ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores how particular techniques and technical challenges offer insights into the experience of time, and how time and temporality interweave with the development and practice of technique. It examines training methods that resist apparent limitations determined by age or traditions, to reveal revitalized attitudinal approaches, working methods and skills acquirement that surface only with an open, fluid understanding of longevity and age. The book offers innovative ways of integrating research into studio practices. It also explores the risks for women in investing time in actor training in relation to their prospects for future employment. The contributors embrace a range of primary identifications, from academic writers and theatre historians to professional artists and practitioner-scholars, while ‘performer training’ is taken as an umbrella term, inclusive of pedagogies designed for actors, physical theatre performers, dancers, and classical and folk singers.
