Acting Commons^™

Dreaming Of Light: On Edward Gordon Craig, Peter Sellars

Mime Journal

Sellars reflects on Craig’s legacy, emphasizing Craig’s focus on “making theatre out of light,” and casting Craig as “John the Baptist to Bob Wilson.” Sellars highlights the importance of Craig’s “keeping the dream space open,” but he also criticizes Craig for not traveling to experience the predominantly Asian cultures whose performance traditions he appropriated. Craig and Sellars have a shared interest in the functions of Baroque opera in socially cataclysmic times; Sellars speaks about the influence of Craig upon his stagings of Purcell and the St. Matthew Passion (first staged in 2010). Sellars celebrates Craig’s attempt to rescue the voice …

A Note On Sanity In Stage Productions Of Shakespearean Plays, Patrick Le Boeuf

Mime Journal

A previously unpublished essay by Edward Gordon Craig which elucidates his ideas about the “right” way to produce Shakespeare. Edited, with notes, by Patrick Le Boeuf.

Hamlet's Last Act: Artist's Statement, Sam J. Gold

Mime Journal

Gold contextualizes his performance piece Hamlet’s Last Act (video will be available on the Action, Scene, and Voice website going live in Summer 2017). He reflects on his own journey and process in creating the show, and also offers some fascinating information about Craig’s relationship to Asian puppetry traditions. Gold’s innovative show turns Craig’s wood engravings for the Cranach Press Hamlet into Balinese wayang kulit shadow puppets; Gold later discovered that Craig actually knew of this genre and referenced it in certain works. Gold explains how in Hamlet’s Last Act, Craig’s published engravings literally become performers, breaking down the …

Edward Gordon Craig, Étienne Decroux, And The Rediscovery Of Mime, Harvey Grossman

Mime Journal

In this edited transcription of his remarks at the 2013 Pomona College (California) conference “Action, Scene and Voice,” Harvey Grossman elucidates the theory and practice of his two most important teachers: Edward Gordon Craig and Étienne Decroux. Grossman elucidates Craig’s much-debated comments on the “Art of the Theatre,” as well as Craig’s influence upon the French corporeal mime Étienne Decroux. He relates in detail Craig’s positive response to seeing Decroux and his students (among them Jean-Louis Barrault and Éliane Guyon) perform in 1945.

The Shadow Puppets Of Elsinore: Edward Gordon Craig And The Cranach Press Hamlet, James P. Taylor

Mime Journal

Taylor considers the role that book arts may play in Craig’s theories of the new theatre, or the Art of the Future. He expands our understanding of Craig’s design work to include print culture, examining his engravings for the monumental editions of Hamlet published by Count Harry Kessler’s Cranach Press in 1929–30. Taylor explores the relationship of Craig’s designs for the 1912 Moscow Art Theatre production of Hamlet to his engravings for the German and English-language Cranach Press editions of the play. He suggests that it was only with this print publication that Craig finally achieved the absolute artistic control …

Contents - Edward Gordon Craig Special Issue 2017, Jennifer A. Buckley, Anne Holt

Mime Journal

Cover, front matter, and contents for Mime Journal Special Issue, "Action, Scene, and Voice: 21st-Century Dialogues with Edward Gordon Craig." Guest editors: Jennifer Buckley and Annie Holt.

Editors' Note - Action, Scene, And Voice: 21st-Century Dialogues With Edward Gordon Craig, Jennifer A. Buckley, Anne Holt

Mime Journal

A roadmap to this Special Issue of Mime Journal. This issue emphasizes the tissue of influences that shaped Craig’s own work and continue to impact contemporary theater and performance. By focusing on the historical contexts in which his ideas were developed and those in which they have been received, the essays counter the widely held perception of Craig as the solitary genius of the “Art of the Theatre.” His claims of originality and singularity have too often obscured the connections between his work and that of other artists—especially the dancer Isadora Duncan, upon whom two of the pieces included here …

The Revolutionary: On Isadora Duncan And Edward Gordon Craig, Jennifer A. Buckley, Lori Belilove

Mime Journal

Jennifer Buckley interviews dancer, choreographer, and teacher Lori Belilove on Isadora Duncan’s practice and legacy. Belilove argues for Duncan’s modernism, and emphasizes her impact upon Edward Gordon Craig’s developing aesthetic and his career. This edited transcription of their conversation takes its point of departure from Craig’s portfolio of six drawings of Duncan in action, Isadora Duncan: Sechs Bewegungsstudien, Insel Verlag, 1906. Belilove sees both Craig and Duncan as poised between late Victorianism and modernism, and she contends they shared a modernist impulse toward abstraction. Belilove also comments on her own practice as a performer and as a teacher passing …

The Dancer And The Übermarionette: Isadora Duncan And Edward Gordon Craig, Olga Taxidou

Mime Journal

Olga Taxidou analyzes the ambiguous concept for which Edward Gordon Craig is best known—the “übermarionette”—alongside Isadora Duncan’s discussions of the liberated dancer. Highlighting the emphasis on futurity in Craig’s and Duncan’s manifestos and theories, she contends that this pairing works to undo the binaries between Hellenism and modernism, and between mechanistic and vitalistic aesthetics. Emphasizing the impact of Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy (1872) and Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theories upon Duncan’s theory and practice, Taxidou locates Duncan within an intellectual vanguard that includes Jane Harrison and her fellow Cambridge Ritualists as well as major modernist poets.

Nine Ways Of Opening Macbeth, Patrick Le Boeuf

Mime Journal

A previously unpublished essay by Edward Gordon Craig in which Craig considers various directorial and casting choices for Shakespeare's Macbeth. Edited, with notes, by Patrick Le Boeuf.

Edward Gordon Craig's Übermarionette And Étienne Decroux's "Actor Made Of Wood", Thomas Leabhart, Sally Leabhart

Mime Journal

Thomas Leabhart testifies to Edward Gordon Craig’s continuing influence on postmodern mime and movement. Leabhart discusses the influences that shaped Craig’s theory of acting. He then considers what the living actor and Craig’s “übermarionette” have to say to each other, putting pressure on the binary between human and non-human performers, especially in physical theater. Himself a student from 1968-72 of Étienne Decroux, the French corporeal mime and teacher whom the elderly Craig recognized as an “artist of the theatre,” Leabhart relates how he carries on Decroux’s pedagogy and legacy as a performer and teacher of corporeal mime.

When The Rain Stops Falling

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s performance of When the Rain Stops Falling by Thornton Andrew Bovell.

Performed February 24-26, March 3-5, 2017.

It’s 2039. A fish falls from the sky and lands at Gabriel’s feet. Where did it come from? Gabriel’s estranged son decides to visit for dinner. What does he want? To know about his past? Gabriel barely knows his own past. From 1959 to 2039, from London to Australia, When the Rain Stops Falling follows the fragmented history and mystery of Gabriel’s family and the falling fish.

The Who's Tommy

Theatre Programs

The Who's Tommy
Book by Des McAnuff and Pete Townshend
Music and Lyrics by Pete Townshend
Additional Music and Lyrics by John Entwistle and Keith Moon
Directed by Oanh Nguyen

Rock musical; adult language and content as well as strobe lighting effects will be utilized

Based on the iconic 1969 rock concept album, The Who’s Tommy is an exhilarating story of hope, healing, and the human spirit. The story of the pinball-playing, deaf, dumb and blind boy who triumphs over his adversities has inspired, amazed, and puzzled audiences for more than 40 years. This five-time Tony Award-winning musical was translated …

Into The Woods - Cinderella At Ball Illustration, David Cabral

Playbill and Promotion

Providence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film

Into the Woods - Cinderella at Ball illustration by David Cabral

February 27, 2017

Top Girls, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2016-2017 Season

Top Girls is a 1982 play by Caryl Churchill. It is about a woman named Marlene, a career-driven woman who is only interested in women's success in business. In the famous opening scene, she hosts a dinner party for a group of famous women from history. As the play unfolds we find Marlene has left her 'poor' life, and illegitimate child with her sister Joyce, in order to tread the path to 'success'. The play is contemporary and examines the role of women in society and what being a successful woman means.

Into The Woods Open Auditions Poster, Providence College

Playbill and Promotion

Providence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film

Smith Center Lobby

Into the Woods open auditions

Tuesday, February 7, 2017, 7pm

Open Auditions! Tuesday 7 February Into The Woods Musical Promotional Email, Department Of Theatre, Dance & Film

Playbill and Promotion

Providence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film

Open Auditions! Tuesday 7 February Into the Woods musical promotional email.

Sunday, February 5, 2017

Into The Woods Media Release, Susan Werner

Playbill and Promotion

Providence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film

Into the Woods media release

February 2017

Art Infested Water, February 2017, Nova Southeastern University Department Of Visual And Performing Arts

Department of Performing and Visual Arts Newsletters

No abstract provided.

The Laramie Project Playbill, Providence College

Playbill and Promotions

Providence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film

Angell Blackfriars Theatre Smith Center for the Arts

The Laramie Project

By Moisés Kaufman and the Members of Tectonic Theater Project

January 27-29 & February 10-12

Directed by Mary G. Farrell

Scenic Design: Joshua Christoffersen

Lighting Design: G. Benjamin Swope

Costume Design: David Costa-Cabral

Sound Design: Chris Warren

Vocal Coach: Megan Chang

The Cast - TIMOTHY BROWN: Doc O’Connor, Moisés Kaufman, Rulon Stacey, Dennis Shepherd, Rob DeBree; EMILY CLARK: April Silva, Greg Pierotti, Catherine Connolly, Stephen Belber, Kristin Price, Anonymous Friend of Aaron McKinney, Newsperson, E-Mail Writer, Shannon, Kerry Drake, Juror, Moisés …

The Laramie Project Poster, Coyote Hill

Playbill and Promotions

Providence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film

The Laramie Project by Moisés Kaufman & the Members of Tectonic Theater Project

January 27-29 & February 10-12, 2017

Poster design: Coyote Hill

Opening Tonight: The Laramie Project Promotional Email, Department Of Theatre, Dance & Film

Playbill and Promotions

Providence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film

Opening tonight: The Laramie Project promotional email

Friday, January 27, 2017

The Laramie Project Opening This Friday 27 January Promotional Email, Department Of Theatre, Dance & Film

Playbill and Promotions

Providence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film

The Laramie Project opening this Friday 27 January promotional email

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Letter From The Department Of Theatre, Dance & Film To The Dominican Fathers And Sisters, Department Of Theatre, Dance & Film

Playbill and Promotions

Providence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film

Letter from the Department of Theatre, Dance & Film to the Dominican Fathers and Sisters inviting them to a production of The Laramie Project.

January 12, 2017

Email From The Providence College Department Of Theatre, Dance & Film To Susan Werner: Something To Look Forward To!, Department Of Theatre, Dance & Film

Promotional Materials

Providence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film

Email from the Providence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film to Susan Werner: Something to Look Forward to! Coming soon to the Smith Center

Monday, January 9, 2017

Le Processus Créatif De Robert Lepage, Ivan Magrin-Chagnolleau

Presidential Fellows Articles and Research

1. Introduction : Qui est Robert Lepage ?
Voici pour commencer quelques mots d’introduction sur Robert Lepage dont je vais parler dans la suite de cet article.

Acteur et metteur en scène québécois
Robert Lepage est un acteur et metteur en scène québécois né dans la ville de Québec. Il s’est imposé très jeune comme un metteur en scène de grand talent et très créatif. Il alterne régulièrement des spectacles en solo avec des spectacles collectifs.

Art Infested Water, January 2017, Nova Southeastern University Department Of Performing And Visual Arts

Department of Performing and Visual Arts Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Laban For The Actor: The Mind/Body Connection, Margaret C. Buckner

Theses and Dissertations

When it comes to actor training in higher education, an extremely strong emphasis is placed on understanding the voice and interpreting the text. While some institutions do incorporate movement courses into the curriculum of the students, many do not serve the learning actor in the most effective way. The work of Rudolf Laban is a way to strengthen the curriculum taught to actors, specifically in regards connecting actors to their bodies. This thesis discusses and analyses the use of Laban’s movement theory in the movement classroom, and focuses on the most effective way of presenting the material to the student. …

Cabaret Story-Telling: Building Your Act, Timothy A. Fitz-Gerald

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis adduces the benefits in teaching undergraduate theatre majors the competency to create a cabaret. It expostulates that doing so during college gives students an advantage in marketing themselves professionally. It substantiates the general lack of cohesive undergraduate training in this area. The results of a survey of casting directors, assessing the worth of implementing the study of cabaret into theatre curricula, are incorporated.

Those that responded agreed that performing cabarets can play a role in a performer’s career, even if the opinions varied as to what that specific role is. There was general agreement that the study of …

Raising The Stakes: The Impact Of Emotional Investment On Learning Stage Combat, Sarah Tam

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

One of the most integral parts of stage combat is safety. A fight director’s constant challenge is keeping their actors safe. One aspect of a fight scene that then merits close inspection is the effect that the intense emotions involved in the scene have on an actor’s ability to perform the fight safely. Does the level of stakes in the scene affect the integrity of the actor’s fighting technique? There exists a paradox when an actor must be emotionally present in a fight as their character while performing technical fight moves accurately. Knowing how to navigate this paradox will enhance …