Enacting Lecoq: Movement in Theatre, Cognition, and Life [Hardcover]

This book examines the theatrical movement-based pedagogy of Jacques Lecoq (1921-1999) through the lens of the cognitive scientific paradigm of enaction. The conversation between these two both uncovers more of the possible cognitive processes at work in Lecoq pedagogy and proposes how Lecoqs own practical and philosophical approach could have something to offer the development of the enactive paradigm. Understanding Lecoq pedagogy through enaction can shed new light on the ways that movement, key to Lecoqs own articulation of his pedagogy, might cognitively constitute the development of Lecoqs ultimate creative figure  the actor-creator. Through an enactive lens, the actor-creator can be understood as not only a creative figure, but also the manifestation of a fundamentally new mode of cognitive selfhood. This book engages with Lecoq pedagogys significant practices and principles including the relationship between the instructor and student, identifications, mime, play, mask work, language, improvisation, and movement analysis.
1. Introduction.- 2. Crafting Necessary Temptations and Needful Freedoms: Lecoqs Actor-Instructor Relationship.- 3. Enacting Cognitive and Creative Foundations.- 4. Lecoqs Mime and the Process of Identifications: Enacting Movement, Selfhoods, and Otherness.- 5. Significant Practices and Principles: Play, Improvisation, Mask Work, and Language.- 6. Conclusion: Beautiful, beautiful, but where are you going?.

Compared to other texts in the field of theatre, Murphys Enacting Lecoq is unique both in its Enactivist approach and the way in which it focuses on the foundational versus executional abilities of the actor-creator. & it could be a hugely important text for graduate students in Theatre Education, Movement Pedagogy, Applied Theatre, as well as acting teachers, whose students will deeply benefit from an incorporation of Murphys insights into their pedagogy. (Jordan Rlƒ#