ABSTRACT

Psychophysical Acting is a direct and vital address to the demands of contemporary theatre on today’s actor. Drawing on over thirty years of intercultural experience, Phillip Zarrilli aims to equip actors with practical and conceptual tools with which to approach their work. Areas of focus include:

  • an historical overview of a psychophysical approach to acting from Stanislavski to the present
  • acting as an ‘energetics’ of performance, applied to a wide range of playwrights: Samuel Beckett, Martin Crimp, Sarah Kane, Kaite O’Reilly and Ota Shogo
  • a system of training though yoga and Asian martial arts that heightens sensory awareness, dynamic energy, and in which body and mind become one
  • practical application of training principles to improvisation exercises.

Psychophysical Acting is accompanied by Peter Hulton’s downloadable resources featuring exercises, production documentation, interviews, and reflection.

chapter |6 pages

A preface in three voices

chapter |3 pages

Introduction

A psychophysical approach to acting

part I|50 pages

What is the actor’s work?

chapter 1|9 pages

Historical context

chapter 2|19 pages

Beginning with the breath

part II|52 pages

Work on oneself

chapter 4|18 pages

The source traditions

Yoga, kalarippayattu, and taiqiquan

chapter 5|18 pages

The psychophysical actor’s “I can”

chapter 6|14 pages

Exercises for “playing” in-between

Structured improvisations

part III|99 pages

Production case studies

chapter 7|29 pages

The Beckett Project

chapter 9|14 pages

Speaking Stones

Images, voices, fragments … from that which comes after with text by Kaite O’Reilly and German translation by Frank Heibert

chapter 10|11 pages

4:48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane

chapter 11|13 pages

Attempts on Her Life by Martin Crimp 1