Integrating bodymind training with Michael Chekhov's acting techniq

329 Pages·2013·0.84 MB·English

Shifting paradigms of practice in Interpretación Gestual: Integrating
bodymind training with Michael Chekhov’s acting techniques within the
context of training professional actors in Spain

Submitted by Soledad Pilar Garre Rubio
to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in Performance Practice (Drama)

October 2012

This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright
material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper
acknowledgement.
I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified
and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a
degree by this or any other University.

Signature: ……………………………………………………………
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ABSTRACT
This thesis examines the implementation of an actor-training programme in
the context of Spanish drama schools during 2004-2005. Reflecting through
the student’s practice as well as my own practice as a teacher, actor and
director, I investigate how a bodymind training based on martial arts
disciplines and designed by Phillip Zarrilli may contribute to understand the
theory and the practice of an actor’s use of the imagination as Michael
Chekhov proposes it. Core questions arise from the evaluation of what is the
professional knowledge that the integration of both systems of training brings
to the students. The action of research is placed in how the process of
learning such competencies take place and become informative of both the
research and the acting practice. The concept of acting is being analysed by
looking at the significance of the actor’s imagination from a
phenomenological rather than a psychological perspective. The discussion
includes the challenge that developing a new pedagogy in a drama school
brings up to a better understanding of contemporary paradigms of theatre
practice and education.
Interpretación Gestual is since 1992 an established branch in the Real
Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático de Madrid (RESAD). Acting in physical
(gestural) theatre conveys some problematic issues concerning its theory
and practice within both professional and pedagogical contexts.
Implementing a new and specific teaching programme for the preparation of
professional actors in the context of the RESAD urges me to clarify in-
practice certain issues about these two different approaches to actor training,
as well as their presence in today’s education within the curriculum of official
drama schools in Spain.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. 3 
TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................................. 5 
List of illustrations 7 
List of accompanying material 7 
Acknowledgements 9 

CHAPTER 1: THE INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 13 
1.1. PRACTICE AS RESEARCH ............................................................................................ 18 
Performative Research 20 
Further methods & questions of research 22 
Documentation 25 
1.2. SOURCES AND CONTEXT OF RESEARCH ................................................................. 28 
Sources of practice 29 
RESAD’s physical theatre branch 34 
Pedagogical circumstances 37 
The performance projects 41 

CHAPTER 2: TRAINING THE BODYMIND .......................................................................... 47 
2.1. EXPERIENCING BREATHING, ENERGY AND THE BODYMIND ................................. 50 
Significance of breathing 50 
Spatial awareness 55 
Residual awareness 56 
Energy 58 
Dynamic breathing 60 
The quality of energy 62 
Acting intuition 64 
Active images 67 
2.2. EXPERIMENTING THE RELATIONSHIP TO THE DOING ............................................ 72 
Actor as creator 74 
The Journey 76 
The Object 82 
Looking ahead 86 
The Other 90 
2.3. EXPLORING AN ACTOR’S DISPOSITION ..................................................................... 97 
Patience and commitment 102 
Origins and inner conviction 103 
Emotion 105 
Determination 106 
Inner coherence 107 
Stage language 109 
Courage 110 
Images 111 
CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................... 116 

CHAPTER 3: DYNAMICS OF THE IMAGINATION ............................................................ 119 
Description of the project 122 
3.1. THE ATMOSPHERE IN THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA ..................................... 126 
Preliminaries: sensations versus emotions 126 
Beginnings: A sensitive membrane. 128 
Into the midst of the technique of Atmospheres 136 
Chekhov’s movement qualities: what and how 142 
Spatial awareness in the technique of Atmospheres 146 
3.2. IMAGINARY BODIES IN GARCÍA LORCA’S PLAY ...................................................... 150 
The technique of the Imaginary Body 150 
Searching for the body 153 
The grotesque body 157 

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The character’s personal object 159 
The Imaginary Body in performance 160 
3.3. PSHYCOLOGICAL GESTURES IN THE PROJECT OF BERNARDA ......................... 166 
The concept of Psychological Gesture 166 
The technique of Psychological Gesture 169 
Preparing and completing the gesture 173 
Facing the difficulties of the technique 175 
CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................... 186 

CHAPTER 4: INTEGRATING BODYMIND TRAINING WITH THE DYNAMICS OF THE
IMAGINATION ..................................................................................................................... 189 
Premises 190 
The encounter with the students 191 
Positing the performance-research 193 
Defining the theme: First meetings 194 
The design: atmospheres, archetypes and relationships 195 
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT I: PHYSICAL AND CREATIVE RESPONSES ........................ 199 
Individual postures 199 
A question of scenic material 200 
‘The flow’ improvisation 202 
The atmosphere of Asfixia 206 
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT II: CHARACTER AND TEXTS ................................................ 208 
Improvisation with archetypes 208 
Learning from the improvisations 211 
The use of texts in Asfixia 213 
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT III: EXPLORING RELATIONSHIPS ........................................ 218 
Working with a desire 218 
The psychological image-gesture 220 
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT IV: TRAINING THROUGHOUT ASFIXIA ............................... 226 
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT V: COMPOSITION OF SCENES ............................................ 234 
CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................... 240 
Temporality 242 
Failures, gaps and prospective changes for the future 243 

CHAPTER 5: THE CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................... 249 
Looking back at the research questions 251 
5.1. IN THE PERFORMANCE PROJECTS .......................................................................... 256 
5.2. ON THE TRAINING(S)................................................................................................... 259 
Zarrilli’s teaching/practice 259 
Chekhov’s teaching/practice 261 
My own teaching/practice 263 
5.3. THOUGHTS OF PEDAGOGY ....................................................................................... 266 
Pedagogical needs and context 267 
Spanish drama school dilemmas 271 
5.4. FINAL REFLECTION ..................................................................................................... 274 

APPENDIX I: THEORIES OF PERFORMANCE AND PARADIGMS OF PRACTICE ............................. 301 
APPENDIX II: INTERPRETACIÓN GESTUAL. WHAT’S IN A NAME? .............................................. 305 
APPENDIX III: THE SKY IMPROVISATION. ............................................................................... 309 

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES CITED .............................................................................. 313 

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List of illustrations

The illustration on the cover is self-portrait of Oscar Gonzálvez done with his
eyes closed. Oscar was a student of mine during 2003-2004 academic year
at RESAD. This is an exercise that I normally do with the students in order to
reflect with them about how an artist’s imagination works. Deirdre Heddon
first introduced it to me within the module Autobiography and Performance in
my MA at Exeter University in 2001.

List of accompanying material

This thesis includes two DVDs that are attached on the inside of the back
cover of this volume.

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Acknowledgements

I sincerely want to thank my students Julia, Eva, Julián, Elmano, Violeta,
Lara, Sonia, Karina, Borja, Juan, Cristina, Claudia, Carmen, Ivana, Miguel
and Oscar for their incredible help and generosity, their unconditional
support, hard work and seriousness throughout the period of research and
beyond.
Thanks to Phillip Zarrilli, to whom I owe a complete new perspective on my
actor training that I have found to be of enormous value in my understanding
of the imagination, for his guidance and encouragement, especially during a
difficult end. Special thanks to Peter Hulton, a source of inspiration during the
beginning process, especially for helping shape and edit the DVDs. Thanks
to all of those who collaborated with me in the audiovisual presentation
during these years: Chris Mearing, Ernesto Serrano, Pablo Alonso, Ignacio
Gil and Juanma Benavides. I wish to thank Tara McAllister and Eric Hetzler’s
generosity for contributing with their voice over to the first version of the DVD
and finally not included in the version that I submit.
Thanks to David Zinder, my first teacher in the subject of the imagination and
Michael Chekhov’s techniques from 1996, to Sarah Kane, Martin Sharp,
Joanna Merlin, Andrei Kirillov, Slava Kokorin, Lenard Petit, Fern Sloan, Ted
Pugh, Graham Dixon... and all the others with whom I have had the pleasure
to work and learn. Many of the exercises developed throughout this research
have their origin with these practitioners and teachers, and they are

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appropriately acknowledged throughout the thesis.
Special gratitude to those persons that have since my beginning encouraged
this study and valued my dedication: Jaroslaw Bielski and Socorro Anadón,
Jose Luis Gómez, and Ricardo Domenech.
Thanks to the RESAD for giving me first the opportunity to explore this
pedagogical approach with the students and providing us with one of the best
context and installations to do so. Thanks also to the programme for the
continuous education of teachers of the Consejería de Educación de la
Comunidad de Madrid, which has also contributed financially to make this
work possible during part of these years. I sincerely appreciate the
comprehension and support of everyone in the Movement Department,
especially my colleagues Helena Ferrari and Eva Lara.
Special thanks also to my friends, Cusca Fages, Nuria Benet and Silvia
Carmona for being there, for taking the time to read versions of this thesis
and correct my English, for giving me emotional support and personal
feedback.
All my loving thanks to Michael, for his help with the English language and
his continuous re and re-vision; my lovely daughter Sofía; my sisters,
especially Pilar-y-Fran, including La Pequeña María y Virginia, María La
Grande and Petit Inés; and my in-laws, Grandy, Grammy and Uncle Esteve. I
have no words to thank them for their patience and collaboration throughout
what has been (perhaps) a bit too long adventure for all of us. I want to
dedicate this work to my mother – for everything that is shared and untold -
and to the memory of my father – whom I still dearly miss.

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