools such as VCA and
QUT are to operate as conservatories within the realm of a university structure, the staff
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should be respected with job titles that relate to the conservatory style training rather than the standard university style education. Consequently, the schools would not only possess their particular edge, but they would be able to more clearly delineate what the training entails.
Languaging the Spiritual: rebutting McCutcheon
McCutcheon posits that the languages of actor training employed at the end of the twentieth century were not up to date in addressing the spiritual nature of actor training.
VCA‟s interest in spiritual paradigms and methods for tapping into the unconscious, such as trance, as well as QUT‟s application of the Morris approach, suggest that the
ATC are attempting to forge languages of acting that articulate a spiritual approach.
Furthermore, the ATC‟s commitment to the Pedagogies of Investigation and Fusion imply that the acting language to compliment the search for a totality beyond emotion, may be in its infancy but it is certainly evolving.
Acting Pioneers: the test of time
The manner in which today‟s trainers use language in the training context will undoubtedly effect the students‟ conception of acting. Those members of the ATC who consider themselves to be director-industry professionals, such as Downes
(Movement, QUT), Gerstle (Acting, VCA), and O‟Hare (Acting, QUT), may in fact be the pioneers of the twenty-first century, whose unique methodologies and authentic vernaculars will be deconstructed, transformed and reinterpreted by the next generation
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of actor trainers. However, only time will tell how much of an impact the current acting languages will have on the future of today‟s students and acting in general.
Further Considerations
While the study has been able to generate theory that fits this particular community, the inclusion of more actor trainers working in Australian public sector institutions would have offered the study further theoretical sensitivity. Hence, categories may have been created outlining more distinct similarities and differences in the manner in which the
ATC language their students. Moreover, the staffing at QUT has slightly altered since the completion of the interviews consequently, the view of actor training presented in this study is already dated. In the study‟s defence, the absence of this member of staff, does not impair the emergent categories.
In the process of examining the terms “free” and “instrument”, the multi-meanings of a number of other common theatrical terms began to emerge. An investigation of these terms sits outside of the realm of this study, except to report that the authentic vernaculars of the ATC express notions of truth, transformation, intelligence, technique, and impulse, in many varied ways. Thus, further scrutiny of these word-containers could prove helpful to students who are attempting to translate these terms into something that is actable. Additionally, an examination of how the students translate into action the languages of acting they are exposed to, would provide insight into the efficacy of the
ATC‟s authentic vernaculars in the training context.
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Finally, while Strube (2001) has done an excellent job of articulating the processual work of Davies (Acting, VCA), an ATC member raised the issue of phallocentricism in relation to the methodology of autonomy she has developed. He posits that Davies‟ approach offers an alternative to the phallocentric approach to acting that advocates
Stanislavsky-based concepts such as actions and objectives. With regards to the languaging of the actor, it may be of interest to further investigate the evolution of a particularly feminine language of actor training in Australia today. A study of this nature may indeed uncover a process of pedagogic glossolalia.
Final Word
At the dawning of a new century, Australia boasts a number of public sector actor training schools that have borrowed methodologies and languages of acting from past acting theorists and practitioners. Yet, the training is not imitative but unique, serving the students with methodologies that the trainers have embodied, in languages that are authentic. Using a constructivist grounded approach, theory has emerged to assert that while the Actor Training Community may recognise common theatrical terms such as
“free” and “instrument”, a member will only use them if they provide some pedagogic value within the specific training context. Deeming the concept of outside of the industry as a new aesthetic, and combating particularly Australian obstacles, the ATC may not have formulated a distinctly Australian language of acting, but the members are challenged to communicate in a clear and relevant manner to a generation of Australian
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students with their own peculiar needs. Thus, the languaging of the actor continues to evolve, offering the students ways to act, and even ways to live.
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APPENDIX A
DATA COLLECTION TOOLS
The Questionnaire
TOWARDS LANGUAGING THE ACTOR: an examination of the terminology used in actor training
Please answer the following questions with reference to your work at: NIDA / QUT / VCA.
1. How do you bill yourself - trainer / teacher / lecturer / coach etc? 2 a. What is your definition of “acting”? 2 b. What is your definition of “great acting”? 2 c. Can you offer some examples of great acting in Australia‟s recent history? 3 a. What is your aim in actor training? 3 b. What are the obstacles to that aim, if any? 3 c. Are you training according to a particular aesthetic? If so please discuss. OR Are you training for all theatrical / aesthetic possibilities. If so what possibilities? 3 d. How has your background / training / experience lead you to this moment in your pedagogy? 3 e. Do you align yourself with any trainer or methodology in particular? 3 f. Why / why not? 4 a. In class do you use the term “instrument”? 4 b. What is your definition of “instrument”? 4 c. Why do you use the term / why don‟t you? 4 d. In class do you use the term free? 4 e. What is your definition of free? 4 f. Why do you use the term / why don‟t you?
** Is a free instrument required / necessary for great acting? **
5. What would be your ideal training environment?
Thanks,
Bernadette Pryde (h) 07 3379 6363 (w) 07 3864 5567 [email protected]
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APPENDIX B
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Authentic Vernacular: The acting terminology that the individual trainer feels comfortable using in the training context. The trainer is of the belief that this choice of terminology is pedagogically sound.
Boutiqueing of Language: A process of language acquisition whereby the trainer collects acting terminology from diverse sources.
Bum Notes: Inherent properties of a concrete and an abstract nature bearing some negative connotation, that constitute the meaning of a word.
Culture of the Industry: Pertaining to the global theatre, film and television industry of a commercially oriented nature. Also pertaining to the notion of outside of the industry, whereby community based theatrical work can allow one to live as an artist rather than as a disposable commodity.
Culture of the Institution: Pertaining to physical (ie: facilities), managerial (ie: timetabling, staffing, budgeting), and professional (ie: staff behaviour) issues related to an educational institution.
Culture of the Student: Pertaining to the student‟s background, attitude, educational opportunities, knowledge and influences.
High Order Term: A term that is considered by the individual trainer to possess pedagogic value. Such a term is included in the trainer‟s inner storehouse, and will form part of the trainer‟s authentic vernacular.
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Inner Storehouse: The place within the trainer (ie: memory) where all the acting terminology to which s/he has been exposed, or has invented, is stored.
Low Order Term: A term that is not considered by the individual trainer to possess pedagogic value. Such a term will not form part of a trainer‟s authentic vernacular.
However, the term is included in the trainer‟s inner storehouse.
Notes: Inherent properties of a concrete and an abstract nature, that constitute the meaning of a word.
Notions of Identity: Pertaining to Australia‟s cultural heritage, the present ramifications of Australia‟s cultural heritage, and the presence of the tall poppy syndrome.
Pedagogic Glossolalia: Derived from the Greek “glossa” meaning tongue and “lalia” meaning speak, glossolalia is a term used to denote the phenomenon of speaking in tongues. Particular branches of the Christian church and certain cultures that embrace shamanism and spirit possession recognise glossolalia as a phenomenon whereby an individual is divinely inspired to vocalise whilst in an altered mental state known as a trance (Goodman, Henney and Pressel,1974). For the purpose of this thesis, rather than perceiving glossolalia as divinely inspired utterances, it is recognised simply as inspired talk. Thus within the actor training context, the trainer may be inspired to verbalise in such a way that s/he spontaneously forms words previously unheard of so as to meet the needs of the particular pedagogic moment. In short, pedagogic glossolalia is a process of language acquisition whereby the trainer creates unique acting terminology.
Pedagogies of Eclecticism: Actor training that selects practices from various sources.
Pedagogy of Fusion: Actor training that fuses apparently opposing practices, such as the fusion of occidental with oriental, or technique with emotion.
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Pedagogy of Investigation: Actor training practices that endorse awareness, examination, and expansion.
Pedagogy of Speed: Actor training that attempts to find and practice the quickest and most efficient practices to serve the student in a three year time frame.
Range: An attempt to give specific meaning to a term by defining it along a continuum that runs from the opposite of the term to the most perfect example of the term.
Unique Methodology: An overall approach to actor training that is individual to the trainer but finds its roots in the training practices endorsed by past acting theorists and practitioners. A trainer moves through the three stages of exposure, absorption and embodiment so as to achieve a unique methodology. This process of deconstruction, transformation and reinterpretation of acting theory and practice is ongoing for the trainer.
Vertical Transmission of Language: A process of language acquisition whereby acting terminology is passed down from trainer to trainee.
Word-Container: Like a glass containing water, every word contains ideas and thoughts that are usually metaphorical in nature.
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APPENDIX C
CD-ROM OF INTERVIEWS
The following list of interviews is located on the attached CD-ROM
Interviews with NIDA Staff
Tony Knight (Head of Acting) - 28 September 2001 Kevin Jackson (Acting) - 4 October 2001 Keith Bain (Movement) - 4 October 2001 Julia Cotton (Movement) - 2 October 2001 Betty Williams (Voice) - 2 October 2001
Interviews with VCA Staff
Lindy Davies (Head of Acting) - 26 September 2001 Tanya Gerstle (Acting) - 20 September 2001 Geraldine Cook (Voice) - 24 September 2001 Stephen Costan (Voice) - 24 September 2001
Interviews with QUT Staff
John O‟Hare (Head of Acting) - 23 August 2001 Leonard Meenach (Acting) - 29 August 2001 Martin Challis (Acting) - 20 August 2001 Caroline Dunphy (Movement) - 9 November 2001 Peta Downes (Movement) - 17 September and 16 November 2001 Lyn Treadgold (Voice) - 7 November 2001
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CD-ROM ATTACHMENT
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