Acting

"The book offers a significant and original contribution to knowledge in the field. Working through phenomenology, intercultural performance, cognitive psychology, neuroscience and ecology the work is current and insightful, and the authors respond to these fields confidently and persuasively." - Anna Fenemore, University of Leeds, UK "...excitingly imagined. It may transform, and beneficially so, the occidental theatre." Simon Williams, Theatre Research International

A stimulating analysis of acting as a psychophysical phenomenon and process across cultures and disciplines. Taking an 'enactive approach' to understanding acting as a process, the authors discuss psychophysical acting and performance within the Stanislavsky lineage, in dance and devised theatre practices, and in performance in India and Japan.What is the relationship between 'body' and 'mind', 'inner' and 'outer' in any approach to acting? How have different modes of actor training shaped actors' experiences of acting and how they understand their work? Phillip B. Zarrilli, Jerri Daboo and Rebecca Loukes offer insight into such questions, analysing acting as a psychophysical phenomenon and process across cultures and disciplines, and providing in-depth accounts of culturally and historically specific approaches to acting. Individual chapters explore:

• psychophysical acting and the legacy of Stanislavsky
• European psychophysical practices of dance and theatre
• traditional and contemporary psychophysical approaches to performance in India and Japan
• insights from the new sciences on the 'situated bodymind' of the actor
• intercultural perspectives on acting

This lively study is ideal for students and practitioners alike.