The Pulse Approach: Physical Improvisation for Theatre Makers and Directors

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How can we effectively apply improvisation to train an ensemble of actors

Where is the method to create physically dynamic staging for text-based contemporary and classical plays

And how can a trainer and a director utilise improvisation to devise new work

The Pulse Approach answers these questions and more, captured here for the first time in a workbook to the practice.

Pulse is an improvisational performance strategy that can be used by actors and directors to develop original text-based performance material and rehearse dramatic scripts. Director Tanya Gerstle has been developing the approach since 1989 and has used it to stage more than 25 theatre productions.

Through step-by-step instructions for the student and practitioner; troubleshooting advice; case studies of productions directed using the Pulse Approach; and interviews with practitioners involved, this book is the first practical guide to this innovative methodology, which has its roots in the Australian actor-training scene.

The Pulse Approach fuses improvisation and text-based theatre, too often disconnected, to offer up a methodology and rigorous practice for improvisation as a holistic process of development in classical and contemporary plays. It can be used to train any ensemble of actors in any context - inexperienced, professional, young, old and culturally and linguistically diverse.

A companion website will include a video documentary of practitioners using Pulse in their work with the author.

Reviews

A vital account of what has been a very influential approach for many of Australia's leading artists. This document is a historical record, as well as a contemporary workbook, for both actors and directors and an invaluable document for teachers. * Andrea Moor, Queensland University of Technology, Aus *
Tanya Gerstle's Pulse Improvisation has been identified as offering a new way forward to improvisation for teachers and students in the UK and beyond. Gerstle's method offers strong structural and choreographic foundations with an emphasis on applied learning. * Mary Luckhurst, University of York, UK *

Author Bio

Tanya Gerstle is Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Australia, where she was Head of Theatre and Acting for 15 years at its Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) and integrated Pulse training methodology into the curriculum. She is an award-winning performance maker, theatre director, actor and teaching artist, and is founder and Artistic Director of OpticNerve Performance Group. She has taught the Pulse Approach throughout Australia and internationally, including at Penn State University, USA; University of York, UK; Caen University, France and to theatre companies in New Caledonia. She has contributed a chapter to Encountering Ensemble (Methuen Drama, 2013).