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The Phenomenology and Dramatic Platonism of Meisner Technique As Refined And

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THE LABOR OF ACTION FOR THE OPERATION OF TRUTH: THE PHENOMENOLOGY AND DRAMATIC PLATONISM OF MEISNER TECHNIQUE AS REFINED AND EXTENDED BY WILLIAM ESPER A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Graduate School At the University of Missouri In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy By THEODORE DAVID MARCIA Dr. David A. Crespy, Dissertation Supervisor December 202012 © Copyright by Theodore David Marcia 2012 All rights reserved The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the Dissertation entitled THE LABOR OF ACTION FOR THE OPERATION OF TRUTH: THE PHENOMENOLOGY AND DRAMATIC PLATONISM OF MEISNER TECHNIQUE AS REFINED AND EXTENDED BY WILLIAM ESPER Presented by Theodore David Marcia A candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy And hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. Dr. David A. Crespy Dr. Cheryl Black Dr. Joseph Bien Dr. Catherine Gleason DEDICATION To my mother, Vaughn Dean Williamson-Marcia ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The phenomenology of a dissertation is strange; the thing itself is predominately created in solitude, yet it wouldn’t exist at all without the assistance and inspiration of innumerable people. First of all I would like to thank the members of my committee. Dr. David Crespy has been a friend and mentor for the majority of my adult life and continues as such and more as the chair of my dissertation committee. He is never less than a mensch among menschen. Dr. Cheryl Black has guided me through the rigors of scholarly research with her usual grace and uncanny attention to detail from my first semester onward. Likewise Dr. Joseph Bien has imparted a small fraction of his wisdom and knowledge regarding the application of philosophy and philosophical methods to this project with his avuncular wit and casually penetrating insights. Finally, Dr. Cat Gleason has provided invaluable service from her own perspective and experience. I would also like to thank Dr. Alexandra Socarides for her incredibly helpful advice on poetic theory and writing from drafts. Thanks also to my fellow graduate students for all of their help and support over these last three and a half years, as well as to all of my undergraduate students, and especially to the cast of last year’s production of Reasons to be Pretty, whose talent and dedication continue to amaze me. Thanks as well to my old friends and classmates from Rutgers, especially Shelley and Dennis Delaney and Rick Sordelet, folks who make the work and make it count every day. On an even more personal note, thanks to Nancy Benedict for her continuing love, support, and incredible understanding, regarding the convolutions of what I grandiosely refer to as “my process.” As well as to my family and absent friends, who taught me the joys and heartbreak of this precarious life of ours. ii “The normal man and the actor do not mistake imaginary situations for reality, but extricate their real bodies from the living situation to make them breath, speak and if need be, weep in the realm of imagination.”1 “Everybody has a strategy until they start getting hit.”2 1 Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, trans. Colin Smith (New York: Routledge Classics, 2002), 120. 2 Daphne Merkin, “Mike Tyson Moves to the Suburbs,” New York Times, 3/15/2011. Quotation attributed to Mike Tyson, as is the variation, “Everybody has a plan till they get punched in the mouth.” iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. vi CHAPTER ONE---INTRODUCTION ............................................................................... 1 LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................................... 3 DIALOGIC INQUIRY................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER ORGANIZATION ...................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER TWO---THE LABOR OF ACTION: PHENOMENOLOGY AND DRAMATIC PLATONISM ............................................................................................. 13 THE LABOR OF ACTION ......................................................................................... 14 PHENOMENOLOGY ................................................................................................. 25 TRUTH ........................................................................................................................ 39 CHAPTER THREE—THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN STANISLAVSKI-BASED ACTOR TRAINING ......................................................................................................... 44 THE GREEKS ............................................................................................................. 44 EARLY ACTING TEXTS ........................................................................................... 49 THE AGE OF REASON .............................................................................................. 55 STANISLAVSKI AND RUSSIAN REFLEXOLOGY ............................................... 58 STANISLAVSKI IN AMERICA ................................................................................ 62 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................ 67 CHAPTER FOUR---THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE BILL ESPER TECHINQUE ........................................................................................................................................... 70 THE MEASURE OF AN ARTIST’S WORTH ........................................................... 70 PEREZHEVNIE ........................................................................................................... 75 REPETITION ............................................................................................................... 80 iv ACTIVITIES ................................................................................................................ 87 CHAPTER 5---ESPER’S THEORIES AND TERMS ..................................................... 94 THE ACTOR’S ART AND CRAFT—CHAPTERS 1-5 ............................................ 94 THE ACTOR’S ART AND CRAFT—CHAPTERS 6-10 ........................................ 121 THE ACTOR’S ART AND CRAFT—CHAPTERS 11--15 ..................................... 139 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................... 148 CHAPTER SIX—FINAL CONCLUSIONS ............................................................. 151 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 157 Vita .................................................................................................................................. 161 v ABSTRACT This dissertation deals with the application of philosophical thought and methods to school of actor training known as Meisner technique. The initial goal is to illuminate and improve the theory, practice, and pedagogy of Meisner technique through rigorous analysis and critique based in established scholarly thought. My second purpose is to use this same philosophical lens to examine the far broader question of mimesis, specifically the nature of the relationship between the created object and the world that inspired it. My interest in this is primarily political in nature. Simply put, if the mimetic object is sourced from the hegemonic world, how can it ultimately do anything other than continually justify that world’s authority, and so how may the object ultimately do anything other than collude with power? It is my contention that theatre is uniquely, perhaps even singularly well suited to address the mimetic, in unique (or non-mimetic) ways. In the course of this dissertation it has become apparent to me that my first and my second areas of research are, in fact, very much related. My concluding theory is that the overall efficacy of Meisner technique is best explained by the notion that it produces non- mimetic actors. Actors who continually create both real speech acts and real physical acts that exist as unique events in a ludic game ontology. vi CHAPTER ONE---INTRODUCTION It is the intention of this dissertation to subject the first year of the Meisner technique of actor training, as presented in William Esper’s The Actor’s Art and Craft, to a rigorous analysis founded on philosophical inquiry and theory. The purpose of this analysis is twofold: First, to illuminate both the pedagogy and the actual practice of Meisner technique, as refined and extended by Esper, especially as this pertains to the nature of its received teaching. By this I mean what about the instructor’s pedagogy and the the student’s reception of the technique might be clarified and strengthened by the application of philosophical methods and theories and how might this clarification take place? Secondly, I will expand my methods and conclusions to an exploration of the dilemma of mimesis itself. Specifically, what is the nature of the relationship between the ideal and the material in the actor’s experience? And, what is the relationship of the created object (the play script, the play, the production, the performance) to the world that inspired it? The art object may
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