1st Edition

Arthur Lessac’s Embodied Actor Training

By Melissa Hurt Copyright 2014
    134 Pages
    by Routledge

    134 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book situates the work of the renowned voice and movement trainer Arthur Lessac in the context of contemporary actor training as a whole.

    Melissa Hurt uses Maurice Merleau-Ponty's theories of embodiment to frame Lessac's approach in terms of Embodied Acting, a key subject in contemporary performance. In doing so, she explains how the actor can come to experience both technique and expression as a subjective whole, through meditation and spatial attunement.

    As well as feeding this somatic approach into a wider discussion of embodiment, the author provides concrete examples of how the practice can be put into effect, and studied at university level.

    I. ARTHUR LESSAC’S KINESENSICS AND EMBODIED ACTOR TRAINING

    Contemporary Embodied Actor Training

    The Pedagogical Challenges of an Embodied Practice

    Methods

    II. GETTING TO KNOW YOU

    Back to Basics: Body Wisdom

    Feeling the Process Within: Breath

    Body Esthetics

    Gestalt

    III. BRAIDING PERCEPTIONS THROUGH HEIGHTENED AWARENESS

    The Familiar Event Principle and Organic Instruction

    Attention

    Habitual Awareness Principle and De-Patterning Principle

    The Braiding of Perceptions Through Gestalt

    The Flow Between Body Esthetics, the Familiar Event Principle, and Organic

    Instruction

    IV. THE ACTOR’S RELATIONSHIP WITH SPACE

    The Actor’s Inner Space

    The Actor Inhabits Space

    An Expressive Other

    V. SPONTANEOUSLY FREE

    Braiding of the Sentient and Sensible

    Subjectivity in Performance

    Accomplishing Dual Consciousness

    AFTERWORD

    A Word on the Importance of Trust

    APPENDIX A: SELECT TIMELINE OF ARTHUR LESSAC’S LIFE AND

    CAREER

    APPENDIX B: SAMPLE CURRICULUM

    APPENDIX C: EXPLORATIONS FOR PERSONAL DISCOVERY

    Biography

    Melissa Hurt is a Lessac Certified Trainer and has taught acting and Lessac’s voice, speech, and movement work at colleges across the United States. She has a PhD from the University of Oregon and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University.