1st Edition

A Korean Approach to Actor Training

By Jeungsook Yoo Copyright 2018
    146 Pages
    by Routledge

    146 Pages
    by Routledge

    A Korean Approach to Actor Training develops a vital, intercultural method of performer training, introducing Korean and more broadly East Asian discourses into contemporary training and acting practice.

    This volume examines the psychophysical nature of a performer’s creative process, applying Dahnhak, a form of Korean meditation, and its central principle of ki-energy, to the processes and dramaturgies of acting. A practitioner as well as a scholar, Jeungsook Yoo draws upon her own experiences of training and performing, addressing productions including Bald Soprano (2004), Water Station (2004) and Playing ‘The Maids’ (2013–2015).

    A significant contribution to contemporary acting theory, A Korean Approach to Actor Training provides a fresh outlook on performer training which will be invaluable to scholars and practitioners alike.

    Chapter 1: Introduction – Toward Gained Nature in Artificiality

    1. An Intercultural and Psychophysical Approach to Acting and Actor Training
    2. Meditation and Acting as a Psychophysical ‘Technique’
    3. Tao, Te and Kungfu

    Chapter 2: Dahnhak Meditation – Recovering Sensitivity Toward Mastery

    1. Introduction to Dahnhak
    2. Dahnhak

      Ki in Dahnhak

      Three Principles

      Three Methods

      Dahnhak Practice

    3. Three Methods Practice

    Chapter 3: The Bald Soprano – Forming an Active-Passive Relationship

    1. Introduction
    2. From Paper to Time and Space – The Nature of Acting
    3. Acting – A Psychophysical Activity

      Words – Psychophysical Vibration

    4. Forming an Active-Passive Relationship to a Psychophysical Score

    A Process of Creating a Score

    Space as a Channel – Resonance

    Integration

    Chapter 4: The Water Station – Moving Ki in Inner and Outer Space

    1. Introduction
    2. A Starting Point of Acting – A Way of Appreciation
    3. The ‘Visible’ and the ‘Invisible’
    4. A Design of Awareness and Ki – Moving Ki in Time and Space
    5. Scene 1 GIRL

      Scene 2 TWO MEN

      Scene 3 WOMAN WITH A PRASOL

      Scene 9 THE GIRL

    6. Autonomy of the Ki-Flow

    Chapter 5: Playing ‘the Maids’ – Tuning Emotional Ki

    1. Introduction
    2. The Korean Imagination – Han and Salpuri Dance
    3. Salpuri Dance – Embodiment of Han

      Han – The Aesthetics of Fermentation

    4. Emotion as Ki
    5. Emotion in the Context of Its Embodiment

      Tunable Elements of Emotional Ki

    6. Tuning the Characteristics of Emotional Ki
    7. ‘I Can Not’

      ‘Release of Han Dance (Salpuri) and Vocal Duet’

    8. A Character’s Emotion and an Actor’s Emotion

    Chapter 6: Conclusion – A Theory of Sympathy

    Bibliography

    Biography

    Jeungsook Yoo was recently Head of the World Performance course at East 15 Acting School (UK). She currently teaches at Korea National University of the Arts and Soongsil University (Korea). She holds a PhD from the University of Exeter (UK). She is co-founder with Sunhee Kim of Theatre P'yut (Seoul), and is an actress and director.