The Greeks or Shakespeare?
By ‘the Greeks’ I mean the ancient tragedians, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. By ‘Shakespeare’ I mainly mean Shakespeare, but some...
The mystery of the mask
At the core of the mystery of the (theatrical) mask lies the question: who is the mask primarily for, the one who wears it or the one who...
Strasberg on Brecht
For anyone sympathetic to Bertolt Brecht, proponent of the ‘Alienation Effect,' it would seem unlikely that the evangelist of 'the...
The three voices
You have a head voice, a chest voice and an abdominal voice. I briefly discuss these in Re-Imagining Your Body, Part One, with the goal...
Being ‘inside’ ourselves
As a ‘self,’ where are you? 'Inside' yourself, presumably. Inside your “mortal frame” or body. But what does such ‘being inside’ really...
A quick energy fix
If you feel lacking in energy, try reading a poem! No doubt that sounds odd, so I should add that you have to read it in a way that...
Freeing the voice
An individual’s voice is always distinctive, immediately recognizable. But it’s also a kind of ‘mask,’ because it functions to hide as...
Physical theatre
Since all theatre is psychophysical, what do we really mean by ‘physical theatre’? In theatre, we only get access to the ‘inside’ by...
Playing the playing space
I suggested in an earlier post that the actor’s ‘instrument’ is not her body and not her voice but the space in which she plays. At...
The ‘Last Tango’ controversy and truth in acting
As jobs go, acting is both a peculiar and a difficult one. The essential problem is how to do something as if you’re doing it for the...