ABSTRACT

Performer Training and Technology employs philosophical approaches to technology, including postphenomenology and Heidegger’s thinking, to examine the way technology manifests, influences and becomes used in performer training discourse and practice.

The book offers in-depth discussions of present and past performer training practices through a lens that has never been applied before; considers the employment of key digital artefacts; and develops a series of analytical tools that can be useful in scholarly and practical explorations. An array of intriguing subjects are covered including the role of electric lights in Stanislavsky’s work on concentration; the use of handheld tools, such as sticks in Zarrilli’s psychophysical training and Meyerhold’s Biomechanics; the emergence of new forms of training in relation to motion capture technology; and the way the mobile phone complicates notions and practices of attention in learning and training contexts.

This book is of vital relevance to performer training scholars and practitioners; theatre, performance, and dance scholars and students; and especially those interested in philosophies of technology.

chapter 1|29 pages

Introduction

chapter 12|30 pages

Between Technique and Technology

The actor’s instrument and the actor’s paradox

chapter 3|29 pages

Beyond Technique

Critiquing technology and actor training in the 1960s

chapter 4|31 pages

Using and Making Tools

chapter 5|27 pages

Training The Homo Cellularis

Attention and the mobile phone in performer training

chapter 6|35 pages

Training To Be Captured

chapter |8 pages

Conclusion

Tools for preparation