Arthur Lessac's Embodied Actor Training [Paperback]

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 LESSACS 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 ACTORS RELATIONSHIP WITH SPACE

The Actors 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 LESSACS LIFE AND

CAREER

APPENDIX B: SAMPLE CURRICULUM

APPENDIX lC,