Exercises for Embodied Actors: Tools for Physical Actioning

Description

Exercises for Embodied Actors: Tools for Physical Actioning builds on the vocabulary of simple action verbs to generate an entire set of practical tools from first read to performance that harnesses modern knowledge about the integration of the mind and the rest of the body. Including over 50 innovative exercises, the book leads actors through a rigorous examination of their own habits, links those discoveries to creating characters, and offers dozens of exercises to explore in classrooms and with ensembles. The result is a modern toolkit that empowers actors to start from their own unique selves and delivers specific techniques to apply on stage and in front of the camera. This step-by-step guide can be used by actors working individually or by teachers crafting the arc of a course, ensuring that students explore in physically engaged and dynamic ways at every step of their process. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction PART 1: Foundations for Physical Actioning 1. Curiosity & Attention Cobbling It Together Curiosity Attention Notes 2. Action What Is an Action? You Read Minds People Are Icebergs Actually, You’re a Terrible Mind Reader The Action Loop Notes 3. Translating Physical Language Why Physical Actions? Give It a Name What You Do Reveals the Why How Is the Result, Not the Choice Actions Must Add Information Small Changes in Action Transform a Story You Built the Foundation Notes PART 2: Seeing Yourself 4. The Physical Action Journal Living Inside the Experiment Field Notes about You Get Specific. What’s Underneath? Discover More Through Physical Playback Three Types of Actions You Can’t Always Get What You Want Notes 5. Creating Palettes Your Favorite Colors Expanding the Impulse Who You Think You Are Not You Play Roles – We See Your Character Zoom Out Notes 6. Diagraming Identities Who You Are Depends on Where You Are What Are Your Group Identities? Code-Switching Recognize Your Shifting Palettes Visualize How Your Palettes Interact Notes 7. The Pasta Maker Socialized Actions My Feelings about Emotions Potency for Your Performance Notes PART 3: Building an Embodied Role 8. Mapping Their World Zoom Out What Journey Are We On? Find the Edges of the Map Walk the Path Find True North Notes 9. Making Text Physical It’s You, But Not You Embody the Major Events The Edges of Expression Embodying Unseen Events Primary Action Palette How Their Puzzle Pieces Fit Organizing the World Changes Tell Stories Huge Changes Over Time The Beckett If They Aren’t Like Me, Who Am I? Notes 10. Building Bridges to You Distance from the Role Building Bridges The Audience Experience Note 11. Special Circumstances Working with Multiple Roles Scaling Your Performance Working On-Camera Un-Real Rules of the World Auditions Non-Humans Invisible Acting The Reality of Other People Note PART 4: Experiments for the Classroom & Ensembles 12. With a Partner Too Much to Manage Slow Down, See More Revealing Your Palettes Bumping Relationship Palettes Impulses Submerged Under Text Actions Through Activities Music and Physical Actioning Don’t Forget the Box Notes 13. With Three or More Three’s a Crowd Music and Groups in Action Contracting to Realism The Space is an Action Magnifying Glass New People? New Space Actioning Line-by-Line In Performance Notes 14. Skills Gymnasium Doing Reps Embodied Guessing The Resistance Cascades Individuality Triangles What is “Realistic”? Many Tools, But One Goal PART 5: Program Notes 15. Would Stanislavsky Disapprove? Zooming Back Out Stanislavsky and the Mind The Origin of Impulse The Vocabulary of the Moment Same Vocabulary, Different Meanings Grotowski’s Expansion of the Physical Activities, Movements, and Gestures Summary Notes 16. Will My Brain Get in My Way? 1. Thoughts Are Actions 2. Thinking Verbs 3. Peripersonal Space 4. Physicalization and Memory 5. Predictive Processing Your Well-Made Shoes Notes Appendix Action Verb List – Alphabetical Action Verb List – By Type List of Exercises in Order Index