Training the Actor's Body: A Guide

(Hardback)

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A practical guide to the principles of teaching and learning movement, this book instructs the actor on how to train the body to become a medium of expression. Starting with a break-down of the principles of actor training through exercises and theatre games, Dick McCaw teaches the actor about their own body and its possibilities including: the different ways it can move, the space it occupies and finally its rhythm, timing and pacing. With 64 exercises supported by diagrams and online video, Dick McCaw draws on his 20 years of teaching experience to coach the reader in the dynamics of movement education to achieve a responsive and articulate body.

Reviews

Based on his international pursuit of actor training, and expansive research in contemporary movement practice, Dick McCaw presents exercises, supporting theory and his own informed overview, with thoroughness and playful accessibility. A wonderful and deeply explored guide book to the actors physical potential. * Professor Annie Loui, Clare Trevor School of the Arts, University of California , USA *
In this important and timely book, Dick McCaw [defines] the special nature of the actor's expressive instrument and how it can or should be trained [he] delves into the complex issue of "training for actors," and indeed "what is an actor", through a wide-ranging, fully documented, meticulously referenced, cross-discipline and, in the end, quite fearless, investigation. * David Zinder, Professor Emeritus at Tel Aviv University, Israel *
This absorbing, useful and accessible book draws on a career of dedicated practice and theoretical research. McCaws personal approach explores the puzzling process of actor training and offers a valuable collection of training exercises. As a former student of McCaws, the book transported me back to the joy and challenge of his classroom: a place of possibility and experimentation. I still use what I learnt there in my work with actors today. This is a must-read text for all practitioners, directors, actor trainers, performers and students who use games and exercises in their work. * Poppy Corbett, Playwright, UK *

Author Bio

Dick McCaw is Senior Lecturer in Drama and Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. Widely published, he is author of Bakhtin and Theatre: Dialogues with Stanislavsky, Meyerhold and Grotowski and editor of With an Eye for Movement and The Laban Sourcebook. In addition, he is a qualified Feldenkrais practitioner, a Tai Chi instructor and was Director of the International Workshop Festival (1992 2001). He has taught in Britain, Europe and North America.