Twentieth Century Actor Training
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Twentieth Century Actor Training Actor training is arguably the most unique phenomenon of twentieth-century theatre making. Here, for the first time, the theories, training exercises, and productions of fourteen of the century’s key theatre practitioners are analysed in a single volume. The practitioners included are: • Stella Adler • Eugenio Barba • Bertolt Brecht • Peter Brook • Joseph Chaikin • Michael Chekhov • Jacques Copeau • Jerzy Grotowski • Joan Littlewood • Sanford Meisner • Vsevolod Meyerhold • Wlodzimierz Staniewski • Konstantin Stanislavsky • Lee Strasberg Each chapter provides a unique account of specific training exercises and an analysis of their relationship to the practitioners’ theoretical and aesthetic concerns. The collection examines the relationship between actor training and production and considers how directly the actor training relates to performance. With detailed accounts of the principles, exercises and their application to many of the landmark productions of the past hundred years, this book will be invaluable to students, teachers, practitioners and academics alike. Alison Hodge is a lecturer in Drama at Royal Holloway College, University of London. She was a founder and co-artistic director of Theatre Alibi before working as Assistant Director to Wlodzimierz Staniewski at Gardzienice’s Centre for Theatre Practices, Poland. She has directed a wide range of theatre projects from Stephen King’s Misery at the Criterion Theatre, London, to a six-month actor training project in association with London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts. Twentieth Century Actor Training Edited by Alison Hodge London and New York First published 2000 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001. © 2000 editorial material and selection Alison Hodge, individual chapters the individual contributors All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-415-19451-2 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-19452-0 (pbk) ISBN 0-203-00760-3 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-17547-6 (Glassbook Format) For Chris, Hannah and Sophie Contents List of illustrations xi Notes on contributors xiii Acknowledgements xvii Introduction 1 Origins 1 The director and the actor 2 Innovation and reform 3 Early theoretical influences 4 Cross fertilisation 5 Antonin Artaud 6 Interculturalism 6 The actor’s presence 7 Systems or principles 8 1 Stanislavsky’s System: pathways for the actor 11 SHARON MARIE CARNICKE Life and career 11 The System 16 Group I 18 Group II 23 Productions 29 2 Meyerhold and biomechanics 37 ROBERT LEACH The Dactyl 46 Shooting from the Bow 49 viii Contents 3 Jacques Copeau: the quest for sincerity 55 JOHN RUDLIN The context 55 The training 66 4 Michael Chekhov on the technique of acting: ‘was Don Quixote true to life?’ 79 FRANC CHAMBERLAIN The context 79 Theory and practice 86 Into production 91 5 Brecht and actor training: on whose behalf do we act? 98 PETER THOMSON Context 98 Exercises 102 Production 108 6 Joan Littlewood 113 CLIVE BARKER Context 113 Background 115 Preparation 117 Rehearsal techniques 120 Later rehearsals 122 Performance 124 7 Strasberg, Adler and Meisner: Method acting 129 DAVID KRASNER Introduction to the Method 129 Lee Strasberg 132 Stella Adler 138 Sanford Meisner 143 Conclusion: Method acting as a tool 147 Contents ix 8 Joseph Chaikin and aspects of actor training: possibilities rendered present 151 DORINDA HULTON Context 151 Exercises 158 Performance 163 9 Peter Brook: transparency and the invisible network 174 LORNA MARSHALL AND DAVID WILLIAMS Context 174 Exercises 178 Production 187 10 Grotowski’s vision of the actor: the search for contact 191 LISA WOLFORD Poor theatre: the art of the actor 196 Psychophysical training 198 Corporal exercises 200 Plastiques 203 Conclusion 205 11 Training with Eugenio Barba: acting principles, the pre-expressive and ‘personal temperature’ 209 IAN WATSON A context 209 Training 212 Training and performance 218 12 Wlodzimierz Staniewski: Gardzienice and the naturalised actor 224 ALISON HODGE Context 224 Origins and influences 226 Facts 229 Training 231 From training to performance 239 Index 245 Illustrations 1.1 Konstantin Stanislavsky, 1922 15 1.2 Stanislavsky as Astrov in Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, 1899 30 2.1 Biomechanics in action: The Magnanimous Cuckold, 1922 43 2.2 Biomechanics in action: DE, 1924 44 2.3 Meyerhold’s exercise: The Dactyl 47 2.4 Meyerhold’s exercise: Shooting from the Bow 51 3.1 Copeau: gymnastic class in the garden at Le Limon 57 3.2 Jacques Copeau as Plébère in L’Illusion 65 4.1 Michael Chekhov in the Dartington Studio with students 85 4.2 Michael Chekhov’s students at work in the garden at Dartington 90 5.1 Brecht directing Regine Lutz in Heinrich von Kleist’s The Broken Jug 103 5.2 Helene Weigel as Mother Courage, Erwin Geschonneck as the Chaplain in Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children 111 6.1 Henry Chapman’s You Won’t Always Be on Top 117 6.2 Littlewood’s production of The Hostage at the Théâtre des Nations Festival, Paris 118 6.3 Brendan Behan’s The Quare Fellow 125 7.1 Lee Strasberg 133 7.2 Stella Adler 139 7.3 Sanford Meisner 143 8.1 Joseph Chaikin with the Living Theatre in Brecht’s Man is Man 153 8.2 (Left to right) Cynthia Harris, Shami Chaikin, Tina Shepard, Jim Barbosa, Ron Faber, Ralph Lee and Peter Maloney in The Serpent developed by the Open Theater between 1967 and 1969 155 8.3 (Left to right) Paul Zimet and Raymond Barry in Terminal developed by the Open Theater between 1969 and 1971 163 8.4 (Left to right) Tina Shepard, Paul Zimet and Joe Ann Schmidman in The Mutation Show developed by the Open Theater in 1971 165 8.5 (Left to right) Tina Shepard, Shami Chaikin and Tom Lillard in Nightwalk developed by the Open Theater between 1972 and 1973 167 xii Illustrations 9.1 Peter Brook: Stick exercise with the American Theater of the Deaf, Paris, 1971 180 9.2 Peter Brook: Le Mahabharata at the Bouffes du Nord, Paris, 1985 189 10.1 Jerzy Grotowski, Chicago, April 1995 192 11.1 Barba: Training at the Odin Teatret in the early 1970s 213 11.2 Barba: An Odin training session 216 12.1 Gardzienice: the chapel 226 12.2 Wlodzimierz Staniewski and Tomasz Rodowicz 234 12.3 Gardzienice’s performance of Carmina Burana, Berlin, 1995. Left to right: Mariusz Golaj, Dorota Porowska and Tomasz Rodowicz 241 Contributors Clive Barker began his career in the early 1950s as an actor with Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop company, appearing in, amongst others, Brendan Behan’s The Hostage and the company’s devised show, Oh What A Lovely War! He has directed productions, written plays and recorded documentaries for radio and television. From the mid 1960s he combined professional work with lecturing in the universities of Birmingham and Warwick. His actor training methods and ideas are set out in Theatre Games (Methuen, 1977) and he is joint editor of New Theatre Quarterly (Cambridge University Press). Sharon Marie Carnicke is Associate Professor and Associate Dean of the School of Theatre, University of Southern California. She has written a study of the avant- garde director and playwright Nikolai Evreinov, The Theatrical Instinct (Peter Lang, 1989). She has published numerous articles on Stanislavsky in Theatre Journal, The Drama Review and Theatre Three. She has also been anthologised in Wandering Stars (Iowa University Press, 1992) and Film Acting (Routledge, 1999). She has directed plays in America and Moscow, and her translations of Chekhov’s plays have been produced throughout the United States. Her latest book is Stanislavsky in Focus (Harwood Academic Press, 1998, Gordon and Breach International). Franc Chamberlain is Senior Lecturer in Performance Studies, University College, Northampton and Course leader of the BA in Performance Studies. Since 1991 he has been the Editor of Contemporary Theatre Studies (Harwood Academic Press). Alison Hodge has worked as professional director since 1982. She was co-founder and Artistic Director of Theatre Alibi (1982–9), and Assistant Director with Gardzienice Theatre Association (1990–91). She is currently a freelance director and Lecturer in Drama, Royal Holloway College, University of London. Dorinda Hulton lectures in drama at the University of Exeter. She has worked extensively as an artistic consultant for new work with different companies including xiv Contributors Theatre Alibi and Foursight. She co-edited the series Theatre Papers (Dartington College of Art, Devon) and is currently an editor for the documentation project Arts Archives. David Krasner is Director of Undergraduate Theater Studies at Yale University. His publications include: Resistance, Parody, and Double Consciousness in African American Theatre, 1895–1910 (St Martin’s Press, 1997) and is the editor of Method Acting Reconsidered: Theory, Practice, Future (St Martin’s, forthcoming) and co-editor of African American Theatre History and Performance Studies: A Critical Reader (Oxford University Press, forthcoming). He is also co-editing African American Theatre History with Harry J. Elam, Jr (forthcoming). He was a professional actor for thirteen years and studied Method Acting principally with Paul Mann, Kim Stanley and Barbara Loden. Robert Leach is Reader in Drama, University of Birmingham. His publications include The Punch and Judy Show: History, Tradition and Meaning (Batsford, 1985), Vsevolod Meyerhold (Cambridge University Press, 1989) and Revolutionary Theatre (Routledge, 1994).