Bringing the Body to the Stage and Screen: Expressive Movement for Performers
Author Annette Lust has created a volume that may come to be considered a bible of physical theater. The book could take its place in any library of the classics of theater instruction. Information is sorted carefully and folded neatly to fit into a compact tome of under 400 pages—and all of it is packed with gems....The author has laid out a valuable course in the physical theater art form. She presents a history of acting styles that are the precursors to the modern methodologies of the theater of the body....YetBringing the Body to the Stage and Screen: Expressive Movement for Performersis far from a purely academic or theoretical book of observations about a way of acting. The author provides the opportunity for a total immersion experience of the craft. There are warm-up routines and a wide range of exercises to engage the actors’ bodies and minds....Nothing aboutBringing the Body to the Stage and Screenis hasty or superficial. Author Lust offers the essences of the work in every page. She shows herself to be a teacher in the best sense of the word, a scholar who has the ability to turn her research into practical advice, and a writer whose clear, concise descriptions add significantly to the overall value of her book.(New York Journal of Books)A dense, fascinating and useful book on the key element in performance. This new book...is a trove of information and examples—including exercises, improvisation techniques, original pantomimes, nonverbal acting, mime and physical theater methods, as well as chapters and an appendix on teaching movement and creating a movement education program, plus appendices on resources (schools, festivals, publications, DVDs ...)....Bringing the Body to the Stage and Screenconstitutes a generous contribution to the teaching, production and appreciation of the performing arts, both in live performance and those captured on tape and film.(Westside Observer (California))Lust's extensive knowledge of mime, acting, and pantomime--as presented in her much-laudedFrom the Greek Mimes to Marcel Marceau and Beyond(CH, Dec'00, 38-2085)--serves as solid background for the present title. Here, Lust (emer., Dominican Univ. of California) expands on her thesis that physical movement is the basis for expressing feelings/emotions required in these arts and that varied movement is necessary for artistic expression in all modes of theater performance. She proposes a training program drawn from theater, mime, pantomime, improvisation, and stage and screen stylized movement--offering a treasure trove of exercises for beginning to intermediate students to introduce them to (or expand their repertoire of) movement skills. The goal is to provide experiences that elicit expressive movement to creatively build on in the future. In part 3 Lust offers essays by and interviews with internationally renowned artists from varied theater forms. These discuss how expressive movement is valued and employed in art practices. In his essay, Dan Kamin explains how Charlie Chaplin mesmerized film audiences with his movement technique; others describe the use of movement in puppetry, mime, acting, film, and clown performance. Appendixes give a wealth of resources (training centers, publications, festivals, DVDs).Summing Up:Highly recommended.(CHOICE)