Bachiller

Actor Training

Second Edition

Actor Training expands on Alison Hodge’s highly-acclaimed and bestselling Twentieth Century Actor Training. This exciting second edition radically updates the original book making it even more valuable for any student of the history and practice of actor training. The bibliography is brought right up to date and many chapters are revised. In addition, eightmore practitioners are included – and forty more photographs – to create a stunningly comprehensive study. The practitioners included are: Stella Adler Eugenio Barba Augusto Boal Anne Bogart Bertolt Brecht Peter Brook Michael Chekhov Joseph Chaikin Jacques Copeau Philippe Gaulier Jerzy Grotowski Maria Knebel Jacques Lecoq Joan Littlewood Sanford Meisner Vsevolod Meyerhold Ariane Mnouchkine MonikaPagneux Michel Saint-Denis Włodzimierz Staniewski Konstantin Stanislavsky Lee Strasberg

The historical, cultural and political context of each practitioner’s work is clearly set out by leading experts and accompanied by an incisive and enlightening analysis of the main principles of the practitioners’ training, practical exercises and key productions. This book is an invaluable introduction tothe principles and practice of actor training and its role in shaping modern theatre. Alison Hodge has been a professional director since 1982. She was assistant director for Gardzienice Theatre and co-authored, with Włodzimierz Staniewski, Hidden Territories: the Theatre of Gardzienice (Routledge, 2004). She is director of The Quick and the Dead, an international theatre research company, and aReader in Theatre Practice at Royal Holloway College, University of London. Her website can be found at www.alisonhodge.net

Actor Training
Second Edition
Edited by

Alison Hodge

First published 2010 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint ofthe Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. Selection and Editorial Material © 2010 Alison Hodge Individual Chapters © the contributors All rights reserved. No part of this book maybe 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 LibraryLibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Actor training / edited by Alison Hodge. – 2nd ed. p. cm. Previously published under title: Twentieth century acting training, 2000. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Acting – Study and teaching. I. Hodge, Alison, 1959– II. Twentieth century acting training. PN2075.T94 2010 2009028309 792.02'807 – dc22 ISBN 0-203-86137-X Master e-bookISBN

ISBN10: 0-415-47167-2 (hbk) ISBN10: 0-415-47168-0 (pbk) ISBN10: 0-203-86137-X (ebk) ISBN13: 978-0-415-47167-1 (hbk) ISBN13: 978-0-415-47168-8 (pbk) ISBN13: 978-0-203-86137-0 (ebk)

For Sophie and Hannah

And, in gratitude, to Janice Barton, Tatiana Bre, Daniela Garcia Casilda, Chiara D’Anna, Luis Gallo Mudarra, Alexia Kokkali and Göze Saner

Contents

List of illustrations Noteson contributors Acknowledgements Preface Introduction

ix xii xvi xvii xviii

1

stanislavsky’s system: pathways for the actor
Sharon Marie Carnicke

1

2

meyerhold and biomechanics
Rober t Leach

26

3

jacques copeau: the quest for sincerity
John Rudlin

43

4

michael chekhov on the technique of acting: ‘was don quixote true to life?’
Franc Chamberlain

63

5...