Physicality and Acting

Movement teachers, from outliers to pioneers, have changed theatre and physical expression for ever.

In recognition of the movement pioneers, Physicality and Acting is part-memoir and part-historical research as author Shona Morris traces the roots of her own pedagogy for movement training in drama schools from these radical beginnings. She acknowledges some of the shadows, which affected her own practice, the provenance of Laban in particular, and the current need for discourse to review these approaches through practice-based research.

The book includes exercises and approaches developed by the author in the classroom and the studio that illustrate how actors can link their physicality to the craft of transformation and interpretation. The exercises accessibly cover both technical and expressive work, and offer principles for transformation through animal study, mask work, and character work.

It also provides numerous practical examples, interviews, and case studies of how to teach and apply movement to theatre making. Additionally, it offers ways to facilitate your own vision and actor’s movement course in response to the present moment.

Lively, imaginative, critical, and investigative, this book mirrors Morris’s classes and her approach to theatre. It is an essential read for anyone interested in how actors are trained in movement and how theatre is made.